(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher
Encyclopedia
" Higher and Higher" is a hit R&B
song originally performed by Jackie Wilson
in 1967. The song was notably recorded by Rita Coolidge
in 1977.
studios in Chicago
. Produced by Carl Davis, the session - arranged by Sonny Sanders - featured bassist James Jamerson
, drummer Richard "Pistol" Allen, guitarist Robert White
, and keyboardist Johnny Griffith; these four musicians were all members of the Motown Records
house band the Funk Brothers
who often moonlighted on sessions for Davis to augment the meager wages paid by Motown. According to Carl Davis the Funk Brothers "used to come over on the weekends from Detroit. They’d load up in the van and come over to Chicago, and I would pay ‘em double scale, and I’d pay ‘em in cash." Similarly two of Motown's house session singers the Andantes
: Jackie Hicks and Marlene Barrow along with Pat Lewis, performed on the session for "...Higher and Higher".
Davis brought the track to New York City for Wilson to add his vocal; Davis recalls Wilson originally sang the song "like a soul ballad. I said that's totally wrong. You have to jump and go with the percussion...if he didn't want to sing it that way, I would put my voice on the record and sell millions". After hearing Davis' advisement Wilson cut the lead vocal for "...Higher and Higher" in a single take.
The original songwriting credit for "...Higher and Higher" was to Gary Jackson and Carl Smith who'd previously been house songwriters at Chess Records
. When "...Higher and Higher" reached the Top Ten, Chess songwriters Billy Davis and Raynard Miner sued claiming the song as their composition which Jackson or Smith had appropriated from Miner's briefcase while at Chess Records; Davis and Miner alleged Jackson and Smith had slightly amended the lyrics and then presented "...Higher and Higher" to Davis as their own work. Davis and Miner were awarded eighty percent of the songwriting royalties with Jackson and Smith retaining twenty percent.
Released in August 1967, "...Higher and Higher" reached #1 R&B and in November peaked on the Pop charts at #6.
In the UK Wilson's "...Higher and Higher" would be a hit in 1969 (#11), 1975 (#25), and 1987 (#15).
The single's sales have been estimated as high as four million.
Columbia Records released a Higher and Higher album in November 1967: its chart peak was #163 (#28 R&B).
The track was ranked #246 on Rolling Stone
's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame
in 1999.
remade the song as "(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher" for her 1977 album
Anytime...Anywhere. Coolidge's take on "...Higher and Higher" is more mid-tempo than the driving original and largely omits the chorus which is evidenced only in the background vocals sung under the repetition of the first verse with which Coolidge closes the song.
Coolidge and her sister Priscilla Jones had sung background on a version of the song for a prospective album by Jones' husband Booker T. Jones
; when that album was shelved Coolidge asked Booker T. Jones if she could cut the song using his arrangement.
Released as a single, "...Higher and Higher" became Coolidge's first major hit in nine years of recording: the track peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100
- Cash Box ranked it at #1 - with appeal to light rock stations (#5 Easy Listening
).
Both "...Higher and Higher" and the Anytime...Anywhere track released as the follow-up single: "We're All Alone
" earned Coolidge a gold record
as each was a million seller.
In the UK "...Higher and Higher" was released as the follow-up single after "We're All Alone" which had reached #6 but "(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher" only achieved a peak of #48 UK. In Australia "...Higher and Higher" reached #6 and spent 33 weeks on the chart.
Coolidge's final Top 40 hit "All Time High
" in 1983 would contain lyrical echoes of her breakout hit "...Higher and Higher".
whose version AMG [] states is the original. The Dells version was first released on the group's There Is album on May 25, 1968.
A 1967 recording by Otis Redding
- as "(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher" - was released in 1969, 18 months after Redding's death, as the B-side of his "Free Me" single. This version reached #30 on the R&B charts, and #103 on the pop charts.
The Move
covered "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" in 1968.
In 1969 Gamble and Huff
produced a version of "Higher and Higher" by the Jaggerz
for the Introducing the Jaggerz
album; the track - which was titled as "Higher and Higher" - was issued a single in the autumn of 1970 but did not chart (the Jaggerz were by then having more recent product issued by the Kama Sutra label).
