If Ever I See You Again: Difference between revisions

"If Ever I See You Again"
"If Ever I See You Again"
Single by Roberta Flack
from the album Roberta Flack
B-side	"I'd Like To Be Baby To You"
Released	April 1978
Genre	Soul, R&B
Length	3:35
Label	Atlantic
Songwriter(s)	Joseph Brooks
Producer(s)	Joseph Brooks
Roberta Flack singles chronology

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"If Ever I See You Again" is the title of a 1978 hit single by Roberta Flack. The song was composed by Joseph "Joe" Brooks and served as the title song for the 1978 film If Ever I See You Again, which Brooks directed and also starred in with Shelley Hack as his leading lady. Male vocalist Jamie Carr sang the theme song on the film's soundtrack.

Background

Brooks' directorial debut, You Light Up My Life, had become successful largely on the strength of its title song, which as recorded by Debby Boone had spent ten weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1977. With Brooks producing, Debby Boone had subsequently recorded the If Ever I See You Again title song plus four other songs heard in the film: "California", "Come Share My Love", "It Was Such a Good Day" and "When It's Over", at the Hollywood recording studio the Record Plant in January 1978, with the track "California" being issued as Boone's follow-up single to "You Light Up My Life" in February 1978 to reach #50 on the Hot 100. Boone's version of the If Ever I See You Again title song, plus the four other songs from the film that she'd recorded, would be included on her July 1978 album release Midstream.

Despite Boone's success with the theme song from You Light Up My Life, Brooks was hoping to place the If Ever I See You Again theme song plus other songs from the film with an established artist. According to his partner Robert K. Lifton, Brooks offered the If Ever I See You Again numbers to Arista Records president Clive Davis for Barry Manilow to record only to renege after hearing the existing tracks intended for Manilow's upcoming album, which Brooks felt were sub-par and would sink his own compositions (in fact Manilow's 1978 album release Even Now would be a triple platinum seller).^[1]

Brooks then approached Atlantic Records president Jerry Greenberg with the intent of having the If Ever I See You Again theme song and other songs from the film recorded by Roberta Flack (Flack has stated that she had been offered "You Light Up My Life" prior to the Debby Boone recording: (Roberta Flack quote:)"Some people whose opinions I respect very much suggested I should do it...but the song reminded me of too many other things that I had heard or sung and I just didn't like it [although] I think [for] Debby Boone ['You Light Up My Life'] was perfect".^[2] Flack would eventually describe "If Ever I See You Again" as "a song I couldn't stand" that Greenberg insisted she record: (Roberta Flack quote:) "I had a very clever lawyer who made a huge money deal for [my recording] that song":^[3] Flack recorded "If Ever I See You Again" at A&R Recording Studios in New York City in a session produced by Brooks which also yielded Flack's versions of "Come Share My Love" and "When It's Over". With a track from Flack's 1977 Blue Lights in the Basement album: "I'd Like To Be Baby To You", as B-side, "If Ever I See You Again" was released as a single on 21 April 1978 - a month before the film's premiere - to debut the Billboard Hot 100 dated 20 May 1978 at #87 (the same chart ranked the Blue Lights in the Basement single: the Donny Hathaway duet "The Closer I Get to You" at its #2 peak for a second and final week).

Chart performance

With the film If Ever I See You Again quickly proving a massive flop, Flack's single was left to fare on its own merit, and did in July 1978 spend three weeks at No. 1 on the Easy Listening chart with an eventual ranking as the #8 Easy Listening hit for the year: however, while reaching the Top 40 on both the Pop-oriented Hot 100 and the R&B chart, "If Ever I See You Again" was not on either chart afforded the impact which had previously been customary for Flack's lead singles, the Hot 100 peak for "If Ever I See You Again" being #24 with its R&B peak being #37.^[4]^[5] On the pop-oriented singles charts published in both Cashbox and Record World, "If Ever I See You Again" peaked at #38, with the single's peak on the respective magazines' R&B charts being #37 (Cashbox) and #58 (Record World)).

