|
(Joe
Brooks)

The
director and writer, Joseph Brooks, wrote this song as the theme song for
his 1977 movie, which shares its name and won an Academy Award for Best
Original Song. Kasey Cisyk
originally sang it when she recorded it for the movie and it was
subsequently lip-synced by Didi Conn. Debby Boone recorded it in 1977 with the ABBA song
"Hasta Manana" on the B-Side, and it immediately rose up the
charts reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Top 100, staying there for 10 weeks,
and the Adult Contemporary Charts and No. 4 on the Country chart. She released it on her 1977 album
of the same name. It also made
it across the Atlantic when it reached No. 48 on the UK chart. This version would win Debby Boone
a Grammy Award for Best New Artist, but she would never work with Joe
Brooks again until 1990 as she had said that the song was about God, when
that was not the case and it had been written with a completely different
meaning of a girl singing it to a boy. Kasey Cisyk's original version was then released on 45
that same year but only managed to get to No.80 on the Billboard chart and
she went un-credited as it was listed on the record as being by the
"Original Cast" of the movie, which was obviously not the
case. Since then several cover
versions have been made by the artists, Robert Goulet, Patti Smith, Kenny
Rogers, Whitney Houston, Bianca Ryan, Loleatta Holloway and LeAnn Rimes'
1997 version became a gold single and appeared on her album You Light Up
My Life: Inspirational Songs.
Debby Boone recordings
Warner
Bros. WBS 8455 (VNV 1373)S (US 45)
Sources:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Light_Up_My_Life_(song)
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debby_Boone
- http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=2518
|