In 1970 the song was recorded - under the title "Higher and Higher" - by Canada Goose a group from Ottawa
who'd been discovered by Jerry Ragovoy
: this version with a shared lead vocal by Barbra Bullard and John Matthews became a hit in Canada
(#44) and reached #92 on the Record World
100 Pop Chart.
"(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher" was also recorded by Bobby Darin
and Gene Pitney
; Pitney's version entitled "Higher and Higher" was a non-charting single in 1971.
The Greg Kihn Band
remade the song for their 1982 album Kihntinued; entitled "Higher and Higher", the track featured the group's drummer Larry Lynch
on lead vocals.
The Contours
performed "Higher and Higher" (under that title) in the Dirty Dancing
: Live in Concert Tour in 1988; their rendition was featured on the cast album.
Jimmy Cliff
cut a reggae
version of "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" in 1994 and charted in Germany (#52) and New Zealand (#31).
Sam Moore
- who as half of Sam & Dave
succeeded the Jackie Wilson original at #1 R&B with "Soul Man
" - sang "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" in a concert tour by the Funk Brothers
in 2004.
In 2008 the song became a #9 Adult Contemporary hit for Michael McDonald
who'd remade it for his Soul Speak album of classic soul songs: it was McDonald's 16 year old daughter Scarlett who suggested he sing "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher".In 1999, McDonald had been brought in as a sideman
to sing lead on Chicago's
Chicago XXVI: Live in Concert
album, which closed with this studio track.
2008 also saw the song - as "Higher and Higher" - chart in Sweden
due to Kevin Borg
the eventual winner of Idol
Season 8 performing it in the competition: downloads of Borg's version secured it a #29 ranking.
Rod Stewart
included a version of "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" on his 2009 Soulbook
album which comprised classic soul songs.
Overall "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" has proven more popular with female vocalists: besides Rita Coolidge, "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" has been recorded by Erma Franklin
, Barbara Mandrell
, Esther Phillips
, Dolly Parton
, Maria Mendiola
(as "Higher and Higher"), Martha Reeves
and Dana Valery.
Bette Midler
sang a radically re-invented version on her 1973 Bette Midler
album: Midler utilized "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" as the finale for each performance of her 1975 Broadway show Clams on the Half Shell Revue, singing the song while dancing atop a giant spinning record player.
In 1976 Séverine
had a single release of the German rendering "Heißer Als Feuer".
Kate Ceberano
recorded the song - as "Higher and Higher" - in 2003 for her album 19 Days in New York, a January 2004 release which marked the return to the studio of Billy Davis, a veteran of the classic Chicago R&B sound who coproduced with Leonard Caston Jr.http://www.ralphcarr.com/pdfs/kateCeberano.pdf (19 Days in New York was the final production of Davis who died 2 September 2004). Ceberano's "Higher and Higher" was released as a promo single to Australian radio.
A dance version—listed as both "Your Love is Lifting Me Higher" and "Your Love is Lifting Me (Higher and Higher)"—by Gioia
was released in 2007.
A rendition of ("Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" by Dusty Springfield
which she sang on a BBC radio broadcast on 5 January 1970 was issued on the 2007 Mercury Records compilation Dusty Springfield Complete BBC Sessions.
Bruce Springsteen
has covered the song in concert more than a dozen times between 1977's Chicken Scratch Tour
and 2009's Working On A Dream Tour
, using it almost exclusively to close sets.
A radically different Ambient House version was recorded by the Newcastle based Electro pop band Moira Stewart. It features on their second album 'Whatever We Do Is Love'.
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
song originally performed by Jackie Wilson
Jackie Wilson
Jack Leroy "Jackie" Wilson, Jr. was an American singer and performer. Known as "Mr. Excitement", Wilson was important in the transition of rhythm and blues into soul. He was known as a master showman, and as one of the most dynamic singers and performers in R&B and rock history...
in 1967. The song was notably recorded by Rita Coolidge
Rita Coolidge
Rita Coolidge is a multiple Grammy Award-winning American vocalist. During the 1970s and 1980s, she charted hits on Billboard's Pop, Country, Adult Contemporary and Jazz charts.-Career:...
in 1977.
Overview
The backing track for "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" was recorded on 6 July 1967 at Columbia'sColumbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
studios in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. Produced by Carl Davis, the session - arranged by Sonny Sanders - featured bassist James Jamerson
James Jamerson
James Lee Jamerson was an American bass player. He was the uncredited bassist on most of Motown Records' hits in the 1960s and early 1970s , and he is now regarded as one of the most influential bass players in modern music history...
