"Never My Love" (written by Donald & Richard Addrisi, recorded by the Association among others)

I have often thought The Clientele should cover this song, get it on a movie soundtrack and have an inescapable international megahit a la Wet Wet Wet and that Troggs song.

This is the third time this year I've encountered a song which is apparently university known in the US but I'd never heard before, the other two were

Kansas - Dust In The Wind
Jimmy Buffet - Margarita Time

someone should make a thread about these.

Whenever I see "Dust in the Wind" mentioned I assume it's the Todd Rundgren song.

"university known"! Dawn you autocorrect!

"Never my love" isn't exactly ubiquitous in America. I think lots of boomers know it, but not too many x-ers or millennials.

I think it was played on WCBS before it transitioned from an 'oldies' format to classic rock, but not in especially heavy rotation. Def never would have imagined it was the second most broadcast song of the 20th c after "You've lost that last lovin'feeling" and ahead of "Yesterday" (!!!)
I can only guess that a lot of the airplay was contemporary, it seems like something the hippies and squares could both enjoy!

That said, it's not exactly obscure and I'm surprised to find that about half the musos and record nerds on ILM who are chiming in here haven't heard of it.

"Dust in the wind" and "Margaritaville" are ubiquitous.

of course it's Margaritaville, Margarita Time is by Status Quo.

Hardly anyone here knows Status Quo!
Their best known song by far in America is "Pictures of Matchstick Men" and it's mostly just the Nuggets crowd who know it.

It's probably naive to suppose that hippies liked The Association, though. Withdrawn.

See, "Dust in the Wind" and "Margaritaville", those are songs I hear all the time. Is there a credible reason to think this song got more oldies play or even contemporary airplay than, say, "Unchained Melody" or anything by Elvis or the Four Seasons? It doesn't seem like any of the versions were earth-shattering megahits, although some did well enough. Although I would normally trust BMI, I think I want to question these numbers.

The harmonies are very nice, btw!

It's the gentlest and sweetest of golden oldies. By 1999 it had never not been on US radio for 30+ years, originally on the Top 40 and Easy Listening charts, then on Adult Contemporary when that evolved out of Easy in the 1970s, then as mentioned oldies stations loved it in the '80s and '90s. And I imagine TV has always loved it bc it fits any moment that calls for something romantic and unobtrusive that's also not "sad" (like "Yesterday" is).

wastin' away again it's margarita time

love the organ on this one. the big bridge harmonies kinda ruin the intimacy though.

The other factor is The Association were all secretly dentists, and they were able to pull strings to get the song played in every dentist's waiting room in America

the addrisi bros did one of my fave silly disco tunes, "ghost dancer!" and just glancing down the discogs list, they wrote like 5 songs that got covered 5,000 times.

was just listening to this very sweet instrumental cover: https://jonathankirby.bandcamp.com/track/never-my-love-2

there's also this: https://soundcloud.com/5redpandas/never-my-love-stephen-ma-never-my-love-stephen-malkmus

Unsurprisingly, I'd never heard (of) this song before, but it's pleasant enough.

I just checked if there was an oldies station in the area (I remember one in the 80s but am not sure there has been since then). There is a station, out in the Valley, that calls itself "oldies" - they are currently playing Boston's "More Than a Feeling": https://arnpriortoday.ca

which now IS that old song that they used to play

The music I associate with dentist's offices is, like, Chicago. xp haha

There's also a "Lite" station - the last five songs they played were by Cher, Jacksoul, Miami Sound Machine, Trooper, and Huey Lewis: https://lite985.ca

love this song, love the Association

i miss vocal harmonies you could actually make out the parts out and had their own unique blend, before recording techniques sterilized them to a phantom zone-compressed novelty

The other factor is The Association were all secretly dentists

They looked more like dentists than pop stars tbf.

https://img.discogs.com/tn-NDvg4T2yBa35NZpXW5LJmelo=/600x550/smart/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/A-264408-1455629736-2997.jpeg.jpg

Beautiful song that I never heard until I picked up the Association greatest hits on vinyl for cheap a while back. "Windy" is the Association song I remember hearing the most on oldies radio in the late 90s

xp Exactly. I always noticed that.

The band that made the Turtles look like the Monkees.

OTM

Is there a credible reason to think this song got more oldies play or even contemporary airplay than, say, "Unchained Melody" or anything by Elvis or the Four Seasons? It doesn't seem like any of the versions were earth-shattering megahits, although some did well enough. Although I would normally trust BMI, I think I want to question these numbers.

"Elaborate hoax", "April fools day" are perhaps the simplest and best explanations.

Also interesting that the Fifth Dimension had a hit with "Never My Love" (#12 in '71), but theirs was recorded live. If they had recorded it in the studio they probably would have used the exact same musicians as the Association did.

Bones Howe produced both.