Song:Tonight I Celebrate My Love
Album:Ballads
Though Peabo Bryson has had success as a solo artist, he is mainly known for his duets with female singers. The 1983 duet with Roberta Flack Tonight I Celebrate My Love set him up for future success. Roberta was a big star in the 70s and had a lot of success singing duets with Donny Hathaway like Where Is The Love. Of course she was devastated when Hathaway committed suicide in 1979. But she also needed to find a new duet partner. To that point, Bryson had some success on the R & B charts and had recorded duets with Natalie Cole and Melissa Manchester. But Capitol Records wanted Bryson to cross over to pop. The two recorded the 1980 live album Live & More on Roberta's label Atlantic. The album did well especially on the R & B chart and Make The World Stand Still was a top 20 R & B hit. They liked working together and decided to record the studio album Born To Love. Michael Masser was hired to produce. He wrote Tonight I Celebrate My Love with veteran songwriter Gerry Goffin. They had previously written the theme from the film Mahogany for Diana Ross and Masser also co-wrote The Greatest Love Of All for the 1977 film The Greatest which was later a big hit for Whitney Houston. Tonight I Celebrate My Love reached #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 and established Bryson as a go to guy for duets. In 1984 he would have his biggest solo hit with If Ever You're In My Arms Tonight and later on smash hit duets with Celine Dion and Regina Belle. The song wasn't as significant for Roberta as she was already successful. But the song really helped Bryson. Tonight I Celebrate My Love is on comp CDs by both artists but Ballads is really cheap. Here's the video for Tonight I Celebrate My Love by Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack.
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