With You, I'm Born Again (1979) 2/14/20

Happy Valentine's Day!

To celebrate, we're going right to the end of the decade for our "Great Song of the '70s. In fact, the song was released in December of 1979...and was a hit well into 1980.

Remember the film, "Fast Break?" Neither do I...but this beautiful love song was written for the film by Carol Connors and David Shire (former husband to Talia Shire--Adrian in the "Rocky" films...and current husband to Didi Conn.)

Motown was in charge of the soundtrack, and they had already lined up Billy Preston and Syreeta Wright (Stevie Wonder's ex-wife) for solo tracks, so the thought of teaming them up for a duet seemed natural.

As often happens with hit records, the artists liked the song, but were not too keen on recording it. Motown insisted, so off to the studio they went.

No one expected it to be anything more than an album cut, but when the first single from the soundtrack was released and sank without a trace...and the film started to falter at the box office...Motown made a desperation move and released "With You, I'm Born Again."

What happened next? It went straight to the Top 10 in 6 countries...including #2 in the U.S. and U.K...and #4 in Canada.

And with that, the soundtrack was, uhh, born again!

I believe this lush, beautiful ballad is a GREAT Valentine's Day Song....but more than that, a "GREAT Song of the '70s" (and 1980, too)!