Love Is Alive (Gary Wright song)

"Love Is Alive" is a song by Gary Wright taken from the 1975 album The Dream Weaver. It features Wright on vocals and keyboards with Andy Newmark on drums. The album's title cut and "Love is Alive" both peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.[1] "Love is Alive" spent 27 weeks on the chart, seven weeks longer than "Dream Weaver". Billboard ranked "Love is Alive" as the No. 9 song of 1976.

"Love Is Alive"
Single by Gary Wright
from the album The Dream Weaver
B-side	"Much Higher"
Released	April 1976
Genre	Progressive rock
Length	3:54 (album) 3:24 (single)
Label	Warner Bros.
Songwriter(s)	Gary Wright
Producer(s)	Gary Wright
Gary Wright singles chronology
"Dream Weaver" (1975) "Love Is Alive" (1976) "Made to Love You" (1976)

In the US, "Love Is Alive" peaked at #2 on the Hot 100.[1] "Kiss and Say Goodbye" by The Manhattans and "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" by Elton John and Kiki Dee kept it from the #1 spot.[2] In Canada, the song reached No. 6.[3]

Chart performance

Weekly charts Chart (1976) Peak position Australia (Kent Music Report)[4] 71 Canada RPM Top Singles[3] 6 U.S. Billboard Hot 100[1] 2 U.S. Billboard R&B 98 U.S. Cash Box Top 100 3

Year-end charts Chart (1976) Rank Canada[5] 75 U.S. Billboard Hot 100[6] 9

Covers

• Olivia Newton-John covered the track on her first live album, Love Performance in 1976. It was also included as a bonus track on the 2010 Japanese re-issue of her album Totally Hot.
• In 1991, Joe Cocker covered "Love Is Alive" on his Night Calls LP. Released as a single, it reached #72 in Canada and #7 U.S. Mainstream Rock in the summer of 1992.
• In 1997, dance act 3rd Party recorded the song for their debut album Alive which charted on the Billboard Hot 100. This version peaked at #19 on the Billboard, US Hot Dance Music chart.[7]
• Céline Dion recorded the song for her greatest hits album All the Way... A Decade of Song released in 1999 but it failed to make the final cut for the album.
• Anastacia recorded the song for her debut album Not That Kind released in 2000.
• Joan Osborne recorded the song for her album Righteous Love released in 2000. Her version was also used in the soundtrack for the film One Night at McCool's in 2001.
• Also in 2001, Vonda Shepard and Anastacia recorded a duet of the track for For Once in My Life, one of the soundtracks to Ally McBeal.
• Woodstock icon Richie Havens included the song on his 2002 album Wishing Well.
• Canadian band Big Sugar included the song on their 2020 album Eternity Now. It was also released as a single.

References

1. [Joel Whitburn's Bubbling Under the Billboard Hot 100 1959-2004]
2. Hot 100: Week of July 31, 1976 billboard.com
3. "Image : RPM Weekly - Library and Archives Canada". Bac-lac.gc.ca. Retrieved 2016-10-11.
4. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 343. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
5. "Top Singles – Volume 26, No. 14 & 15, January 08 1977". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Archived from the original on March 19, 2016. Retrieved June 13, 2016.
6. "Billboard Top 100 - 1976". Retrieved 2016-10-05.
7. Whitburn, Joel (2004). Hot Dance/Disco: 1974-2003. Record Research. p. 257.

External links

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
• Gary Wright - Love Is Alive on YouTube
• Joe Cocker - Love Is Alive on YouTube