Endless Love (song)

For other uses, see Endless Love (disambiguation).

"Endless Love"
Single by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie
from the album Endless Love: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Released	August 1, 1981
Format	7" single
Genre	Pop, R&B
Length	4:24
Label	Motown
Writer(s)	Lionel Richie
Producer	Lionel Richie
Diana Ross chronology "Cryin' My Heart out for You" (1981) "Endless Love" (1981) "Medley of Hits" (1981) Lionel Richie chronology "Endless Love" (1981) "Truly" (1982)

"Endless Love" is a song written by Lionel Richie and originally recorded as a duet between Richie and fellow soul singer Diana Ross. In this ballad, the singers declare their "endless love" for one another. It was covered by soul singer Luther Vandross with R&B singer Mariah Carey and also by country music singer Kenny Rogers. Billboard has named it the greatest song duet of all time.

About the record

Ross and Richie recorded the song for Motown, and it was used as the theme for the Franco Zeffirelli's film Endless Love starring Brooke Shields. Produced by Richie and arranged by Gene Page, it was released as a single from the film's soundtrack in 1981. While the film Endless Love was a success, the song became the second biggest-selling single of the year (first was "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes) in the U.S. and reached number 1 on the Hot 100, where it stayed for nine weeks from August 15 to October 10, 1981. It also topped the Billboard R&B chart and the Adult Contemporary chart, and reached number 7 in the UK.

The soulful composition became the biggest-selling single of Ross' career and her 18th career number-one single (including her work with The Supremes), while it was the first of several hits for Richie during the 1980s. Ross recorded a solo version of the song for her first RCA Records album, Why Do Fools Fall in Love, the duet version being her last hit on Motown. The song was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song for Richie, and was the second song with which Ross was involved that was nominated for an Oscar. It also won a 1982 American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Single.

The song was included in Adam Sandler's movie Happy Gilmore when Happy and his girlfriend Virginia are ice skating, and the song begins to play. Virginia says to Happy "I thought we were just going to be friends." To which he responds, "What? Friends listen to Endless Love in the dark."

In A Night at the Roxbury, there was a wedding going on with the couple singing the song, and the Butabis were dancing.

The song was included as well in the third season of Friends, in which Phoebe walks into Chandler's apartment, to find him singing the song and holding Lionel Richie's first album (even though the song is included on his fourth album, Back to Front).

On an episode of The Steve Harvey Show, Steve and Regina perform the song at a janitor's urging (who thought they were Ross and Richie); at the end of the song, the janitor quips "no wonder you guys haven't had a hit in a while."

On an episode of Glee Matthew Morrison, the Glee Club instructor and Lea Michele as one of his students (Rachel) sing the song as a duet in class with Lea Michele remarking in an interior monologue, "I never noticed before, but Mr. Shue is really cute." This leads to a series of increasingly embarrassing High School crush scenes.

Charts

Chart (1981)	Peak position
Australian Kent Music Report	1
Dutch Singles Chart	10
Norwegian Singles Chart	8
Swedish Singles Chart	5
Swiss Singles Chart	6
UK Singles Chart	7
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	1
U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary	1
U.S. Billboard Black Singles	1

Preceded by "Jessie's Girl" by Rick Springfield	Billboard Hot 100 number-one single (Ross/Richie version) August 15, 1981 - October 10, 1981	Succeeded by "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" by Christopher Cross
Preceded by "I'm in Love" by Evelyn King	Billboard Hot Soul Singles number-one single (Ross/Richie version) August 22, 1981 - October 3, 1981	Succeeded by "When She Was My Girl" by The Four Tops"
Preceded by "Touch Me When We're Dancing" by The Carpenters	Billboard Adult Contemporary (chart) number-one single (Ross/Richie version) September 5, 1981 (3 weeks)	Succeeded by "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" by Christopher Cross
Preceded by "You Drive Me Crazy" by Shakin' Stevens	Australian Kent Music Report number-one single (Ross/Richie version) October 5, 1981 - October 26, 1981	Succeeded by "You Weren't in Love with Me" by Billy Field

Luther Vandross and Mariah Carey version

"Endless Love"
Single by Luther Vandross and Mariah Carey
from the album Songs
Released	August 29, 1994 (1994-08-29)
Format	CD single, cassette single, 7" single
Genre	Pop, R&B
Length	4:21
Label	Epic
Writer(s)	Lionel Richie
Producer	Walter Afanasieff
Certification	Platinum (Australia) Gold (New Zealand, U.S.)
Luther Vandross chronology "Always and Forever" (1994) "Endless Love" (1994) "Going in Circles" (1994) Mariah Carey chronology "Anytime You Need a Friend" (1994) "Endless Love" (1994) "All I Want for Christmas Is You" (1994)

Walter Afanasieff produced Luther Vandross and Mariah Carey's cover of the song for Vandross' Epic Records-released album Songs, and it is known for being Carey's first "high-profile" duet (an earlier duet, "I'll Be There," was with the then-unknown background singer Trey Lorenz). At the 1995 Grammy Award's, the song was nominated in the new category of Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, losing to "Funny How Time Slips Away" by Al Green and Lyle Lovett. Columbia Records later included the song on Carey's compilation album Greatest Hits (2001) and then again on her next compilation album, The Ballads (2008). It was released as the second single from Songs in 1994.

