Endless Love

by

Diana Ross and Lionel Richie

Album: Endless Love Soundtrack      Released: 1981

US Chart: 1     UK Chart: 7

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This song was from the 1981 film of the same name. The film, which was based on a best-selling novel of the same name, was not very successful, but the song received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations and won a Marquee Award in 1982 for Best Original Song.

A duet with Lionel Richie, this was also Diana Ross' last #1 hit in the US. It not only reached #1 on the Pop charts but went to #1 on the R&B and Adult Contemporary charts.

The same year this was released, it was issued on Diana Ross's album All the Great Hits. (thanks, Jerro - New Alexandria, PA, for all above)

Richie wrote this song and produced it. Richie told The Sun March 13, 2009 "Letting others in to write for you is scary but also really creative." He added that he recalled when he did it for Diana Ross with this song, "I wasn't sure I could do it. What if they didn't like it? But I was cocky in a way, I told them to trust me. It was a great learning experience for all of us."

In 1994, Mariah Carey and Luther Vandross recorded this for Vandross' album Songs. It became Luther's biggest hit, going to #2 in the US.

Richie revealed to The Sun March 18, 2009, that he considers the recording of this song to have been "a disaster." He explained: "I'd not written a duet before but the record company suddenly changed the song to a duet and got Diana Ross in. She arrived at the studio and told me she wants my part. I have to kind of make her part up because I can't sing in that key. What you hear on the record is what happened on the day as it had to go out the next day for the movie."

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Comments:

This is one of the best songs of all time....You can feel the great chemistry between Lionel and Diana when you listen to the song.
- Dean, Miami , FL

As I also listened to this tune during the Happy Gilmore movie, I was over all impressed with the vocals and started to test my knowledge as to who the singers were! I seemed to know that it was Lionel and someone who I wasn't sure. As I would listen even more intensely I thought it could be Streisand. I guss I knew all along it was Diana but as Jim Morrison stated a decade before, she was "Breakin On Through" with her unlimited vocal talent.
- mike, Pittsburgh, PA

Before ENDLESS LOVE, Diana was unlucky on the charts when it came to duets during her solo career. Her two top-20 duets with Marvin Gaye were considered commercial dissapointments since they were both coming off of huge #1 hits ("Touch Me In The Morning" and "Let's Get It On" repectively). Then she recorded "Ease On Down The Road" with Micheal Jackson in 1978 which stalled at #41 on the pop charts. That same year, Miss Ross teamed up with Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and Smokey Robinson to record "Pops We Love You", which crawled on the hot 100.
- John, Nashville, TN

What's the big deal?? Two people can listen to "Endless Love" in the dark!
- Jeff, Austin, TX

Speaking of ballads and the 1980s, it's impossible to go too far without discussing duets pairing male and female singers, and there was no finer example of this than this overwrought but undeniably engaging tune from 1981. Richie certainly covered this same kind of ground effectively in his solo career, but the addition of a capable female singer with whom to exchange verses raises this song to another level. It helped that Ross was far more than capable.
- Bertrand, Paris, France

Amazing how such a memorable song originated from a now all-but-forgotten movie. Then again, considering that the movie was basically about a 17-year-old boy banging a 15-year-old girl, perhaps it's just as well. (On the plus side though, Endless Love did mark the film debut of one James Spader.)
- Joshua, La Crosse, WI

Frog Jog scored big time tonight (August 17, 2005) with this one, thanks in large part to the rapidfire response of teammate Rico. Rico pegged Mr. Richie's distinctive male vocals, prompting fellow Frog Jogger Don to confidentally take down the answer, but we were still one answer away from closing on this lovers' duet and many miles away from closing in on the Gaza Strip Club. Love may be endless in this 1981 hit record but time, certainly, is not. Not in this pub and not on this night. "Patti LaBelle?" offered first-timer Peter, tentatively. "NO!" screamed first-timer Michelle, clutching a makeshift clipboard in the form of Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age even more fiercely to her chest, willing the answer forth from her white-hot knuckles. "Kirsten Dunst" insisted trivia regular Amy. "NO!" screamed all but Julia who slept on a makeshift bartop pillow, dreaming of better bars where food is served during evening hours to normal, hungry, jogging frogs. "Diana Ross" teammate Jason proposed, delicately at first and then quite firmly despite initial ("too breathy") rejections. All of the frogs stopped their blind jogging toward the Gaza Strip Club and conjured an image of Ms. Ross at the mic. Amy still saw Dunst in a wig but for the most part the image stuck. The answer was gotten and this round was closed. But for a while, just a short while, the pub and its promise of a $275 dollar fortune remain open to 7 frogs who shared on this night a most Endless Love.
- Michelle M., Valley Fever, CA

No question one of the greatest love songs ever written.
- AJ, Cleveland, GA

This was also covered by Dionne Warwick and Tom Jones.
- Daniel, Coventry, England

Mariah Carey and Luther Vandross did this song as a duet together on Luther Vandross's 1994 album, "Songs".
- Annabelle, Eugene, OR

This song is in Happy Gilmore!!!!! When their at the skating rink, Happy has this song played
- Shana, Pembroke, Canada

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