Roberta Flack & Peabo Bryson -- Born to Love

 

With all of the craziness out there these days, including last night's Super Bowl, people may be forgiven if they forgot today is Valentine's Day. Hopefully though, folks are celebrating with romantic dinners, movies and chocolates.

Ah, speaking of the Super Bowl, there will always be the trailers for upcoming blockbuster movies during the broadcast, and along with the ad for the upcoming "Moon Knight", "Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness" was unveiled for everyone's perusal and it basically exploded one Marvel-loving corner of the Internet due to it being more chock-filled with stuff and goodness than a really loaded bowl of minestrone. Well, I guess that May 6th can't come soon enough.

There was also sad news from entertainment. Ivan Reitman, the director of movies including "Ghostbusters", "Dave" and "Stripes" passed away over the weekend at the age of 75. Growing up in Toronto, he'd produced and directed so many flicks, but "Ghostbusters" will always be the movie that I identify him with. It wasn't a perfect movie by any means but it still had plenty of heart among the characters and the situation, and there's a part of me who would love to get a Ghostbuster uniform with a proton pack.

In any case, getting back to the matter at hand, I wanted to start this week off with a special Valentine's Day issue of Reminiscings of Youth since although I have paid tribute to the observed holiday in years past with kayo, I don't quite remember whether I actually recognized February 14th with a ROY article.

Now, in all honesty, I never bought the album "Born to Love", a July 1983 release with Roberta Flack and Peabo Bryson recording duets, but I know two of the tracks there because they were on heavy rotation on the radio back when I was in high school. One is "Tonight I Celebrate My Love" which was released as a single in that same year. Though I am about as romantic as a piece of gneiss during a blizzard, I retain a sweet spot for the romantic ballads of the 1980s filtered through soul and Quiet Storm, and that includes "Tonight I Celebrate My Love" which was created by Gerry Goffin and Michael Masser. Will always love a good Fender Rhodes in this way. It did pretty well on the charts as well, placing in at No. 4 on Canada's RPM and the same rank on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart.

Another track that I remember is "You're Lookin' Like Love To Me" which, as I mentioned above, is a song by Flack and Bryson that I heard frequently on the FM band at stations like CHFI here in Toronto. Bob Gaudio, Bob Crewe and Jerry Corbetta were responsible for this song which is also filled with lots of juicy love but has a bit more pop in its step. With both songs, the vocals are just top-notch and listening to them again has brought back a lot of nostalgia and memories of cramming away for examinations and the like.

Going to the Oricon chart for July 1983, what were the Top 3 singles back then?

1. Hiroko Yakushimaru -- Tantei Monogatari (探偵物語）

2. Tomoyo Harada -- Toki wo Kakeru Shojo （時をかける少女）

3. Akina Nakamori -- Twilight - Yugure Dayori （トワイライト -夕暮れ便り-）