Recording

Sony Music Entertainment President Tommy Mottola suggested that Vandross record Songs, an album of cover versions. Featuring Vandross' versions of songs like Stephen Stills' "Love the One You're With," Heatwave's "Always and Forever," and Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly," the album was shaping up to be a major career accomplishment. To give the album a bigger boost, Mottola's wife, Mariah Carey, came up with the idea to remake "Endless Love" as a duet with her. Lionel Richie and Diana Ross had originally recorded "Endless Love" in 1981, and the song spent nine weeks at number 1. Although Luther's album was already set to contain one Lionel Richie composition, "Hello," it was obvious that having the most-popular female singer on the Sony label singing on the album would be a benefit.

Formats

• 7" Single

1. "Endless Love" - 4:21
2. "Endless Love" (Instrumental) - 4:22

• Japanese 3" CD Single

1. "Endless Love" - 4:21
2. "Endless Love" (Mariah Only) - 4:22
3. "Endless Love" (Luther Only) - 4:22
4. "Endless Love" (Instrumental) - 4:22

• UK & European CD Maxi Single

1. "Endless Love" - 4:21
2. "Endless Love" (Instrumental) - 4:22
3. "Never Too Much (Live) - 5:00
4. "Any Love" (Live) - 5:22
5. "She Won't Talk To Me" (Live) - 5:14

Chart performance

"Endless Love" debuted on September 10, 1994 at 31 and peaked at number two. The song became Luther Vandross' biggest pop hit ever and gave Lionel Richie his first top ten as a songwriter in seven years. It became Vandross's fifth top ten single and Carey's twelfth. It remained in the top forty for thirteen weeks, and was ranked number 56 on the Hot 100 1994 year-end charts. It was also an improvement over Carey's previous single, "Anytime You Need a Friend," which had missed the top ten. It was certified gold by the RIAA.

The song was a success outside the U.S, reaching the top of the chart in New Zealand (for five weeks) and the top five in the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, and the Netherlands. It also reached the top 20 in most of the countries. It was certified gold in Australia by ARIA and in New Zealand by RIANZ.

Total sales in the UK stand at 230,000.

Music video and other versions

Two music videos were released for the single; one features Carey and Vandross recording the song in a studio, and the other shows the two performing the song live at Royal Albert Hall. The latter performance is included on the Luther Vandross: From Luther with Love music video collection in DVD format.

Some versions of the song itself were released, in which Carey or Vandross sings solo.

It has been sung by John O'Connell.

The song was also covered by contestant Laura White on UK singing competition The X Factor, during a Mariah Carey themed week. Despite receiving high praise from Carey herself and most of the show's judges, Laura was eliminated, leading to huge controversy in the UK media.

The Sean Hannity Show occasionally plays a mashup of this song with clips of various news outlets' coverage of President Barack Obama to demonstrate what Hannity felt was overly positive coverage of Obama.

The song was covered in an episode of the Fox TV series Glee by Lea Michele and Matthew Morrison. The episode is entitled Ballad.

Charts

Peak positions

Chart (1994)	Peak position
Australian Singles Chart	2
Austrian Singles Chart	13
Canadian Singles Chart	14
Dutch Singles Chart	6
European Singles Chart	7
Finnish Singles Chart	11
French Singles Chart	12
German Singles Chart	14
Irish Singles Chart	4
New Zealand Singles Chart	1
Norwegian Singles Chart	6
Swedish Singles Chart	10
Swiss Singles Chart	6
UK Singles Chart	3
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	2
U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks	11
U.S. Billboard Hot R&B Singles	7

Year-end charts

Chart (1994)	Position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	56

Sales and certifications

Country (Provider)	Certification
Australia (ARIA)	Platinum
New Zealand (RIANZ)	Gold
United States (RIAA)	Gold

Other cover versions

• Taiwanese singer Teresa Teng and Hong Kong singer George Lam recorded a cover version of the song.
• Country music singer Kenny Rogers' cover of "Endless Love" was recorded for his album Vote for Love (1996). It also appeared on Always and Forever (1996), which went on to sell over four million copies. His version was not released as a single.
• The song was covered in 2006 by British glamour model Katie Price and her now estranged husband, pop singer Peter Andre. The track is included on their 2006 album of duets A Whole New World.
• It was performed on the 18 November 2009 episode of Glee by Lea Michele and Matthew Morrison.
• A promotional single of Lionel Richie and Kelly Rowland in 2007.

Live cover performances

The song has been performed three times on American Idol, by Rickey Smith, Chris Sligh, and Danny Gokey. The song was also performed on Australian Idol in 2007 by eventual winner Natalie Gauci on the Final 7 Birth Year (the contestants performed songs from the year they were born) theme night.

See also

• Hot 100 number-one hits of 1981 (USA)