Fact #156372
When:
Short story:
Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin reach No1 in the Billboard Top 40 Singles chart in the USA with Separate Lives, the theme from the film White Nights.
Full article:
Stephen Bishop (composer) : The movie kept getting turned down by the studios and I got tired of waiting. I ended up giving the song to Phil Collins and, at some point, apparently, either (movie producer) Taylor (Hackford) or Atlantic found out Phil was going to cut it, and they did it directly with him. I’m sure a lot of people now think Phil wrote the song.
Phil Collins : Stephen wrote it because he, like I do, tends to write good love songs when someone has just walked out.
Stephen Bishop : To me, it’s a song about anger … I really loved her (actress/girlfriend Karen Allen) and missed her when we split.I was at the Parker Meridien Hotel in New York and she called me and said, ‘How you doing?’ I said to her, ‘You have no right to ask me how I feel.’ That became the anger line in the song.
It was emotional, very emotional writing. I’ve got the original draft,and I wrote it so deliberately that my pen just engraved itself into the paper.
The record company released it three months after the movie. Here everyone was running around yelling ‘toga, toga, toga’ and it was right there on the record,but the record wasn’t out.
Marilyn Martin : People think it’s Crystal Gayle singing. Doug (Morris, Atlantic Records president) thought my voice would blend well with Phil’s. Phil had the final say on who would sing with him. They sent him a tape of my work and he said OK.
I was very intimidated at first. The thought of trying to be on the same level with somebody like Phil was incredibly intimidating. But he and Arif (Mardin, producer) were so kind. They let me know … if they didn’t think I could do the job, I wouldn’t be there in the first place.
I’m not ungrateful for what it’s done for me. I have nothing against the song. The only problem is that it’s a ballad. I don’t want to be classified as a singer who sings these quiet ballads. I wouldn’t sing a song I didn’t like. Separate Lives is great for what it is. It’s just that I prefer singing another kind of song.
(Source : not known)
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Phil Collins : Stephen wrote it because he, like I do, tends to write good love songs when someone has just walked out.
Stephen Bishop : To me, it’s a song about anger … I really loved her (actress/girlfriend Karen Allen) and missed her when we split.I was at the Parker Meridien Hotel in New York and she called me and said, ‘How you doing?’ I said to her, ‘You have no right to ask me how I feel.’ That became the anger line in the song.
It was emotional, very emotional writing. I’ve got the original draft,and I wrote it so deliberately that my pen just engraved itself into the paper.
The record company released it three months after the movie. Here everyone was running around yelling ‘toga, toga, toga’ and it was right there on the record,but the record wasn’t out.
Marilyn Martin : People think it’s Crystal Gayle singing. Doug (Morris, Atlantic Records president) thought my voice would blend well with Phil’s. Phil had the final say on who would sing with him. They sent him a tape of my work and he said OK.
I was very intimidated at first. The thought of trying to be on the same level with somebody like Phil was incredibly intimidating. But he and Arif (Mardin, producer) were so kind. They let me know … if they didn’t think I could do the job, I wouldn’t be there in the first place.
I’m not ungrateful for what it’s done for me. I have nothing against the song. The only problem is that it’s a ballad. I don’t want to be classified as a singer who sings these quiet ballads. I wouldn’t sing a song I didn’t like. Separate Lives is great for what it is. It’s just that I prefer singing another kind of song.
(Source : not known)