, drummer Richard "Pistol" Allen, guitarist Robert White
Robert White (guitarist)
Robert Willie White was an African-American musician. Of note for being one of the main guitarists for Motown Records' in-house studio band, the Funk Brothers, White is best known for performing the familiar guitar riff on The Temptations' number-one hit single "My Girl", but played the guitar on...
, and keyboardist Johnny Griffith; these four musicians were all members of the Motown Records
Motown Records
Motown is a record label originally founded by Berry Gordy, Jr. and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation in Detroit, Michigan, United States, on April 14, 1960. The name, a portmanteau of motor and town, is also a nickname for Detroit...
house band the Funk Brothers
The Funk Brothers
The Funk Brothers was the nickname of Detroit, Michigan, session musicians who performed the backing to most Motown Records recordings from 1959 until the company moved to Los Angeles in 1972...
who often moonlighted on sessions for Davis to augment the meager wages paid by Motown. According to Carl Davis the Funk Brothers "used to come over on the weekends from Detroit. They’d load up in the van and come over to Chicago, and I would pay ‘em double scale, and I’d pay ‘em in cash." Similarly two of Motown's house session singers the Andantes
The Andantes
The Andantes were a prolific female sessions group for the Motown record label during the 1960s. Composed of Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow, and Louvain Demps, the group sang background vocals on numerous Motown recordings, including songs by Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, The Temptations, Stevie...
: Jackie Hicks and Marlene Barrow along with Pat Lewis, performed on the session for "...Higher and Higher".
Davis brought the track to New York City for Wilson to add his vocal; Davis recalls Wilson originally sang the song "like a soul ballad. I said that's totally wrong. You have to jump and go with the percussion...if he didn't want to sing it that way, I would put my voice on the record and sell millions". After hearing Davis' advisement Wilson cut the lead vocal for "...Higher and Higher" in a single take.
The original songwriting credit for "...Higher and Higher" was to Gary Jackson and Carl Smith who'd previously been house songwriters at Chess Records
Chess Records
Chess Records was an American record label based in Chicago, Illinois. It specialized in blues, R&B, soul, gospel music, early rock and roll, and occasional jazz releases....
. When "...Higher and Higher" reached the Top Ten, Chess songwriters Billy Davis and Raynard Miner sued claiming the song as their composition which Jackson or Smith had appropriated from Miner's briefcase while at Chess Records; Davis and Miner alleged Jackson and Smith had slightly amended the lyrics and then presented "...Higher and Higher" to Davis as their own work. Davis and Miner were awarded eighty percent of the songwriting royalties with Jackson and Smith retaining twenty percent.
Released in August 1967, "...Higher and Higher" reached #1 R&B and in November peaked on the Pop charts at #6.
In the UK Wilson's "...Higher and Higher" would be a hit in 1969 (#11), 1975 (#25), and 1987 (#15).
The single's sales have been estimated as high as four million.
Columbia Records released a Higher and Higher album in November 1967: its chart peak was #163 (#28 R&B).
The track was ranked #246 on Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
"The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" was the cover story of a special issue of Rolling Stone, issue number 963, published December 9, 2004, a year after the magazine published its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time"....
and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame
Grammy Hall of Fame Award
The Grammy Hall of Fame Award is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old and that have "qualitative or historical significance"...
in 1999.
Rita Coolidge version
Rita CoolidgeRita Coolidge
Rita Coolidge is a multiple Grammy Award-winning American vocalist. During the 1970s and 1980s, she charted hits on Billboard's Pop, Country, Adult Contemporary and Jazz charts.-Career:...
remade the song as "(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher" for her 1977 album
Anytime...Anywhere. Coolidge's take on "...Higher and Higher" is more mid-tempo than the driving original and largely omits the chorus which is evidenced only in the background vocals sung under the repetition of the first verse with which Coolidge closes the song.
Coolidge and her sister Priscilla Jones had sung background on a version of the song for a prospective album by Jones' husband Booker T. Jones
Booker T. Jones
Booker T. Jones is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record producer and arranger, best known as the frontman of the band Booker T. and the MGs. He has also worked in the studios with many well-known artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, earning him a Grammy Award for lifetime...