"If Ever I See You Again" was included on the August 1978 album release Roberta Flack - the planned album title of If Ever I See You Again being dropped due to the single's underperformance - , that album also including the two other tracks cut with Joe Brooks at A&R Studios: "Come Share My Love" and "When It's Over", the two latter tracks being issued on a single in October 1978 with the A-side "When It's Over" reaching #82 on the R&B chart.

From 1979 Flack would tend to rank on the R&B chart as opposed to the Hot 100, her only solo Hot 100 entry subsequent to "If Ever I See You Again" being another movie theme song: "Making Love", which peaked at #13 in 1982. However Flack did reach the Top 20 of the Hot 100 with two duets: "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love" with Peabo Bryson (#16/ 1983) and "Set the Night to Music" with Maxi Priest (#6/ 1991).

References

^ Lifton, Robert K. (2012). An Entrepreneur's Journey: stories from a life in business & personal diplomacy. Bloomington, Indiana: AuthorHouse. p. 198. ISBN 978-1-4772-7931-1.
^ Chicago Tribune 29 June 1980 "Roberta Flack: Grammy winner on the road & on the charts" by Lynn van Matre pp.4,13 (Section 6)
^ Vibe Vol. 11 #1 (January 2003) p.40
^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 207.
^ Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961-2001. Record Research. p. 93.

[1] Lifton, Robert K. (2012). An Entrepreneur's Journey: stories from a life in business & personal diplomacy. Bloomington, Indiana: AuthorHouse. p. 198. ISBN 978-1-4772-7931-1.

[2] Chicago Tribune 29 June 1980 "Roberta Flack: Grammy winner on the road & on the charts" by Lynn van Matre pp.4,13 (Section 6)

[Vibe-3] Vibe Vol. 11 #1 (January 2003) p.40

[4] Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 207.

[5] Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961-2001. Record Research. p. 93.

