Solved - Looking forever for song, 70s/80's, female singer, Give Me the Light?

Thread: Solved - Looking forever for song, 70s/80's, female singer, Give Me the Light?

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  1. bingo123 said:

    Default Solved - Looking forever for song, 70s/80's, female singer, Give Me the Light?

    Heard this song on the radio just a few times, sometime in the 70s or perhaps 80s in Kansas City Missouri. Pop radio station, I'm pretty sure it was AM, not FM. The chorus went something like, "Give me the light", and this repeated another time or two in the chorus. Her voice was similar to Melissa Manchester - soft in some areas but really strong and full at the chorus. Those four words were sung slowly and in fact about the same speed as Melissa Manchester's "Don't Cry Out Loud". Maybe the words were actually "Give me the night." Her name escapes me, but it was long and interesting, perhaps with three names (like "Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio") and seems like her name was Italian as well, perhaps like Suzanne, with the last name probably ending with an A or I. In fact after the playing the song the DJ said "That is by the lady whose name I love to pronounce!" I remember that quote more than the song, unfortunately. I am probably off a bit on the lyrics because google turns up nothing for it, as far as a female singer goes. Maybe it was "Trust in the light" or "Give us the night". The notes, if in the key of C, would be like C, then down three notes to G, back up a step to A, then with the 4th word "light" she holds the A for a half-count then carries it back down to G again, holding the note out for a full measure of 4 counts. Again, like Manchester's "Don't Cry Out Loud". Hope all that's not TMI....Anyone?
     
  2. atmaestro's Avatar

    atmaestro said:

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    George Benson recorded "Give Me the Night" in 1980 with Patty Austin providing additional vocals but the the phase "Give me the night" is sung quickly. I did not find any female covers of Benson's song. So I guess we can eliminate this one.

    Another wild guess is "Because The Night" by The Patti Smith Group (1978) which was covered by Natalie Merchant in a live recording.
    Them that can, do; them that can't... memorize Artist and Title
     
  3. bingo123 said:

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    Quote Originally Posted by atmaster View Post
    George Benson recorded "Give Me the Night" in 1980 with Patty Austin providing additional vocals but the the phase "Give me the night" is sung quickly. I did not find any female covers of Benson's song. So I guess we can eliminate this one.

    Another wild guess is "Because The Night" by The Patti Smith Group (1978) which was covered by Natalie Merchant in a live recording.

    Thanks for those two possibilities. I like both those songs, and yes the 10000 Maniacs / Natalie M's version of "Because The Night" was great. But nope, that's not the elusive song I am looking for...but at least Natalie Merchant does fit the description of a beautiful and interesting name!
     
  4. atmaestro's Avatar

    atmaestro said:

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    Continuing with the theme of 1970/80's, female, rock/pop artists with three names or interesting/fun to pronounce names:

    Rickie Lee Jones
    k.d. lang
    Olivia Newton John
    Sinead O'Conner
    Dolores O'Riordon
    Alanis Morissette
    Sara McLachlan
    Joan Armatrading
    Fiona Apple


    Do these names ring any bells?
    (pleeeeease tell me Yoko Ono is a no-go)
    Them that can, do; them that can't... memorize Artist and Title
     
  5. bingo123 said:

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    Thanks for the names - familiar, but unfortunately none are the girl vocalist I am looking for. I am starting to wonder if she wasn't a local singer that got some radio airplay. The song sounded big and professional with quite a bit of orchestration so I didn't think just local, but who knows.

    Had a thought to try maybe calling some local radio deejays who may know the contact info for some other / older deejays that used to spin records (okay maybe they were using tapes at that point) in the KC area 25 or 35 years ago, and if any of those golden oldie deejays recall a song or singer that I am describing.

    There should be some giant all-inclusive database that has all songs ever published / recorded / whatever, by artist, words, title, subject, main notes, whatever.

    Yeah, that would be a big database.

    Thank you again for your suggestions. I will keep looking and racking my brain for other clues.
     