; when that album was shelved Coolidge asked Booker T. Jones if she could cut the song using his arrangement.
Released as a single, "...Higher and Higher" became Coolidge's first major hit in nine years of recording: the track peaked at #2 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...
- Cash Box ranked it at #1 - with appeal to light rock stations (#5 Easy Listening
Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks
The Adult Contemporary chart is a weekly chart published in Billboard magazine that lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary and "lite-pop" radio stations in the United States...
).
Both "...Higher and Higher" and the Anytime...Anywhere track released as the follow-up single: "We're All Alone
We're All Alone
"We're All Alone" is a song written by Boz Scaggs, who introduced it on his 1976 album Silk Degrees; in 1977, "We're All Alone" was a top-ten hit for Rita Coolidge in the US and the UK.-Early versions:...
" earned Coolidge a gold record
RIAA certification
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...
as each was a million seller.
In the UK "...Higher and Higher" was released as the follow-up single after "We're All Alone" which had reached #6 but "(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher" only achieved a peak of #48 UK. In Australia "...Higher and Higher" reached #6 and spent 33 weeks on the chart.
Coolidge's final Top 40 hit "All Time High
All Time High
"All Time High" is a 1983 single release by Rita Coolidge introduced as the theme song for the James Bond film Octopussy.-Background:"All Time High" marked the return of regular James Bond theme composer John Barry after his absence from the For Your Eyes Only soundtrack...
" in 1983 would contain lyrical echoes of her breakout hit "...Higher and Higher".
Other versions
"(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" was also recorded by the DellsThe Dells
The Dells are an R&B and crossover musical group. Their successful recordings spanned more than four decades. Formed in 1952 after attending high school together, the Dells' repertoire has included doo-wop, jazz, soul, disco and contemporary rhythm and blues...
whose version AMG [] states is the original. The Dells version was first released on the group's There Is album on May 25, 1968.
A 1967 recording by Otis Redding
Otis Redding
Otis Ray Redding, Jr. was an American soul singer-songwriter, record producer, arranger and talent scout. He is considered one of the major figures in soul and R&B...
- as "(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher" - was released in 1969, 18 months after Redding's death, as the B-side of his "Free Me" single. This version reached #30 on the R&B charts, and #103 on the pop charts.
The Move
The Move
The Move, from Birmingham, England, were one of the leading British rock bands of the 1960s. They scored nine Top 20 UK singles in five years, but were among the most popular British bands not to find any success in the United States....
covered "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" in 1968.
In 1969 Gamble and Huff
Gamble and Huff
Kenneth Gamble and Leon A. Huff are an American songwriting and record production team who have written and produced over 170 gold and platinum records. They were pioneers of Philadelphia soul and the in-house creative team for the Philadelphia International record label...
produced a version of "Higher and Higher" by the Jaggerz
The jaggerz
The Jaggerz are a pop/rock band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, often considered a one-hit wonder because their only major success was the single "The Rapper", written by Donnie Iris...
for the Introducing the Jaggerz
Introducing the Jaggerz
Introducing the Jaggerz is the debut album by Pittsburgh rock/pop band The Jaggerz, released in 1969 .- Track listing :# "Gotta Find My Way Back Home"# " Baby I Love You"# "Give a Little Love"# "What Now My Love"...
album; the track - which was titled as "Higher and Higher" - was issued a single in the autumn of 1970 but did not chart (the Jaggerz were by then having more recent product issued by the Kama Sutra label).
In 1970 the song was recorded - under the title "Higher and Higher" - by Canada Goose a group from Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
who'd been discovered by Jerry Ragovoy
Jerry Ragovoy
Jordan "Jerry" Ragovoy was an American songwriter and record producer.His best-known composition "Time Is on My Side" was made famous by The Rolling Stones, although it had been recorded earlier by Kai Winding and Irma Thomas...
: this version with a shared lead vocal by Barbra Bullard and John Matthews became a hit in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
(#44) and reached #92 on the Record World
Record World
Record World magazine was one of the three main music industry trade publications in the United States, along with Billboard and Cash Box magazines. It was founded in 1946 under the name Music Vendor, but since 1964 changed it to Record World, under the ownership of Sid Parnes and Bob Austin, both...