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@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{About|the song|the film of the same name|If Ever I See You Again (film)}}
-{{Infobox single
+{{Infobox song
-| Name           = If Ever I See You Again
+| name       = If Ever I See You Again
-| Cover          =
+| cover      =
-| Artist         = [[Roberta Flack]]
+| alt        =
+| type       = single
-| from Album     = [[Roberta Flack (album)|Roberta Flack]]
+| artist     = [[Roberta Flack]]
-| B-side         = "I'd Like To Be Baby To You"
+| album      = [[Roberta Flack (album)|Roberta Flack]]
-| Released       = April 1978
+| B-side     = I'd Like To Be Baby To You
-| Genre          = [[Soul music|Soul]], [[Rhythm and blues|R&B]]
-| Length         = 3:35
+| released   = April 1978
+| format     =
-| Label          = [[Atlantic Records|Atlantic]]
+| recorded   =
-| Writer         = [[Joseph Brooks (songwriter)|Joseph Brooks]]
+| studio     =
-| Producer       = [[Joseph Brooks (songwriter)|Joseph Brooks]]
-| Certification  =
+| venue      =
-| Last single    = "[[The Closer I Get to You]]"<br />(1978)
+| genre      = [[Soul music|Soul]], [[Rhythm and blues|R&B]]
+| length     = 3:35
-| This single    = '''"If Ever I See You Again"'''<br />(1978)
+| label      = [[Atlantic Records|Atlantic]]
-| Next single    = "When It's Over"<br />(1978)
+| writer     = [[Joseph Brooks (songwriter)|Joseph Brooks]]
+| producer   = [[Joseph Brooks (songwriter)|Joseph Brooks]]
+| prev_title = [[The Closer I Get to You]]
+| prev_year  = 1978
+| next_title = When It's Over
+| next_year  = 1978
 }}
-"'''If Ever I See You Again'''" is the title of a 1978 hit single by [[Roberta Flack]]. The song was composed by [[Joseph Brooks (songwriter)|Joseph "Joe" Brooks]] and served as the title song for the eponymous 1978 film ''[[If Ever I See You Again (film)|If Ever I See You Again]]'' that Brooks directed and also starred in with [[Shelley Hack]] as his leading lady. Male vocalist Jamie Carr sang the theme song on the film's soundtrack.
+"'''If Ever I See You Again'''" is the title of a 1978 hit single by [[Roberta Flack]]. The song was composed by [[Joseph Brooks (songwriter)|Joseph "Joe" Brooks]] and served as the title song for the 1978 film ''[[If Ever I See You Again (film)|If Ever I See You Again]]'', which Brooks directed and also starred in with [[Shelley Hack]] as his leading lady. Male vocalist Jamie Carr sang the theme song on the film's soundtrack.
+==Background==
-Brooks directorial debut ''[[You Light Up My Life (film)|You Light Up My Life]]'' had become successful largely on the strength of its [[You Light Up My Life (song)|title song]] which as recorded by [[Debby Boone]] had spent ten weeks at #1 on the [[Billboard Hot 100|''Billboard'' Hot 100]] in 1977. With Brooks producing, Debby Boone had subsequently recorded the ''If Ever I See You Again'' title song plus four other songs heard in the film: "California", "Come Share My Love", "It Was Such a Good Day" and "When It's Over", at the Hollywood recording studio the Record Plant in January 1978, with the track "California" being issued as Boone's follow-up single to "You Light Up My Life" in February 1978 to reach #50 on the Hot 100.
+Brooks' directorial debut, ''[[You Light Up My Life (film)|You Light Up My Life]]'', had become successful largely on the strength of its [[You Light Up My Life (song)|title song]], which as recorded by [[Debby Boone]] had spent ten weeks at #1 on the [[Billboard Hot 100|''Billboard'' Hot 100]] in 1977. With Brooks producing, Debby Boone had subsequently recorded the ''If Ever I See You Again'' title song plus four other songs heard in the film: "California", "Come Share My Love", "It Was Such a Good Day" and "When It's Over", at the Hollywood recording studio the Record Plant in January 1978, with the track "California" being issued as Boone's follow-up single to "You Light Up My Life" in February 1978 to reach #50 on the Hot 100. Boone's version of the ''If Ever I See You Again'' title song, plus the four other songs from the film that she'd recorded, would be included on her July 1978 album release ''[[Midstream (album)|Midstream]]''.