  6. bingo123 said:

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    Okay an update. Minutes after my above posting about a giant database, I got to thinking....who would have a giant database of published / copyrighted material? Why the Library of Congress of course, and/or the US Copyright office. With minutes I went to US Copyright Office website, went to Keyword search, typed "Give me the light" with quotes, it brought back 15 or 20 possibilities. Guess what! One was from a song, 1980, by a Suzanne Fellini! COOL! Gives titles, other songs, 33 1/3 rpm format, published by...[In this case Casablanca Records]. Amazing! Still don't have a link or a recording, but after spending so many hours on Google which turned up NOTHING on it with "Give me the light" (or maybe I would have had to drill down 800 pages), this was a refreshing "Here's what you're looking for" result!
    So (sorry for a long post) if someone out there is striking out, try the US Copyright Office website.

    And thanks again Atmaster. Your responses didn't hit the nail but made me think more on it and gave me a light-bulb moment so I could find it.

    I guess now I will search for the recording. (Though you all probably know how that goes - memory of elusive hard-to-find one-hit wonders sometimes turns out to not quite sound as amazing as you thought is was decades ago - but hey that's no biggie - the search is fun in any case. And almost like a quest, it's a tiny bit sad that it's over - but I'm happy to put this one to rest!)

    bingo123
     
  7. atmaestro's Avatar

    atmaestro said:

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    Glad I was semi-helpful. More times than not, I have found that when the answer is not immediately available, just keeping the discussion running helps to find the answer.
    Them that can, do; them that can't... memorize Artist and Title
     
  8. bingo123 said:

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    Quote Originally Posted by atmaster View Post
    Glad I was semi-helpful. More times than not, I have found that when the answer is not immediately available, just keeping the discussion running helps to find the answer.
    Thanks Atmaster. I was able to listen to a couple of online MP3 versions of it - and it sound a lot like I remembered it...the notes, the quasi-Melissa Manchester sound, the chord progression. Very nice to come to the end of my "quest". Oh, and tons of the records for sale on ebay, so if I just gotta have it, no problem. I will say that, not surprisingly, being from the 80s, it's a little dated in the engineering / sound, but hey that's golden oldies for ya!
     
  9. ivory65 said:

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    Quote Originally Posted by bingo123 View Post
    Thanks Atmaster. I was able to listen to a couple of online MP3 versions of it - and it sound a lot like I remembered it...the notes, the quasi-Melissa Manchester sound, the chord progression. Very nice to come to the end of my "quest". Oh, and tons of the records for sale on ebay, so if I just gotta have it, no problem. I will say that, not surprisingly, being from the 80s, it's a little dated in the engineering / sound, but hey that's golden oldies for ya!
    Hi,
    i write from Germany, as i understand you are looking for a link to a soundsample of Suzanne Fellini - Give me the Light
    Well, i found it here. Maybe it is the Song you are looking for. Greetz.

    http://mp3.li/index.php?q=Suzanne%20...t#.U8tXOrE2eb0
     
  10. bingo123 said:

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    Quote Originally Posted by ivory65 View Post
    Hi,
    i write from Germany, as i understand you are looking for a link to a soundsample of Suzanne Fellini - Give me the Light
    Well, i found it here. Maybe it is the Song you are looking for. Greetz.

    http://mp3.li/index.php?q=Suzanne%20...t#.U8tXOrE2eb0
    Thank you. I have been able to listen to several sites that had the song on it. Thanks again for your help - and congrats to your and your country for winning the World Cup this year! Maybe USA can get to the finals one of these years....
     
  11. bingo123 said:

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    Quote Originally Posted by atmaster View Post
    Glad I was semi-helpful. More times than not, I have found that when the answer is not immediately available, just keeping the discussion running helps to find the answer.
    Hi atmaster - or anyone - I don't use forums much but glad I found the song thru this one. My question now is how to re-title this thread to putting the word "Solved - " in front of it? Is it something I am supposed to do and if so please let me know how. Thanks.
     
  12. bingo123 said:

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    And one more thing - I am not sure how to use the "thank you" button or system, so apologies to you ivory65 and atmaster, if I omitted doing that step.