100 Pop Chart.
"(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher" was also recorded by Bobby Darin
Bobby Darin
Bobby Darin , born Walden Robert Cassotto, was an American singer, actor and musician.Darin performed in a range of music genres, including pop, rock, jazz, folk and country...
and Gene Pitney
Gene Pitney
Eugene Francis Alan Pitney, known as Gene Pitney , was an American singer-songwriter, musician and sound engineer. Through the mid-1960s, he enjoyed success as a recording artist on both sides of the Atlantic and was among the group of early 1960s American acts who continued to enjoy hits after the...
; Pitney's version entitled "Higher and Higher" was a non-charting single in 1971.
The Greg Kihn Band
The Greg Kihn Band
The Greg Kihn Band is an American band that was started by frontman Greg Kihn and bassist Steve Wright. Their most successful singles include "The Breakup Song " and "Jeopardy" .-History:...
remade the song for their 1982 album Kihntinued; entitled "Higher and Higher", the track featured the group's drummer Larry Lynch
Larry Lynch
Larry Lynch was the drummer for The Greg Kihn Band. They had a #2 US hit with 'Jeopardy' in 1983 and a #15 hit with 'The Breakup Song '.-References:...
on lead vocals.
The Contours
The Contours
The Contours were one of the early African-American soul singing groups signed to Motown Records.The group is best known for its Billboard Top 10 hit, "Do You Love Me," a million-selling song that peaked twice in the Top 20....
performed "Higher and Higher" (under that title) in the Dirty Dancing
Dirty Dancing
Dirty Dancing is a 1987 American romantic film. Written by Eleanor Bergstein and directed by Emile Ardolino, the film features Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey in the lead roles, as well as Cynthia Rhodes and Jerry Orbach...
: Live in Concert Tour in 1988; their rendition was featured on the cast album.
Jimmy Cliff
Jimmy Cliff
Jimmy Cliff, OM is a Jamaican musician, singer and actor. He is the only currently living musician to hold the Order of Merit, the highest honour that can be granted by the Jamaican government for achievement in the arts and sciences...
cut a reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
version of "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" in 1994 and charted in Germany (#52) and New Zealand (#31).
Sam Moore
Sam Moore
Samuel David Moore is an American Southern Soul and Rhythm & Blues singer who was the tenor vocalist for the soul vocal duo Sam & Dave from 1961 through 1981...
- who as half of Sam & Dave
Sam & Dave
Sam & Dave were an American soul and rhythm and blues duo who performed together from 1961 through 1981. The tenor voice was Samuel David Moore , and the baritone/tenor voice was Dave Prater .Sam & Dave are members of...
succeeded the Jackie Wilson original at #1 R&B with "Soul Man
Soul Man (song)
"Soul Man" is a 1967 song written by Isaac Hayes and David Porter, first successful as a #2 hit single by Atlantic Records soul duo Sam & Dave.-Song history and background:...
" - sang "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" in a concert tour by the Funk Brothers
The Funk Brothers
The Funk Brothers was the nickname of Detroit, Michigan, session musicians who performed the backing to most Motown Records recordings from 1959 until the company moved to Los Angeles in 1972...
in 2004.
In 2008 the song became a #9 Adult Contemporary hit for Michael McDonald
Michael McDonald (singer)
Michael McDonald is a five-time Grammy Award winning American singer and songwriter. McDonald is known for a soulful baritone singing style and a multi-octave range. He began his career singing back-up vocals with Steely Dan...
who'd remade it for his Soul Speak album of classic soul songs: it was McDonald's 16 year old daughter Scarlett who suggested he sing "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher".In 1999, McDonald had been brought in as a sideman
Sideman
A sideman is a professional musician who is hired to perform or record with a group of which he or she is not a regular member. They often tour with solo acts as well as bands and jazz ensembles. Sidemen are generally required to be adaptable to many different styles of music, and so able to fit...
to sing lead on Chicago's
Chicago (band)
Chicago is an American rock band formed in 1967 in Chicago, Illinois. The self-described "rock and roll band with horns" began as a politically charged, sometimes experimental, rock band and later moved to a predominantly softer sound, becoming famous for producing a number of hit ballads. They had...
Chicago XXVI: Live in Concert
Chicago XXVI: Live in Concert
Chicago XXVI: Live in Concert is an album by American rock band Chicago and was released in 1999. Their second live album to be released in the US, it was Chicago's first of the sort since 1971's Chicago at Carnegie Hall and 1972's "Chicago Live In Japan", though the band had released commercial...
album, which closed with this studio track.
