(Buzz Cason - Mac Gayden)
Australia
#16 Sydney #2 Melbourne #33 Adelaide
Co-charted with UK version by Love Affair.
The Town Criers were a Melbourne pop band, formed 1964, who had five charting hits in Melbourne from 1968 to 1970, notably Love Me Again (#12 1969).
Melbourne or Adelaide? In 1968, founding vocalist Andy Agtoft was replaced by Barry Smith from Adelaide. This raised the band’s profile in Adelaide, but it may also have led some fans to the mistaken belief that the band itself was from Adelaide. It’s also possible there has been some confusion with The London Criers, a well-known late-60s Adelaide showband.
Thanks to David Walker for Melbourne-Adelaide clarification.
(Buzz Cason - Mac Gayden)
UK
#1 UK #16 Sydney #2 Melbourne #5 Brisbane #33 Adelaide #17 Perth #4 NZ
Co-charted in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide with the Australian version by The Town Criers.
Further reading: For all you will ever need to know about The Love Affair, see Sven Gusevik’s Love Affair website. The site includes an illustrated list of other versions of Everlasting Love.
(Buzz Cason - Mac Gayden)
USA
Original version
#13 USA #40 UK #7 Adelaide #30 Perth
Single on Nashville label Rising Sons, owned by co-writer Buzz Cason with Bobby Russell.
#9 in UK in 1974 when it was rereleased.
Robert Knight (1940-2017) was born in Franklin, Tennessee, not far south of Nashville. He was signed by the Rising Sons label when he was in The Fairlanes, a vocal group he formed while he was at the University of Tennessee. He was studying chemistry, a field he worked in after his musical career quietened down. See, for example, the Robert Knight biography by Jason Ankeny at All Music
The song has been recorded many times over the years. There are 17 versions listed at The Originals website. Cover.Info lists 51 Follow-up Songs, including several in languages other than English.
Buzz Cason and Mac Gayden wrote Hayride and La La, both hits in 1969 for Australian band The Flying Circus, and Buzz Cason wrote Groupie by The New Dream.
Mac Gayden has also been known as Mack Gayden (Everlasting Love is listed under both names at BMI).
Bobby Russell and I had formed two record companies, Rising Sons and Elf, both releasing the pop and rock product we produced on new uncountry artists… We had hits on both our record labels, all the while producing acts for several major record companies.
Buzz Cason, Living The Rock ‘n Roll Dream: The Adventures of Buzz Cason (2004), p.174
Another interesting thing about Everlasting Love is its unusual structure. There is only one verse of lyrics (Hearts go astray…) and it comes at the beginning of the song and in most versions is only heard once again instrumentally. On the other hand, the chorus (Open up your eyes…) has three different sets of lyrics and gets repeated ad infinitum. Yet somehow it works… There’s a circular quality to the chorus that keeps bringing you back to the beginning to start all over again.
Jim Cassidy at Spectropop Group and by email, 2005.
(Buzz Cason - Mac Gayden)
USA
Later version
On Motown album My Whole World Ended by Detroit singer David Ruffin (1941-1991).
This is the track that inspired Ruffin’s friend Carl Carlton to record his hit version.
David Ruffin joined The Temptations in 1964 and sang lead on My Girl (1965), also the group’s first #1 hit and the song most identified with them.
My Whole World Ended was Ruffin’s first solo album after leaving The Temptations in 1968. Track 1 on the album is his first solo hit My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me) (1969, #9 USA). He also charted #9 with Walk Away From Love in 1975.
Thanks to Davie Gordon.
(Buzz Cason - Mac Gayden)
Australia
Later version
#25 Sydney #14 Melbourne #16 Adelaide
The powerful baritone of Newcastle (NSW)-born Doug Parkinson (1946-2021) became known nationally through his records with In Focus from the end of the 60s.
Earlier, he had fronted Sydney folk-pop band The A Sound (formerly Strings and Things) whose sole single features an almost unrecognisable, lighter Doug Parkinson, but it was with highly regarded Sydney pop band The Questions that his soulful, slightly mannered vocal style came into its own.
