With You I'm Born Again

"With You I'm Born Again"
Single by Billy Preston and Syreeta Wright
from the album Fast Break
B-side All I Wanted Was You[1]
Released December 1979 (December 1979)[1]
Format Vinyl 7" and 45 RPM
Genre Soul
Label Motown[1]
Writer(s)
Producer(s) James DiPasquale[1]

"With You I'm Born Again" is a 1979 duet performed by Motown recording artists Billy Preston and Syreeta Wright, released as a single from the soundtrack of the motion picture, Fast Break. The song was credited as "Billy Preston and Syreeta" and written by Carol Connors and David Shire. The single became an international hit for the duo, reaching number four on the Billboard Hot 100, number eighty-six on the R&B chart,[2] and number two on the AC chart.[3] "With You I'm Born Again" also peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart in January 1980.[4] It was Preston's biggest hit in five years and the biggest pop hit of Wright's career. After the movie Fast Break had flopped, the song had been preserved on both of the singers' solo albums to keep it visible, and after breaking first in Europe, it finally began to climb the American charts in early 1980, eventually ranked by Billboard as the 21st most successful pop single of 1980.

Preston and Wright told Billboard in 1980 that the song's success as a single surprised them, because although both had loved the song when they first heard it, they hadn't envisioned it being a single at all until it began to get airplay in the European market. Both also felt the song could be interpreted in a religious context as well as being a romantic love song. Preston told writer Cary Darling, "When we saw [Fast Break], we understood it was a romantic song. But, I think of it as religious because God is love so it all inter-relates."[5]

American singer/actress Vanessa Williams covered the song for her 2005 studio album Everlasting Love. Her version is a duet with George Benson.

Charts

Chart (1980) Peak
position
UK Singles Chart 2
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 4
U.S. Billboard Hot Soul Singles 86
U.S. Adult Contemporary 2

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "With You I'm Born Again - Discogs". discogs.com. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
  2. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 564.
  3. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961-2001. Record Research. p. 197.
  4. ↑ "UK singles chart for 13 January 1980". officialcharts.com. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
  5. ↑ Darling, Cary. "Preston-Syreeta Hit Long Time Making It." Billboard magazine, 26 April 1980, p. 32.


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