2008 also saw the song - as "Higher and Higher" - chart in Sweden
Sverigetopplistan
Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association ....
due to Kevin Borg
Kevin Borg (singer)
Kevin James Borg is a Maltese pop singer who lives and works in Sweden. Borg rose to musical fame as the winner of the fifth series of the Swedish singing competition Idol in 2008...
the eventual winner of Idol
Idol (Sweden)
Idol is a Swedish reality-competition talent show airing on TV4. It debuted in August 2004, and it has since become one of the most popular shows on Swedish television...
Season 8 performing it in the competition: downloads of Borg's version secured it a #29 ranking.
Rod Stewart
Rod Stewart
Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE is a British singer-songwriter and musician, born and raised in North London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry....
included a version of "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" on his 2009 Soulbook
Soulbook
Soulbook is the 25th studio album by Rod Stewart. Like his previous five albums, Soulbook continues the tradition of Stewart singing old material; for this album he sings classic material from Motown and the soul genre...
album which comprised classic soul songs.
Overall "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" has proven more popular with female vocalists: besides Rita Coolidge, "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" has been recorded by Erma Franklin
Erma Franklin
Erma Franklin was an American gospel and R&B singer. She was the oldest daughter of Barbara and the Reverend C. L. Franklin and the elder sister of Aretha Franklin...
, Barbara Mandrell
Barbara Mandrell
Barbara Ann Mandrell is an American country music singer best known for a 1970s–1980s series of Top 10 hits and TV shows that helped her become one of country's most successful female vocalists of the 1970s and 1980s...
, Esther Phillips
Esther Phillips
Esther Phillips was an American singer. Phillips was known for her R&B vocals, but she was a versatile singer, also performing pop, country, jazz, blues and soul music.-Early life:...
, Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton
Dolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...
, Maria Mendiola
Baccara
Baccara was a female vocal duo formed in 1977 by Spanish artists Mayte Mateos and María Mendiola . The pair rapidly achieved international success with their debut single "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie", which reached number one across much of Europe...
(as "Higher and Higher"), Martha Reeves
Martha Reeves
Martha Rose Reeves is an American R&B and Pop singer and former politician, and was the lead singer of the Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas. During her tenure with The Vandellas, they scored over a dozen hit singles, including "Jimmy Mack", "Dancing in the Street" and "Nowhere to Run"...
and Dana Valery.
Bette Midler
Bette Midler
Bette Midler is an American singer, actress, and comedian, also known by her informal stage name, The Divine Miss M. She became famous as a cabaret and concert headliner, and went on to star in successful and acclaimed films such as The Rose, Ruthless People, Beaches, and For The Boys...
sang a radically re-invented version on her 1973 Bette Midler
Bette Midler (album)
Bette Midler is the eponymous second studio album by American female vocalist Bette Midler, released in 1973 on the Atlantic Records label...
album: Midler utilized "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" as the finale for each performance of her 1975 Broadway show Clams on the Half Shell Revue, singing the song while dancing atop a giant spinning record player.
In 1976 Séverine
Severine
Severine or Séverine can refer to:* the nom de plume of the French journalist Caroline Rémy de Guebhard* a pseudonym of the Hungarian model Eve Angel...
had a single release of the German rendering "Heißer Als Feuer".
Kate Ceberano
Kate Ceberano
Kate Ceberano is an Australian singer. She achieved success in the soul, jazz and pop genres as well as in her brief forays into musicals with Jesus Christ Superstar and film...
recorded the song - as "Higher and Higher" - in 2003 for her album 19 Days in New York, a January 2004 release which marked the return to the studio of Billy Davis, a veteran of the classic Chicago R&B sound who coproduced with Leonard Caston Jr.http://www.ralphcarr.com/pdfs/kateCeberano.pdf (19 Days in New York was the final production of Davis who died 2 September 2004). Ceberano's "Higher and Higher" was released as a promo single to Australian radio.
A dance version—listed as both "Your Love is Lifting Me Higher" and "Your Love is Lifting Me (Higher and Higher)"—by Gioia
Gioia Bruno
Gioia Bruno is an Italian-born American popular music singer, most noted as a member of the vocal group Exposé.-Early life and career:...
was released in 2007.
