"Don't Give Up on Us" is a hit song recorded by American-British singer

David Soul David Soul (born David Richard Solberg; August 28, 1943 – January 4, 2024) was an American-British actor and singer. With a career spanning five decades, he rose to prominence for portraying Detective Kenneth "Hutch" Hutchinson in the Americ ...

, and written by Tony Macaulay.

Background

Riding high on the success of his role in the hit TV show ''

Starsky and Hutch ''Starsky & Hutch'' is an American action television series, which consisted of a 72-minute pilot movie (originally aired as a '' Movie of the Week'' entry) and 92 episodes of 50 minutes each. The show was created by William Blinn (inspired ...

'', Soul returned to singing, which had been one of his early career choices. His debut, the Tony Macaulay-written-and-produced song was a worldwide smash, spending four weeks at No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart in January and February 1977, and a single week at No. 1 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in April 1977. In addition, the song spent one week at No. 1 on the U.S. Adult Contemporary chart. It has sold 1.16 million copies in the UK. Its

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

, "Black Bean Soup", with lyrics by actor

Gardner McKay George Cadogan Gardner McKay (June 10, 1932 – November 21, 2001) was an American actor, artist, and author. He is best known for the lead role in the TV series ''Adventures in Paradise (TV series), Adventures in Paradise'', based loosely on t ...

, is a duet with actress Lynne Marta, whom Soul was involved with at the time. "Don't Give Up on Us" was rated No. 93 in

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism for Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network that launched on January 1, 1985, and is currently owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global's networks division based in New Y ...

's ''100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders'' because, despite having more hits in the UK, Soul was never again able to reach the top 40 in the US. Soul recorded a new version of the song in 2004, allegedly after being embarrassed when hearing it by chance in an elevator as sung by

Owen Wilson Owen Cunningham Wilson (born November 18, 1968) is an American actor. He has frequently worked with filmmaker Wes Anderson, with whom he has shared writing and acting credits on the films '' Bottle Rocket'' (1996), '' Rushmore'' (1998), and ''T ...

in the film version of ''

''. The film soundtrack included a cover of the song by Wilson and

Neal Casal Neal Graeme Casal (November 2, 1968 – August 26, 2019) ...

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Cover versions

Irish singer Darren Holden covered "Don't Give Up on Us" in 1997, reaching No. 23 in

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

Johnny Mathis John Royce Mathis (born September 30, 1935) is an American singer. Starting his 69-year career with singles of standard (music), standard music, Mathis is one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century and became highly popular as ...

recorded a version on his 1977 album “ Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me” American

soul The soul is the purported Mind–body dualism, immaterial aspect or essence of a Outline of life forms, living being. It is typically believed to be Immortality, immortal and to exist apart from the material world. The three main theories that ...

singer

Billy Paul Paul Williams (December 1, 1934 – April 24, 2016), known professionally as Billy Paul, was an American soul music, soul singer, known for his 1972 Record chart, No. 1 single "Me and Mrs. Jones". His 1973 album and single ''War of the Gods (alb ...

recorded a version for his 1977 album ''Only the Strong Survive'', which was released as a single in the UK the following year. The song is popular in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

and has been covered by

Zsa Zsa Padilla Esperanza "Zsa Zsa" Perez Padilla (born May 28, 1964) is a Filipino singer, actress, television host, music producer and businesswoman. Referred to as the "''Divine Diva''", Padilla is recognized as one of the top female recording artists in th ...

, Kuh Ledesma, Jimmy Bondoc, Marion Aunor, JM de Guzman and

Piolo Pascual Piolo Jose Nonato Pascual (, born January 12, 1977) is a Filipino actor, model, singer, television host, comedian and film producer. Pascual began a career in 1993 after landing a bit role in the film ''The Vizconde Massacre Story (God Help ...

for the soundtrack of the 2006 film of the same title.

In popular culture

(playing Hutch, originally Soul's character) sang the song during a scene in the film version of ''Starsky and Hutch''. The song was also used in the film '' Johnny English Reborn'' (2011).

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Don't Give Up On Us (Song) 1976 songs 1976 singles 1997 singles David Soul songs Songs written by Tony Macaulay Private Stock Records singles UK singles chart number-one singles Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles Cashbox number-one singles Number-one singles in Australia RPM Top Singles number-one singles Irish Singles Chart number-one singles Number-one singles in New Zealand British soft rock songs Pop ballads Song recordings produced by Tony Macaulay