Today’s classic song of the day is “Sometimes When We Touch” by Dan Hill. This soft rock ballad, released in November of 1977, peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, #4 on the Cash Box Top 100, and #10 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart. It was a number-one hit in Canada and South Africa.
“Sometimes When We Touch” was written by Mr. Hill and legendary Brill Building songwriter Barry Mann. Apparently Mr. Hill wrote the first version of this song in 1973, but while the lyrics were good, the music just wasn’t catchy enough. His music publisher then hooked him up with Mr. Mann, who the next day had a new melody written and suggestions on how to restructure the entire song (which necessitated Hill writing some additional lyrics). It’s a definite Barry Mann melody, which almost always guarantees a hit.
(Barry Mann typically wrote with his wife, Cynthia Weil. Their hits together included “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” for the Righteous Brothers; “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” for the Animals; “Uptown” for the Crystals; “On Broadway,” a hit for both the Drifters and George Benson; “Only in America” for Jay and the Americans; “Walking in the Rain,” for both the Ronettes and Jay and the Americans; “It’s Getting Better,” “Make Your Own Kind of Music,” and “New World Coming” for Mama Cass Elliott; and “Somewhere Out There” for Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram.)
In any case, Dan Hill took the newly reconstructed song into the studio. accompanied by a bunch of studio cats, including the legendary Larrie Londin on drums. The result was a winner.
I particularly like the lyrics in the chorus:
And sometimes when we touch
The honesty’s too much
And I have to close my eyes and hide
I wanna hold you ’til I die
‘Til we both break down and cry
I wanna hold you
‘Til the fear in me subsides
It’s a raw kind of emotion you seldom see in songs today.
Mr. Hill hails from Canada, which explains why the song did better there than here in the States. While he’s had a bunch of hits in his native land, “Sometimes When We Touch” was his only solo single to break into the U.S. Top Forty. He did, however, have a hit duet with Vonda Shepard in 1987; “Can’t We Try” hit #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the Adult Contemporary charts. He’s still performing today, aged 70.
And here’s today’s extra special bonus track of the day, the song’s co-writer, Barry Mann, performing his version of “Sometimes When We Touch” on his 2000 solo album, Soul & Inspiration. It’s just a damned good song, isn’t it?