+Despite Boone's success with the theme song from ''You Light Up My Life'', Brooks was hoping to place the ''If Ever I See You Again'' theme song plus other songs from the film with an established artist. According to his partner Robert K. Lifton, Brooks offered the ''If Ever I See You Again'' numbers to [[Arista Records]] president [[Clive Davis]] for [[Barry Manilow]] to record only to renege after hearing the existing tracks intended for Manilow's upcoming album, which Brooks felt were sub-par and would sink his own compositions (in fact Manilow's 1978 album release ''[[Even Now (Barry Manilow album)|Even Now]]'' would be a triple platinum seller).<ref>{{cite book |last=Lifton |first=Robert K. |title=An Entrepreneur's Journey: stories from a life in business & personal diplomacy |year=2012 |location=[[Bloomington, Indiana]] |publisher=[[AuthorHouse]] |page=198 |isbn=978-1-4772-7931-1}}</ref>
-With the mild success of "California" evincing the failure of Boone's hitmaking potential to extend further than "You Light Up My Life", Brooks arranged for veteran hitmaker Roberta Flack to record the ''If Ever I See You Again'' title song for single release.  Flack would later describe "If Ever I See You Again" as "a song I couldn't stand" which the president of her label [[Atlantic Records]] insisted she record; Flack added: "I had a very clever lawyer who made a huge money deal for [my recording] that song".<ref name="Vibe">''Vibe'' Vol. 11 #1 (January 2003) p.40</ref> Brooks produced Flack's version of "If Ever I See You Again" at [[A & R Recording|A&R Recording Studios]] in [[New York City]] in a session which also yielded  Flack's versions of "Come Share My Love" and "When It's Over". For Flack's single of "If Ever I See You Again", a track from her 1977 ''[[Blue Lights in the Basement]]'' album: "I'd Like To Be Baby To You", served as [[A-side and B-side|B-side]].
+Brooks then approached [[Atlantic Records]] president [[Jerry L. Greenberg|Jerry Greenberg]] with the intent of having the ''If Ever I See You Again'' theme song and other songs from the film recorded by [[Roberta Flack]] (Flack has stated that she had been offered "You Light Up My Life" prior to the Debby Boone recording: <small>(Roberta Flack quote:)</small>"Some people whose opinions I respect very much suggested I should do it<span style="font-size:50%">...</span>but the song reminded me of too many other things that I had heard or sung and I just didn't like it [although] I think [for] Debby Boone ['You Light Up My Life'] was perfect".<ref>''Chicago Tribune'' 29 June 1980 "Roberta Flack: Grammy winner on the road & on the charts" by Lynn van Matre pp.4,13 (Section 6)</ref> Flack would eventually describe "If Ever I See You Again" as "a song I couldn't stand" that Greenberg insisted she record: <small>(Roberta Flack quote:)</small> "I had a very clever lawyer who made a huge money deal for [my recording] that song":<ref name="Vibe">''Vibe'' Vol. 11 #1 (January 2003) p.40</ref> Flack recorded "If Ever I See You Again" at [[A & R Recording|A&R Recording Studios]] in [[New York City]] in a session produced by Brooks which also yielded Flack's versions of "Come Share My Love" and "When It's Over". With a track from Flack's 1977 ''[[Blue Lights in the Basement]]'' album: "I'd Like To Be Baby To You", as [[A-side and B-side|B-side]], "If Ever I See You Again" was released as a single on 21 April 1978 - a month before the film's premiere - to debut the [[Billboard Hot 100|''Billboard'' Hot 100]] dated 20 May 1978 at #87 (the same chart ranked the ''Blue Lights in the Basement'' single: the [[Donny Hathaway]] duet "[[The Closer I Get to You]]" at its #2 peak for a second and final week).
-Released as a single in April 1978 preparatory to the May 1978 opening of the film, Flack's version of the ''If Ever I See You Again'' theme was unable to buoy the fortunes of its parent film which was a massive flop. "If Ever I See You Again" did afford Flack a #1 hit on ''Billboard'' magazine's [[Adult Contemporary|Easy Listening]] chart which it topped for three weeks in July 1978 but overall represented a drop in her popularity with a ''Billboard'' Hot 100 peak of #24 and [[Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs|R&B chart]] peak of #37.<ref>{{cite book |title= Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004|last=Whitburn |first=Joel |authorlink=Joel Whitburn |year=2004 |publisher=Record Research |page=207}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title= Top Adult Contemporary: 1961-2001|last=Whitburn |first=Joel |authorlink=Joel Whitburn |year=2002 |publisher=Record Research |page=93}}</ref>
+==Chart performance==
