"Here Am I" is a song by Welsh singer

Bonnie Tyler Gaynor Sullivan (née Hopkins; born 8 June 1951), known professionally as Bonnie Tyler, is a Welsh singer who is known for her distinctive husky voice. Tyler came to prominence with the release of her 1977 album '' The World Starts Tonight'' a ...

, released as a single from her 1978 album ''

Natural Force ''Natural Force'' is the second studio album by Welsh people, Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler, released in May 1978 by RCA Records. In the United States, the album was titled ''It's a Heartache''. As with her The World Starts Tonight, debut, Ronnie S ...

'' by

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...

. It was written by Tyler's at-the-time managers

Ronnie Scott Ronnie may refer to: *Ronnie (name), a unisex pet name and given name * "Ronnie" (Four Seasons song), a song by Bob Gaudio and Bob Crewe *"Ronnie," a song from the Metallica album '' Load'' *Ronnie Brunswijkstadion, an association football stadium ...

and Steve Wolfe. The B-side was "Don't Stop the Music", a song that was never released on any Tyler studio album. "Here Am I" was not a chart success in the UK, but peaked at number 18 in the singles charts in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, and was in the best-sellers lists for two months. After two weeks in the Norwegian top ten, the single rose to number 4 in the third week. In the same week, her previous single "It's a Heartache" was one spot above "Here Am I" in the Norwegian singles chart.

Background and release

Tyler had begun working on her second studio album in 1977 at "The Factory" in

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

with the aim of a release the following year. She had been given a new live backing band who went by the name of "The Bonnie Tyler Band"; Kevin Dunne on bass, Neil Adams on drums, Steve Laurie on keyboards, and Gary Hayman on guitars. Tyler flew with her new group to the United States in early April 1978 to promote "It's a Heartache", which had just been released there. At the same time, "Here Am I" was released in Europe.

Critical reception

Tim Lott from Record Mirror stated that "

he song is He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

blessed with her smokey vocals," but said that the song lacked the "irresistible hook of "It's a Heartache"."Hendriks, Phil (2009). "Natural Force". In ''Natural Force'' (pp. 3–9)

D booklet D, or d, is the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''dee'' (pronounced ), plural ''dees''. History The ...

London: Cherry Red Records.

Chart performance

References

{{authority control 1978 singles Bonnie Tyler songs Songs written by Ronnie Scott (songwriter) Songs written by Steve Wolfe 1978 songs