"Don't Ever Wanna Lose Ya" is the debut single by American rock band

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

, released from their self-titled debut album (1979). Produced by

Paul Stanley Paul Stanley (born Stanley Bert Eisen; January 20, 1952) is an American musician who is the co-founder, frontman, rhythm guitarist and co-lead vocalist of the hard rock band Kiss. He is the writer or co-writer of many of the band's most popular ...

and Mike Stone, it is their most successful song, reaching at number 40 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100.

Background

In an interview with ''VWMusic'', John Fannon recounted the process of composing and recording the song:

Living in an apartment in those days, I wrote mostly on acoustic guitar. I am not sure I would have come up with the chords to the main intro hook on electric guitar because of the voicings I was playing. I did quickly figure out that it would be pretty cool with my
Les Paul Lester William Polsfuss (June 9, 1915 – August 12, 2009), known as Les Paul, was an American jazz, country, and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier, and inventor. He was one of the pioneers of the solid-body electric guitar, and his prototype ...
and Marshall. The lyrics came because it was raining pretty hard that night I was writing and thinking about a loved one getting home safely. When we recorded the demo we knew we had something special and then when we recorded it for our album and Mike Stone captured the power and energy of the band, the excitement was definitely building.

The original demo of the song did not have a guitar solo because Fannon was concerned about the length, but Paul Stanley wanted it have one since it was a rock song. Upon Fannon's request, Stanley sung the background vocals in the second and third verses of the song. The song received heavy radio exposure on

album-oriented rock Album-oriented rock (AOR, originally called album-oriented radio) is an FM radio format created in the United States in the 1970s that focuses on the full repertoire of rock albums and is currently associated with classic rock. Album-oriente ...

(AOR) stations in the United States and was also added to radio stations in Canada, Japan and Europe.

Composition

The instrumental of the song contains keyboards and guitar riffs. The lyrics focus on the singer's fear of losing his loved one.

Critical reception

''Classic Rock History'' ranked "Don't Ever Wanna Lose Ya" as the best song by New England.

Charts

References

{{reflist 1979 debut singles 1979 songs New England (band) songs Infinity Records singles Song recordings produced by Paul Stanley Song recordings produced by Mike Stone (record producer)