"'65 Love Affair" is a song performed by Paul Davis

Paul Davis (singer)

Paul Lavon Davis was an American singer and songwriter, best known for his radio hits and solo career which started worldwide in 1970. His career encompassed soul, country and pop music...

 on his album "Cool Night." Released in 1981, the song hit #6 for two weeks on the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

 in April 1982. It stayed 20 weeks in the chart, and in Billboard-Year End Chart, it placed at No. 39, and on Cashbox at No. 60.

This song marked Davis's first single release upon his defection from Bang Records

Bang Records

Bang Records was created by Bert Berns in 1965 together with his partners from Atlantic Records: Ahmet Ertegün, Nesuhi Ertegün and Jerry Wexler...

 to Arista

Arista Records

Arista was an American record label. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment and operated under the RCA Music Group. The label was founded in 1974 by Clive Davis, who formerly worked for CBS Records...

. The style of "'65 Love Affair" was reminiscent of such blue-eyed soul

Blue-eyed soul

Blue-eyed soul is a media term that was used to describe rhythm and blues and soul music performed by white artists, with a strong pop music influence. The term was first used in the mid-1960s to describe white artists who performed soul and R&B that was similar to the music of the Motown and...

 groups as Hall & Oates

Hall & Oates

Hall & Oates are an American musical duo composed of Daryl Hall and John Oates. They achieved their greatest fame in the late 1970s and early to mid-1980s. Both sing and play instruments. They specialized in a fusion of rock and roll and rhythm and blues styles, which they dubbed "rock and soul."...

, a vein that Davis had not explored before. Davis had originally titled the song "'55 Love Affair", but Arista felt that some modernization was needed to target an audience whose teenage years had occurred in the 1960s. In addition, Arista pointed out the fact that Davis was only 7 years old in 1955, too young for any meaningful "love affair".

None of Davis's previous hits had been pop-oriented, opting for country roots or ballads instead. The format change proved to be quite marketable, with "'65 Love Affair" and "Cool Night", which were recorded at the same time, ranking higher on the Billboard Hot 100 than any other single in his decade-long career. In spite of this popular success, Davis was so disgusted with the commercialized result that after the completion of his two Arista hit singles, he opted out of his contract with that label, and, instead, signed with Razor & Tie

Razor & Tie

Razor & Tie is a New York-based corporation founded in 1990 by Cliff Chenfeld and Craig Balsam. The company encompasses a record label with major label distribution , a home video company, a media buying company, a music publishing business, a marketing, promotion and sales team, and a direct...

Record Company.

Chart performance

Chart (1982)	Peak position
Australian Kent Music Report	71
Canadian RPM Top Singles	11
New Zealand Singles Chart	13
Polish Singles Chart	18
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	6
U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks	5