(Roger Cook - Bobby Wood)
Australia
#17 Sydney #5 Melbourne #9 Brisbane #24 Adelaide #12 Perth #6 Netherlands
Single on Midnight, produced in London by Australian expat David Mackay who had produced Dusty Springfield’s version of the song (1980). Later released on Mercury in the US.
Sixteen-year-old singer Marcia Hines came to Australia from the US in 1970 for Hair, stayed for Jesus Christ Superstar, and became Australia’s most popular female pop star of the late 70s, voted ‘Queen of Pop‘ for three years. She was again prominent on TV 2003-2009 as a judge on Australian Idol.
See also From The Inside and You by Marcia Hines.
References, further reading: 1. Milesago’s Marcia Hines page. 2. Ian McFarlane, Encyclopedia of Australian Rock & Pop (1999) pp. 285-6.
Suggestion from Terry Stacey.
(Roger Cook - Bobby Wood)
UK
Original version?
Single on Mercury produced by David McKay, Australian in England who also produced Marcia Hines’s version of Your Love Still Brings Me To My Knees.
45cat dates this as 4 January 1980 (citing New Releases #805) but Discogs has 18 January 1980.
A British singing star of the 60s and beyond, Dusty Springfield (1939-1999) was born in London as Mary O’Brien. Before going solo in 1963 she was in the successful folk-pop trio The Springfields with brother Dion, known as Tom Springfield.
The versions of Your Love Still Brings Me To My Knees by Dusty Springfield and Saundra Steele were released close to each other in January 1980. Dusty’s seems to have the edge as the original.
• Dusty Springfield’s 45 is dated at 45cat as 4 January 1980 (from New
Releases #805); Discogs has 18 January 1980.
• Saundra Steele’s album was reviewed in Billboard 26 January
1980, in Cash Box 2 February 1980.
• Both Secondhand Songs and The Originals list the single by Dusty Springfield as
the original.
• The Roger Cook Chronology also listed
Dusty Springfield as earlier than Saundra Steele.
Co-writer Roger Cook had a strong connection with
both recordings:
• In The
Complete Dusty Springfield
• Cook co-produced Saundra
Steele’s album. He also contributed vocals, as did Bobby Wood, his co-writer
on Your Love Still Brings Me To My Knees.
Billboard, 17 November 1979, noted that Saundra Steele had been signed to UA for a January 1980 debut album. The album was registered at US Copyright Office on 21 January 1980 but that doesn’t indicate an exact release date.
Thanks to Giuseppe for raising this one again, and for a useful reference.
References, further reading: 1. Song history by Arnolds Rypens at The Originals. 2. Song history at Secondhand Songs. 3. Chronology from RogerCook.com [archived]. 4. Discographical details at 45cat.com. 5. “Signings”, Billboard, 17 Nov 1979 [Google Books]
(Roger Cook - Bobby Wood)
USA
The versions of Your Love Still Brings Me To My Knees by Dusty Springfield and Saundra Steele were released close to each other in January 1980. Dusty’s seems to have the edge as the original.
See notes on chronology of the two versions in the next section.
Track on Saundra Steele, the artist’s debut United Artists album, recorded November 1979 at Jack Clement Recording Studio, Nashville, produced by Roger Cook and Ralph Murphy with the songwriters Cook and Wood contributing backing vocals.
Reviewed in Billboard 26 January 1980, in Cash Box 2 February 1980.
By this time, British songwriter Roger Cook was writing and producing in Nashville, where he’d bought a house in 1977.
Saundra Steele (b. c.1949) was from Flintstone, Maryland, near Cumberland, where her family had moved from Cheshire, Ohio. As Saundra Rucker, her birth name, she became well-known as a child singer at community events in the Cumberland area. Also known as Sandy or Sondra, by the age of 11 she had completed a summer season at Atlantic City, and had appeared on The Original Amateur Hour and the WWVA Jamboree.
