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Saturday, April 20, 2019

"Love Touch" by Rod Stewart

Top 10 Alert!
Song#:  2744
Date:  05/31/1986
Debut:  54
Peak:  6
Weeks:  18
Genre:  Pop, Soundtrack



Pop Bits:  Stewart's 1984 album Camouflage was a return to form going gold and spawning two Top 10 hits including the #6 "Infatuation." For his next effort, Every Beat of My Heart, Stewart did most of the album with producer Bob Ezrin (Alice Cooper, Kiss). The lone exception was this track that was co-written by Mike Chapman, Holly Knight, and Gene Black, and produced by Chapman. The song was selected to not only be the lead single for the album, but also the theme for the courtroom comedy film Legal Eagles. It would be a sizable hit reaching #5 at AC while becoming Stewart's eighth Pop Top 10. It would also get to #26 at Rock. Yet the hit didn't necessarily ignite sales of the album, which peaked at #28 and missed out on going gold.

ReduxReview:  This is such a dorky song. It's a bit skeevy too with the lyrics "I wanna give you my love touch." I'm not exactly sure what is meant by "love touch," but if someone said that to me I'd be like - hell no. Even in some liner notes on a hits compilation, Stewart mentioned this was one of the silliest songs he's ever recorded. I agree. It should be a total zero of a song, yet I have to admit that there is something about that synth-steel drum riff and Stewart's cooing vocal that hooked me. It apparently appealed to others as well since the song cracked the Top 10. Yeah it's a goofy tune and certainly wouldn't make a list citing Stewart's best songs, but it's a fun little ditty that I wouldn't mind tossing in a playlist somewhere.

ReduxRating:  6/10

Trivia:  The film Legal Eagles was a rom-com vehicle for Robert Redford and newly minted star Debra Winger. It was Winger's first big budget film following the 1-2 punch of An Officer and a Gentleman and Terms of Endearment, both of which earned her Best Actress Oscar nods. Redford was just coming off of his co-starring appearance in the Oscar-winning Out of Africa. With Ivan Reitman directing, the movie seemed like a sure-bet to do well. It opened to mixed reviews, but ended up doing fairly well at the box office. The film's $40 million budget was extravagant at the time and its US gross barely covered that, but the worldwide take helped to keep it from being a money loser. The film was originally devised as a buddy comedy that would star Dustin Hoffman and Bill Murray, but Murray ended up dropping out of the film. Redford was looking to do a rom-com at the time, so the script was rewritten and Winger was brought on board.

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