Thursday, July 27, 2017

Anne Murray - Love Song (1974)

“Love Song” by Anne Murray (1974)

Release Date: February 1974
Produced by Brian Ahern
Genre: Country, Pop
Label: Capitol

Chart Positions: #5 (Canada), #24 (US)
Certifications: N/A

Singles: “Send A Little Love My Way” #25 (Canada), #72 (US), #10 (Canada Country), #6 (Canada Adult Contemporary), #79 (US Country), #10 (US Adult Contemporary), “A Love Song” #1 (Canada), #12 (US), #88 (Australia), #1 (Canada Country), #1 (Canada Adult Contemporary), #5 (US Country), #1 (US Adult Contemporary), “You Won’t See Me” #5 (Canada), #8 (US), #49 (Australia), #4 (Canada Adult Contemporary), #1 (US Adult Contemporary), “Just One Look” #11 (Canada), #86 (US), #50 (US Adult Contemporary)
Singles Certifications: N/A
Other Charting Tracks: “Son Of A Rotten Gambler” #1 (Canada Adult
Contemporary), #3 (Canada Country), #5 (US Country)

Best Tracks: “A Love Song,” “Just One Look,” “Real Emotion,” “You Won’t See Me,” “Son of a Rotten Gambler”


"Love Song" is the ninth studio album by Anne Murray issued in 1974 on Capitol Records. It peaked at #24 on the US Billboard Pop Albums chart and won a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance and was nominated in the "Best Selling Album" category in the 1975 Juno Awards. Anne Murray’s rendition of the song "Send a Little Love My Way" was featured in the Stanley Cramer film, “Oklahoma Crude,” and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song in 1973.

A highlight from the album is the Lennon-McCartney Beatles tune “You Won’t See Me,” which went on to be a big hit for Murray reching #8 in the US and #5 in Canada. Lennon is said to have told Murray that her version of "You Won't See Me" was his favorite Beatles cover ever. Murray herself is a confessed Beatles fanatic and has covered several other Beatles songs, including "Day Tripper" and "I'm Happy Just to Dance with You".

“A Love Song” was written specifically by Kenny Loggins (and Donna Lyn George) for Anne Murray. The song was a major crossover hit for Murray. In her native Canada, it topped all three singles charts: the overall Top Singles chart, the Country Tracks chart and the Adult Contemporary chart. In the United States, the song peaked at No. 5 on Billboard magazine's Hot Country Singles chart and just missed the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 12. The song fared even better there in the adult contemporary market — it became Murray's third chart-topper on Billboard's American Hot Adult Contemporary Singles chart. This was the second time Anne charted with a Loggins & Messina song, having reached the Top 10 with her version of "Danny's Song" in 1973.

"A Love Song" (1974)

Anne was obviously a Kenny Loggins fan as she included a cover of the Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina penned "Watching The River Run" on this album. Murray's rendition is very similar to Loggins and Messina's with a homegrown feel to it.

Both "A Love Song" and "Watching The River Run" appeared on the Loggins and Messina album "Full Sail" which was released in October 1973.

The album's fourth single "Just One Look," a cover of Doris Troy's 1963 Top Ten was fairly popular in Canada but barely made a mark in the US. Though it's b-side "Son of a Rotten Gambler" gained quite a bit of traction on the country music charts in both the US and Canada. "Son of a Rotten Gambler" was written by Chip Taylor who is known for having written the mega-hit "Angel In The Morning" and the Troggs' 1966 classic "Wild Thing."

Murray gives us a great bluesy cover of Alan O’Day’s “Real Emotion.” We know Alan O’Day from his 1977 million selling chart topping hit “Undercover Angel” and Helen Reddy’s #1 hit in 1974 “Angie Baby,” which O’Day wrote. Anne Murray covered Alan O’Day’s “Caress Me Pretty Music” for her 1976 album “Keeping In Touch.”

In their review of this album Rolling Stone magazine commented, "if 1974 is to be the year for female pop, Anne Murray may prove to be it's most talented proponent.

Anne Murray (1974)





ANNE MURRAY