Love Is In The Air: Kiss And Say GoodBye

February 29, 2020




This month certainly went by quickly. At least it did for me. I hope that you’ve enjoyed the reminder that Valentine’s Day should be celebrated every day, and not on some commercialized specified date that society tells us.

The song for today -

Kiss And Say Goodbye by Manhattans


Wikipedia tells us about this song:

The song was written by Manhattans bass singer Winfred "Blue" Lovett, who also provided the spoken introduction heard in the full-length version of the original recording. The lyrics and melody came to him late one night. As he later recalled, "Everything was there. I got up about three o'clock in the morning and jotted down the things I wanted to say. I just put the words together on my tape recorder and little piano. I've always thought that when you write slow songs, they have to have meaning. In this case, it's the love triangle situation we've all been through. I figured anyone who's been in love could relate to it. And it seemed to touch home for a lot of folks."

Lovett originally considered the song a country tune more appropriate to be sung by Glen Campbell or Charley Pride. He decided to do it with his group. The Manhattans lead singer Gerald Alston is featured in the song starting to sing after Lovett's spoken introduction.

The original demo of the song was recorded with The Manhattans backing band, "Little Harlem." After hearing a tape of the recording, producer/arranger Bobby Martin decided to re-record the song with backing by MFSB at Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia. Recorded in early 1975, Columbia Records officials withheld releasing the song until 14 months later. Winfred "Blue" Lovett had his concerns over when the record came out as well as the record itself. "I was critical, a perfectionist in the studio, and there are still parts of it that make my skin crawl. For example, in one place, the background vocals go off pitch. Somehow, though, that didn't seem to bother anyone else."





For your listening pleasure, I’ve taken the liberty of creating a playlist for this month’s theme. Feel free to enjoy the month of love’s tunes any time that you’d like.





What’s next for the blog?

Hopefully, March will be a regular month with Monday’s Music Moves Me posts and Battle of the Bands. And, if my health will allow it, I plan to participate in the annual AtoZ Challenge for the month of April. Of course, I haven’t given a lot of thought as to what my theme for that challenge will be just yet, but I am wanting something that will be a little more interactive - similar to what was done last year.

A big thank you to everyone and your continued support!  Now, grab your partners and turn the music up past Eleven and get your groove on…