Wednesday, March 4, 2015

"I'm Never Gonna Say Goodbye" by Billy Preston

Song#:  1186
Date:  09/25/1982
Debut:  90
Peak:  88
Weeks:  3
Genre:  R&B, Adult Contemporary



Pop Bits:  After several duet singles with Syreeta Wright, including "With You I'm Born Again" (#4, 1979), Preston went back to being a solo artist and issued the LP "Pressin' On." This first single didn't do much to revive his solo career and it even tanked at R&B only getting to #64. It would be Preston's final entry on both charts and his last album for Motown. Afterward, he would record a few more albums, but he mainly performed session work for major artists like Elton John, Eric Clapton, and The Rolling Stones. Preston died in 2006.

ReduxReview:  Preston does his best to sell this big pop ballad and he basically succeeds. The song is nothing great and sounds very similar to all the other pop/R&B ballads that were coming out around the time, but it is really Preston who shines. The production is appropriately huge (although a bit dated) and sounds quite good, but besides Preston there is not much here that makes the song stand out among the others of the same ilk. (Oddity - the song says he is never gonna say goodbye, yet this ended up being final chart entry...go figure.)

ReduxRating:  5/10

Trivia:  This song was used in the 1982 film "O'Hara's Wife." It starred Ed Asner, Mariette Hartley, and a college-aged Jodie Foster. It's a comedy-drama in which Asner's wife (Hartley) dies and she appears to him later as a ghost that only he can see. Foster plays their daughter. It is in question whether the film had an actual theatrical release (theater poster art can be found), but it did show up later on cable TV and video.

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