-Debby Boone's version of the ''If Ever I See You Again'' title song, plus the four other songs from the film that she'd recorded, were included on her July 1978 album release ''[[Midstream (album)|Midstream]]''. Roberta Flack's August 1978 [[Roberta Flack (album)|self titled album]] release included her version of "If Ever I See You Again" plus the two other tracks cut with Joe Brooks at A&R Studios: "Come Share My Love" and "When It's Over", the two latter tracks being issued on a single in September 1978 with the A-side "When It's Over" reaching #82 on the R&B chart.
+With the film ''If Ever I See You Again'' quickly proving a massive flop, Flack's single was left to fare on its own merit, and did in July 1978 spend three weeks at No. 1 on the [[Adult Contemporary (chart)|Easy Listening chart]] with an eventual ranking as the #8 Easy Listening hit for the year: however, while reaching the Top 40 on both the Pop-oriented Hot 100 and the [[Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs|R&B chart]], "If Ever I See You Again" was not on either chart afforded the impact which had previously been customary for Flack's lead singles, the Hot 100 peak for "If Ever I See You Again" being #24 with its R&B peak being #37.<ref>{{cite book |title= Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004|last=Whitburn |first=Joel |author-link=Joel Whitburn |year=2004 |publisher=Record Research |page=207}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title= Top Adult Contemporary: 1961-2001|last=Whitburn |first=Joel |author-link=Joel Whitburn |year=2002 |publisher=Record Research |page=93}}</ref> On the pop-oriented singles charts published in both ''[[Cashbox (magazine)|Cashbox]]'' and ''[[Record World]]'', "If Ever I See You Again" peaked at #38, with the single's peak on the respective magazines' R&B charts being #37 <small>(''Cashbox'')</small> and #58 <small>(''Record World'')</small>).
+"If Ever I See You Again" was included on the August 1978 album release ''[[Roberta Flack (album)|Roberta Flack]]'' - the planned album title of ''If Ever I See You Again'' being dropped due to the single's underperformance - , that album also including the two other tracks cut with Joe Brooks at A&R Studios: "Come Share My Love" and "When It's Over",  the two latter tracks being issued on a single in October 1978 with the A-side "When It's Over" reaching #82 on the R&B chart.
+From 1979 Flack would tend to rank on the R&B chart as opposed to the Hot 100, her only solo Hot 100 entry subsequent to "If Ever I See You Again" being another movie theme song: "[[Making Love (song)|Making Love]]", which peaked at #13 in 1982. However Flack did reach the Top 20 of the Hot 100 with two duets: "[[Tonight, I Celebrate My Love]]" with [[Peabo Bryson]] (#16/ 1983) and "[[Set the Night to Music]]" with [[Maxi Priest]] (#6/ 1991).
 ==See also==
@@ Line 34: / Line 46: @@
 {{Reflist}}
 {{Roberta Flack}}
+{{authority control}}
+[[Category:Songs about parting]]
 [[Category:1978 singles]]
-[[Category:Billboard Adult Contemporary number-one singles]]
 [[Category:Roberta Flack songs]]
 [[Category:Atlantic Records singles]]
-[[Category:Theme music]]
+[[Category:Film theme songs]]
-[[Category:Songs from films]]
 [[Category:Rhythm and blues ballads]]
+[[Category:Soul ballads]]
 [[Category:1978 songs]]
 [[Category:Songs written by Joseph Brooks (songwriter)]]

v t e Roberta Flack
Studio albums	First Take (1969) Chapter Two (1970) Quiet Fire (1971) Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway (1972) Killing Me Softly (1973) Feel Like Makin' Love (1975) Blue Lights in the Basement (1977) Roberta Flack (1978) Roberta Flack Featuring Donny Hathaway (1980) I'm the One (1982) Born to Love (1983) Oasis (1988) Set the Night to Music (1991) Roberta (1994) The Christmas Album (1997) Let It Be Roberta (2012)
Live albums	Live & More (1980) At Her Best – Live (2008)
Soundtrack albums	Soul to Soul (1971) Bustin' Loose (1981)
Compilation albums	The Best of Roberta Flack (1981) Greatest Hits (1984) Softly with These Songs: The Best of Roberta Flack (1993) The Very Best of Roberta Flack (2006)
Singles	"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" "You've Got a Friend" "Where Is the Love" "Killing Me Softly with His Song" "Jesse" (1973) "Feel Like Makin' Love" "The Closer I Get to You" "If Ever I See You Again" "Making Love" "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love" "Oasis" "Uh-Uh Ooh-Ooh Look Out (Here It Comes)"
Filmography	Soul to Soul (1971)
Related articles	Discography Donny Hathaway