A rendition of ("Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" by Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield
Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'BrienSources use both Isabel and Isobel as the spelling of her second name. OBE , known professionally as Dusty Springfield and dubbed The White Queen of Soul, was a British pop singer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s...
which she sang on a BBC radio broadcast on 5 January 1970 was issued on the 2007 Mercury Records compilation Dusty Springfield Complete BBC Sessions.
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
has covered the song in concert more than a dozen times between 1977's Chicken Scratch Tour
Born to Run tours
Born to Run was Bruce Springsteen's last, best hope for fortune and fame. As such it became a torturous recording process, and to make ends meet Springsteen and the E Street Band toured constantly during the first set of recording sessions for it, performing his new songs as he developed them...
and 2009's Working On A Dream Tour
Working on a Dream Tour
The Working on a Dream Tour was a concert tour by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, which began in April 2009 and ended in November 2009...
, using it almost exclusively to close sets.
A radically different Ambient House version was recorded by the Newcastle based Electro pop band Moira Stewart. It features on their second album 'Whatever We Do Is Love'.
In popular culture
- To change their corporate image of their clothes being only for formal wear, the Arrow Shirt company commissioned an award winning television commercial campaign which uses this song. In this commercial, a male choir, all dressed in formal white shirt and tie, sings the song in tight harmony, but quickly changes a joyous gospel musicGospel musicGospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
ensemble singing the song freeform while wearing the company's colorful line of casual wear.
- At the victory rally for U.S. President Barack ObamaBarack ObamaBarack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
in Grant ParkGrant Park (Chicago)Grant Park, with between the downtown Chicago Loop and Lake Michigan, offers many different attractions in its large open space. The park is generally flat. It is also crossed by large boulevards and even a bed of sunken railroad tracks...
in ChicagoChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" was the third and final of three songs played to warm up the audience for the speeches. The song was also used frequently during Obama's 2008 Presidential campaign stops.
- "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" was featured in the 1989 motion picture Ghostbusters IIGhostbusters IIGhostbusters II is a 1989 science fiction comedy film produced and directed by Ivan Reitman. It is the sequel to the 1984 film Ghostbusters and follows the further adventures of a group of parapsychologists and their organization which combats paranormal activities...
. It was presented in its original form and in a new version performed by Howard HuntsberryHoward HuntsberryHoward Stafford Huntsberry is an American R&B singer and actor from Pacoima, California. He was the lead singer of the group Klique from 1981 to 1985, and then had a solo career that produced two minor hits on the Billboard R&B chart...
. In the movie, the song is used to make the Statue of LibertyStatue of LibertyThe Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886...
move, under the influence of psychokineticPsychokinesisThe term psychokinesis , also referred to as telekinesis with respect to strictly describing movement of matter, sometimes abbreviated PK and TK respectively, is a term...
slime.
- The song is heard in the final musical sequence of the 2002 dark comedy film Death to SmoochyDeath to SmoochyDeath to Smoochy is a 2002 American dark comedy film directed by and starring Danny DeVito and starring Robin Williams, Edward Norton, Catherine Keener, and Jon Stewart.-Plot:...
.
- The song is also played in the final scene of the 2000 film Disney's The Kid.
- The song was used in a Verizon FiosVerizon FiOSVerizon FiOS is a bundled Internet access, telephone, and television service which operates over a fiber-optic communications network. It is offered in some areas of the United States by Verizon Communications. Verizon was one of the first major U.S...
commercial.
- The song was used during the credits in the comedy film Date NightDate NightDate Night is a 2010 action comedy film directed by Shawn Levy and starring Steve Carell and Tina Fey. It was released in the United States on April 9, 2010...
.
- Comedy/parody band Big DaddyBig Daddy (band)Big Daddy was an American satire/parody band, that was among the first groups to create mashups - in this case, of oldies and modern pop songs.-History:...
used the song as the basis for an arrangement of the song "Hold OnHold On (Wilson Phillips song)"Hold On" is the title of a song recorded by American vocal group Wilson Phillips. It was released in February 1990 as the lead single from their album, Wilson Phillips. The song won the Billboard Music Award for Hot 100 Single of the Year for 1990...
" (by Wilson PhillipsWilson Phillips-Studio albums:-Compilation albums:-Singles:-Other charted songs:-Awards and nominations:...
).