From the early 1970s she teamed with country (later gospel) singer Dianne Sherrill for engagements in Nashville, Las Vegas, and elsewhere. In February 1974 Rucker released a single on Monument, The Prisoner’s Song, produced by label founder Fred Foster and arranged by Bill Justis. That was followed in July 1974 by a Saundra Rucker & Dianne Sherrill single, also on Monument.
In the mid-70s Saundra Rucker was appearing as a solo singer at Nashville venues. After her marriage to Nashville banker and businessman Alex Rucker in 1975 her stage name became Saundra Rucker Steele. Her 1980 solo album was released as Saundra Steele, as were singles 1979-1981 on United Artists and British PYE subsidiary Precision.
In 1981 Saundra Steele sang on First Time Out, an album by country singer Billy Troy, including a duet on the track No One Can Ever Love You YouTube.
This artist biography is my work, from original research. If you use it, please credit me or this website. ©Lyn Nuttall 2019
This wasn’t Roger Cook’s first collaboration with Nashville-based writer and session player Bobby Wood. For example, US country star Crystal Gayle took the the Cook-Wood song Talking In Your Sleep onto the charts in 1978 (#18 Pop, #1 Country).
Roger Cook had become known for his collaborations with Roger Greenaway in the 60s: see, for example, their compositions Everything Is Out Of Season, Gimme Dat Ding and Can You Feel It Baby.
References, further reading: 1. Hiroshi Asada’s Cook & Greenaway Song List. 2. Bobby Wood biography by Steve Kurutz at AllMusic. 3. Saundra Steele discography and session details at PragueFrank’s country music site.
A smashing debut by a new artist whose breezy and stylish vocal talents make this album a winner. Murphy’s superior arrangements and powerful production utilize top session players (with extra sparkle lent by the distinctive MuscleShoals Horns) to create a pop album suitable for a variety of formats.
Billboard Top Album Picks, 26 January 1980
(Roger Cook - Bobby Wood)
UK
Later version
On Chrysalis album Have You Ever Been In Love by chart-topping English singer-songwriter (b.1948) particularly popular in UK and Australia.
Leo Sayer’s biggest international singles were You Make Me Feel Like Dancing (1976, #2 UK #1 USA, wr. Sayer & Vini Poncia), When I Need You (1977, #1 UK & USA, wr. Albert Hammond & Carole Bayer Sager), and More Than I Can Say (1980, #2 UK & USA, wr. Sonny Curtis & Jerry Allison).
Giving It All Away (written by Sayer with David Courtney) was the highest charting UK hit (1973, #5) for The Who’s lead singer Roger Daltrey.
Sayer now lives in Australia and became an Australian citizen in 2009.
Further reading: Leo Sayer at Wikipedia and All Music.
(Roger Cook - Bobby Wood)
USA
On album Gonna Stay In Love (1982) on Jackson MS label Malaco.
This was one of two albums recorded in Toronto by sisters from Memphis TN Phyllis and Helen Duncan. It was preceded by a self-titled album as The Duncan Sisters (1979). Both albums were produced by Canadian team Ian Guenther & Willi Morrison.
Before recording in their own right, the sisters had sung with Guenther & Morrison’s disco outfit THP Orchestra aka just THP. Their first work with Guenther & Morrison had been on jingles for Radio OKOC in Ontario.
Phyllis and Helen were daughters of musician Willie Joe Duncan, inventor of a one-string guitar called a unitar.
Not to be confused with early 20th Century vaudeville act The Duncan Sisters or with Kentucky gospel group The Duncans, for example.
Sources: 1. I started at Discogs.com: album, artists, producers, Phyllis, Helen, and Willie Joe Duncan. 2. Derek Anderson has a more detailed account of the Duncan sisters’ background in Disco Recharge – The Duncan Sisters at Derek’s Music Blog. 3. Willie Joe Duncan and his Unitar at thehoundnyc.com.
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