In Focus was formed in 1968 with personnel from The Questions and became a popular live band that relocated to Melbourne and had national hits that included Dear Prudence, Without You/Hair and Baby Blue Eyes.
After In Focus, Doug Parkinson sang with bands that included Fanny Adams, a briefly reunited In Focus (1971) and The Southern Star Band. His long-lasting solo career produced charting singles Everlasting Love (1974) and The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Any More (1981). He also appeared in rock musicals and recorded radio and TV jingles.
In the 70s, Doug Parkinson sang on some of the Where No Wrinklies Fly jingles for Melbourne radio station 3AK, and on some of the early jingles for ABC youth station 2JJ (now JJJ).
References Milesago; Who’s Who of Australian Rock; The Australian Rock Discography 1956-69; CD liner notes for So You Wanna Be A Rock’n’Roll Star?
(Buzz Cason - Mac Gayden)
USA
Later version
#6 USA #13 NZ
Single on Back Beat by Detroit soul and gospel singer (b. 1953) who first recorded as Little Carl Carlton from 1964. He was inspired to record Everlasting Love after hearing the version by his friend David Ruffin.
Carl Carlton’s other Top 40 hit was She’s a Bad Mama Jama (She’s Built, She’s Stacked) (1981, #22 USA).
(Buzz Cason - Mac Gayden)
USA
Later version
Version by one of the writers, on his ABC-Paramount album Skyboat.
For more about the prolific and diverse careers of Buzz Cason and Mac Gayden, see my page on Hayride, another Cason-Gayden composition, covered in Australia by The Flying Circus, and my blogpost on Adam And Eve, a Buzz Cason record better known in Australia than in the US.
(Buzz Cason - Mac Gayden)
USA
Later version
#32 USA #49 Sydney #9 Adelaide #9 Perth
A-side of a Columbia 3-track single/EP.
Rachel Sweet was a former child singer from Akron, Ohio (b. 1963) who released some country music records in America 1974-76 before being signed to British punk-new wave label Stiff at the end of the 70s. Her best known song is probably B-A-B-Y (1978, #35 UK, #27 Sydney, #33 Melbourne, #38 Brisbane).
Here she is teamed with Florida-born pop singer, actor and Broadway performer Rex Smith (b. 1955) who charted in 1979 with You Take My Breath Away (#10 USA).
(Buzz Cason - Mac Gayden)
Germany
Later version
#21 Adelaide
Vocalist with Enigma (Sadness [Part 1], 1991). She also charted in New Zealand in 1995 with a version of Nights In White Satin.
(Buzz Cason - Mac Gayden)
UK
Later version
#2 Sydney #1 Brisbane #2 Melbourne #1 Adelaide
B-side of All I Want Is You on 3-track Island CD single (1989), also on album The Best Of 1980-1990 & B-Sides (1998).
(Buzz Cason - Mac Gayden)
USA
Later version
#22 Sydney #31 Brisbane #21 Melbourne #15 Adelaide #34 Perth #24 NZ
Single on Epic by popular, award-winning Latin dance-pop singer, actor and philanthropist, born in Cuba but resident in USA from 1959.
Gloria Estefan (b. 1957) was originally lead vocalist of Miami Sound Machine which she joined when it was The Miami Latin Boys, formed by her future husband Emilio Estefan.
(Buzz Cason - Mac Gayden)
UK
Later version
From the soundtrack of 2004 film Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.
Jamie Cullum: popular British jazz/pop singer-pianist.
Further reading: All Music Guide biography by Matt Collar. Official site at JamieCullum.com.
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Website by Lyn Nuttall. © Lyn Nuttall 2004-2024. Chart positions courtesy of Gavin Ryan’s Australian Chart Books and Dean Scapolo’s Complete NZ Music Charts. Special thanks to Terry Stacey for information, corrections and suggestions. Thanks also to Tony Watson, Philippe Edouard, Dave Overett.., More…