"65 Love Affair" is a song performed by Paul Davis on his album '' Cool Night''.

Background

This song marked Davis's second single release upon his departure from

Bang Records Bang Records was created by Bert Berns in 1965 together with his partners from Atlantic Records: Ahmet Ertegun, Nesuhi Ertegun and Jerry Wexler. The first letters of their names (Bert, Ahmet, Nesuhi, Gerald) formed the label's name. Forming the ...

to Arista, the first being " Cool Night". The style of "65 Love Affair" was reminiscent of such

blue-eyed soul Blue-eyed soul (also called white soul) is rhythm and blues (R&B) and soul music performed by white artists. The term was coined in the mid-1960s, to describe white artists whose sound was similar to that of the predominantly black Motown and St ...

groups as

Hall & Oates Daryl Hall & John Oates, commonly known as Hall & Oates, were an American Rock music, rock duo formed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1970. Daryl Hall was generally the lead vocalist, while John Oates primarily supplied electric guitar and ba ...

, a vein that Davis had not explored before. Davis had originally titled the

song A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...

"'55 Love Affair", but Arista felt that some modernization was needed to target an audience whose teenage years had occurred in the 1960s, including Davis himself. As Arista pointed out, Davis was only 7 years old in 1955, too young for a "love affair", but was 17 years old in 1965, perfect for the song. However, even with the title change, the song highlighted many aspects of 1950s youth culture, including carhops,

drive-ins A drive-in is a facility (such as a restaurant or movie theater) where one can drive in with an automobile for service. At a drive-in restaurant, for example, customers park their vehicles and are usually served by staff who walk or rollersk ...

and

doo-wop Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a subgenre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, ...

. Davis's previous hits had been country-oriented or ballads. The format change to pop proved to be quite marketable. "65 Love Affair" and "Cool Night", which were recorded at the same time, ranked first and third in terms of his Hot 100 peaks (" I Go Crazy" ranked second). Davis hated the final song, calling it "bubblegum" and "a sellout." In spite of this popular success, Davis was so disgusted with the commercialized result that he opted out of his contract with Arista and signed with

Razor & Tie Razor & Tie was an American entertainment company that consisted of a record label and a music publishing company. It was established in 1990 by Craig Balsam and Cliff Chenfeld. Based in New York City (with additional offices in Los Angeles and ...

Record Company, a label on which Davis never charted on the Hot 100, before he left the

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for ...

for good in 1988.

Music video

The music video is composed entirely of news archives from the year 1965, including footage of then US President

Lyndon Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after assassination of John F. Kennedy, the assassination of John F. Ken ...

, the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

, and the

Watts riots The Watts riots, sometimes referred to as the Watts Rebellion or Watts Uprising, took place in the Watts neighborhood and its surrounding areas of Los Angeles from August 11 to 16, 1965. The riots were motivated by anger at the racist and abus ...

Chart performance

Released in 1982, "65 Love Affair" hit #6 for two weeks on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in May 1982. It spent 20 weeks on the chart, and on the ''Billboard'' Year-End Hot 100 chart, it placed at #39, and on '' Cashbox's'' chart at #60.

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:65 Love Affair 1981 songs 1982 singles Paul Davis (singer) songs Music published by MPL Music Publishing Arista Records singles Songs about nostalgia