1977 Rita Coolidge – (Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher And Higher (US:#2 UK:#48)
“(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher” is an R&B song written by Gary Jackson and Carl Smith, and produced by Carl Davis. It was originally recorded by Jackie Wilson for his album Higher and Higher (1967), and became a Top 10 Pop, number one R&B hit
Rita Coolidge remade the song as “(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher” for her album Anytime…Anywhere (1977). Her version has a more moderate tempo than that of the uptempo original, and largely omits the chorus which is evidenced only in the background vocals sung under the repetition of the first verse with which she closes the song. Coolidge and her sister Priscilla Coolidge had sung background on a version of the song for a prospective album by Priscilla’s husband Booker T. Jones; when that album was shelved, Coolidge asked him if she could cut the song using his arrangement.
Released as a single, Coolidge’s version became her first major hit in nine years of recording: the track peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was kept from the No. 1 spot by “Best of My Love” by The Emotions. Cash Box ranked it at No. 1. “Higher and Higher” also reached No. 1 in Canada. Both the song and a subsequent release, “We’re All Alone”, earned Coolidge gold records for each selling a million copies.
In the UK it was released as the follow-up single after “We’re All Alone” which had reached No. 6, but it only achieved a peak of No. 48 there
Album
Anytime…Anywhere is the sixth album by Rita Coolidge released in 1977 on the A&M Records label. The album is her most successful, reaching #6 on the Billboard 200 and having been certified platinum (over 1 million U.S. copies sold). The album spawned three Billboard top twenty hits; a cover of Boz Scaggs’ “We’re All Alone” […]
Musicians
| Bass | Leland Sklar |
| Drums | Mike Baird |
| Guitar | Dean Parks |
| Guitar | Jerry McGee |
| Keyboards | Mike Utley |
| Piano | Mike Utley |
| Vocals | Rita Coolidge |
Produced By
David Anderle
Songwriters
Paul Smith
Gary Jackson
Raynard Miner
Billy Davis
Charts
US:#2
UK:#48