Kim Carnes ~ More Love 1980 Soul Purrfection Version

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Kim Carnes was born July 20, 1945 in Los Angeles, California. She was already writing music at the age of 4, then Jimmy Bowen picked her to be on his writing team. It was at this time she worked with Don Henley, Glenn Frey and JD Souther. A year later in 1971 she sang "Nobody Knows" over the closing credits of the film "Vanishing Point". She wrote "Sing Out For Jesus" with Big Mama Thornton in mind and she recorded it for the soundtrack.

Rumour has it that she recorded a song as Connie Con Carne, "She Dances With Meat". I have never found this song anywhere and I have dug deep. Now, I can't even remember where I found that info.

She was signed to A&M Records in mid 1971, she was teamed with Aretha Franklin's secret weapon, producer Jerry Wexler. She had to wait a few years until 1978 when she scored a #36 Hot100 Hit in a duet with Gene Cotton "You're A Part Of Me".

A duet with Kenny Rogers "Don't Fall In Love With A Dreamer", put her in the big leagues with its peak of #4 on the Billboard chart and she secured producer George Tobin. His production of the Smokey Robinson tune gave Carnes a #10 solo single in the summer of 1980.

This gossamer synthesizer arrangement intro gently leads you into a soulful updating of the Motown classic that builds into an anthem with Maxine Willard Waters, Julia Tillman Waters, Darlene Love, Edna Wright, Kin Vassy, Herb Pedersen, Patrick Bolen and Craig Krampf in the chorus. Val Garay whipped the song into radio bliss. Saxophonist Raphael Ravenscroft, who provided the memorable saxy opening of Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street" crafted a memorable solo that takes the song over the top.This is probably my most requested remix ever. I have not kept count, but it seemed to be happening on a regular basis. I did start on it about five years ago and it just didn't speak to me. So I set it aside until I read three comments saying please pick "More Love".

Well, it picked me this time and I'm happy to say here it is.

Now the footnote to this story. Carnes went with Val Garay to record the follow up album "Mistaken Identity" and her superstar moment "Bette Davis Eyes", spendign an amazing nine weeks at #1 on the Hot100. He was pleased with the attention he got from Kim's cover of "More Love", so he wrote a song especially for her called "Being With You". He approached Tobin to bring it to Carnes, but Tobin suggested he produce the song for Smokey since Carnes had already flown the coop.

And produce it he did! The song peaked at #2 on the Hot100, stuck there for three weeks, but it went all the way to #1 on the R&B chart for a total of five weeks. Kim Carnes had the last laugh as she spent nine weeks at the top and three of those weeks thwarted Smokey's hit from the coveted top spot.

I have already remixed Bette Davis Eyes, and I think this one while its a lesser hit, is going to be more popular. Some of you have been asking for Yacht Rock, songs like "Ride Like The Wind", "Lotta Love", "What A Fool Believes" and "Steal Away" and I believe that "More Love" would fit into the sub genre...