Our final angelic—actually, heavenly—song of the day is “Heaven on the 7th Floor” by Paul Nicholas. It’s about a guy who gets stuck in an elevator in-between floors with a beautiful girl and, well, he’s in heaven.
“Heaven on the 7th Floor” was released in August of 1977 and rose to #6 on the Billboard Hot 100. It’s a nice little slice of lightweight disco pop, it’s got a good beat and a catchy melody. It was like a dozen similar songs of that era, Top 40 fluff from one-hit wonders that didn’t last much longer than the three minutes or so it took to listen to it.
The song was written by Dominic Bugatti and Frank Musker, a couple of Brits who also worked with Sheena Easton, the Babys, Lisa Stansfield, Brian May, and other British artists. Singer Paul Nicholas was a Brit who started out as a singer, moved into musical theater, and finished out his career as an actor. Onstage, he played Claude in Hair, Danny in Grease, and that Christ guy in Jesus Christ Superstar, as well as Cousin Kevin in the film version of Tommy and Dougie Shears in the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band movie. He continued performing on the British stage and on UK television shows; he also founded the Paul Nicholas School of Acting & Performing Arts. At age 78, he’s still performing today.
Songs like “Heaven on the 7th Floor” were uniquely 1970s and a lot of fun, certainly nothing to be taken too seriously. To emphasize the fun of “Heaven on the 7th Floor,” about four years ago a group called Plaid Pants put together a video for the song. It’s a fun little video and captures the spirit of the times. I think it kind of makes the song even more fun.
