Song of the day: Mark Holden – "Never Gonna Fall In Love Again"

Due to the overwhelming response* last week to the post of Mark Holden’s “I Wanna Make You My Lady”, here’s Mark with another song:

Mark Holden – “Never Gonna Fall In Love Again“ (1976)

Link

And here’s the original:

Eric Carmen – “Never Gonna Fall In Love Again“ (1975)

Link

And here’s the original of the original:

Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27 – third movement
(Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Lorin Maazel)

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Can’t get enough of the song? Here’s another version:

Dana – “Never Gonna Fall In Love Again“ (1976)

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(*One person commented and said it was horrible.)

Song of the day: Shaun Cassidy – "Hey Deanie"

In last week’s Frank’s Faves on Fridays post, one of the songs featured was a 1981 track called “Hey Deanie” by Gary Charlson. Gary was a chap I’d never heard of before – and I didn’t recall hearing the song before either.

After I mentioned that I wasn’t especially keen on “Hey Deanie”, Frank surprised me by mentioning that the song was actually written by Eric Carmen, one of my power pop heroes (he wrote “Go All The Way“, and as far as I’m concerned that’s all he ever needed to do to become one of The Power Pop Immortals™). Frank thought that Eric’s version was a whole lot better than Gary’s. (I suppose it would be – Eric wrote the thing after all.)

Which leads me to wonder why on Earth Frank presented me with Gary’s version of “Hey Deanie” and not Eric’s. Why, Frank, why?

(By the way, Frank: you don’t have to answer that. Even though you’re named in the question, it was purely rhetorical.)

To refresh your memory (and mine), here’s the Gary Charlson version:

Gary Charlson – “Hey Deanie“ (1981)

Now here’s Eric’s version:

Eric Carmen – “Hey Deanie“ (1978)

I think that’s a vast improvement, but the song itself still didn’t do much for me. Was there a better version out there perchance?

You better believe it, baby.

Frank also mentioned* that although Eric wrote “Hey Deanie” he actually wrote it for Shaun Cassidy. I’m mighty glad that I was told that, because I hunted down the Señor Cassidy version, had a listen, and thought “Hallelujah! That’s the one! That’s the version!”

So, for your listening pleasure** here’s the original version of “Hey Deanie”:

Shaun Cassidy – “Hey Deanie“ (1977)

Now I like the song.

Thanks, Shaun, for bringing out the song’s inner bubblegum.

Incidentally, I found two other versions of “Hey Deanie”, and they’re both by power pop bands that I know absolutely nothing about. You may enjoy them more than I did. (I’m only putting them here because I’m a hopeless completist…)

The Shivvers – “Hey Deanie“ (1982)

The Nicoteens – “Hey Deanie“ (1996)

(*I didn’t know any of this “Hey Deanie” stuff until Frank told me.)

(**That depends entirely on your tolerance of:
a. Shaun Cassidy;
b. Bubblegum;
c. 70’s male teen idols;
d. Satin clothing;
e. Impossibly white teeth;
f. All of the above.)