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"(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" is a classic R&B hit by Jackie Wilson from 1967 and - as "(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher" - a soft rock hit for Rita Coolidge in 1977.
The backing track for "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" was recorded on 6 July 1967 at Columbia's studios in Chicago. Produced by Carl Davis, the session - arranged by Sonny Sanders - featured bassist James Jamerson, drummer Richard "Pistol" Allen, guitarist Robert White, and keyboardist Johnny Griffith; these four musicians were all members of the Motown Records house band the Funk Brothers who often moonlighted on sessions for Davis to augment the meager wages paid by Motown. According to Carl Davis the Funk Brothers "used to come over on the weekends from Detroit. They’d load up in the van and come over to Chicago, and I would pay ‘em double scale, and I’d pay ‘em in cash." Similarly two of Motown's house session singers the Andantes: Jackie Hicks and Marlene Barrow along with Pat Lewis, performed on the session for "…Higher and Higher".
Davis brought the track to New York City for Wilson to add his vocal; Davis recalls Wilson originally sang the song "like a soul ballad. I said that's totally wrong. You have to jump and go with the percussion…if he didn't want to sing it that way, I would put my voice on the record and sell millions". After hearing Davis' advisement Wilson cut the lead vocal for "…Higher and Higher" in a single take.
The original songwriting credit for "…Higher and Higher" was to Gary Jackson and Carl Smith who'd previously been house songwriters at Chess Records. When "…Higher and Higher" reached the Top Ten, Chess songwriters Billy Davis and Raynard Miner sued claiming the song as their composition which Jackson or Smith had appropriated from Miner's briefcase while at Chess Records; Davis and Miner alleged Jackson and Smith had slightly amended the lyrics and then presented "…Higher and Higher" to Davis as their own work. Davis and Miner were awarded eighty percent of the songwriting royalties with Jackson and Smith retaining twenty percent.
Released in August 1967, "…Higher and Higher" reached #1 R&B and in November peaked on the Pop charts at #6.
In the UK Wilson's "…Higher and Higher" would be a hit in both 1969 (#11) and 1987 (#3). and in 1987 (#15).
The single's sales have been estimated as high as four million.
Brunswick released a Higher and Higher album in November 1967: its chart peak was #163 (#28 R&B).
The track was ranked #246 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.
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