“I Love You Always Forever” by Donna Lewis, Tuesday, July 11, 2023 (partial repost)

In 1996, Welsh singer-songwriter Donna Lewis released her debut single "I Love You Always Forever." The understated, delicate pop song became an international hit. In the United State, it hit number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, unable to take the top spot because of multiple versions of that counted as Los Del Rio's version of "Macarena," the dance track that plagued '96. Lewis never matched the success of her debut single.

SECRET MOMENTS SHUT IN THE HEAT OF THE AFTERNOON. Donna Lewis wrote the song "I Love You Always Forever" basing it on a 1953 novel, Love for Lydia by Herbert Ernest Bates. The lines from the chorus "I love you always forever, near and far closer together" appear in the novel, and Lewis' original title for the song was "Lydia." While Lewis had a few other minor hits, such as "At the Beginning," a duet with Richard Marx on the 1997 song for the Anastasia original soundtrack, "I Love You Always Forever" is the singer's signature song. The lush imagery in "I Love You Forever and Always" transports the listener to "cloud of heavenly scent," to a "windless summer night" to "the heat of the afternoon" or simply to look into "the most unbelievable eyes [you've] ever seen." The success of the sentimental ballad shows that music despite whatever musical trends do, soft rock ballads with sappy lyrics can always pierce through the hipster trends. And because of musical trends, "I Love You Always Forever" has been covered several times in recent years. Today, I'll talk about two covers from artists I have written about several times: Mike Mains and the Branches and Betty Who.

YOU'VE GOT THE MOST UNBELIEVABLE BLUE EYES I'VE EVER SEEN. Mike Mains & the Branches released their cover last year and is their most recent single. After an emotionally taxing record, When We Were in Love in 2019, "I Love You Always Forever" is a nice check in with the couple whose marriage was tested by events mentioned in the record. Betty Who's version was released as a single between her debut record, Take Me When You Go and her sophomore record, The Valley. The single was so successful, though, that Who decided to promote the song as the lead single from The Valley and include it as the fourteenth track of the record. Who's version topped Australia's airplay chart, reached the Top 4o in New Zealand and topped Billboard's US Dance Club Songs. Who told Spin about why she chose to record the song. She said, "It’s one of those songs that you don’t know, and when you hear it you go, ‘Ah I know this song.’" She went on to say in Vogue that she remembers the song being "everywhere" when she was 5 years old in '96. Mike Mains' version adds masculinity to the track, but Who's version adds sensuality absent on the other two versions. The harmonized a cappella start with soft, yet sharp vocals piercing the song combined with the music video in which Who is part of a throuple adds a bit of naughty with the nostalgia. Not there's anything wrong with that. However you prefer to spend your always and forever, with Lewis, Mains, or Who, you're bound to have this song stuck in your head and only pleasant thoughts of summer afternoons flooding your thoughts.

Donna Lewis version: