"Everlasting Love" is a song written by Buzz Cason and Mac Gayden, originally a 1967 hit for Robert Knight and since covered numerous times, most successfully by Love Affair, as well as Town Criers, Rex Smith & Rachel Sweet, Carl Carlton, Sandra Cretu, U2 and Gloria Estefan. The original version of "Everlasting Love" was recorded by Knight in Nashville, with Cason and Gayden aiming to produce it in a Motown style reminiscent of the Four Tops and the Temptations. When released as a single, the song reached No. 13 on the US chart in 1967. Subsequently, the song has reached the US top 40 three times, most successfully as performed by Carl Carlton, peaking at No. 6 in 1974, with more moderate success by the duo Rex Smith and Rachel Sweet (No. 32 in 1981) and Gloria Estefan (No. 27 in 1995).

In the UK, "Everlasting Love" was covered by the Love Affair: it achieved No. 1 status in January 1968, eclipsing the Robert Knight original. Also in 1968, a cover by the Australian group Town Criers reached No. 2 in the Australian charts. In the 1990s "Everlasting Love" reached the UK top 20 three times via remakes by Worlds Apart (No. 20 in 1993), Gloria Estefan (No. 19 in 1995) and, most successfully, a charity single by the cast from Casualty that reached No. 5 in 1998. In 2004, Jamie Cullum's version peaked at No. 20. Thus, "Everlasting Love" is one of two songs to become a Billboard Hot 100 top 40 hit in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s (the other being "The Way You Do the Things You Do") and the only song to become a UK top 40 hit in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.

The original version of "Everlasting Love" was recorded at Fred Foster Sound Studio in Nashville. According to Cason, the track "had some different sounds on it that, for the time period, were kind of innovative. The string sound is actually a Farfisa organ that Mac came up with, and we used a lot of echo."^[1] Robert Knight recalls: "Buzz was into country [music] but Mac was R&B... so we made it more of an R&B song like the rhythm and melody Mac had. I practiced and practiced on with Mac, as he had written the song for my voice and made it mine. Mac used his bandmates: [drummer] Kenny Buttrey, [bassist] Norbert Putnam, Charlie McCoy and himself on guitar."^[2] The background vocals on the song were performed by Buzz Cason and Carol Montgomery. Robert Knight recalls that he heard "Everlasting Love" for the first time at the actual recording session: "I didn't sing it the [as] written[:] I made some changes to fit my voice, and I didn't do it note for note. They had the melody going too fast, and it was jamming, it wasn't doing right, it wasn't sounding right. So I started what you call a steady step. I start singing a beat and a half: 'hearts-go-a-stray' – like that. It wasn't like that in the beginning, and I think that's what got 'Everlasting Love' off the ground."^[3]

Debuting on the Billboard Hot 100 dated September 30, 1967, "Everlasting Love" had already reached No. 1 in Philadelphia and Detroit by the time of its top 40 debut on October 21, 1967. Cason admitted that the single "drove ... the promotion guys nuts since it hit in one market then several weeks later pop up somewhere else."^[4] The track spent its second week at its Hot 100 peak of No. 13 on the chart dated November 25, 1967 then dropped off the Hot 100 over the next three weeks. The R&B chart peak of "Everlasting Love" was No. 14. In its original release, Knight's "Everlasting Love" lost out in the UK to a cover by Love Affair, although Knight's version did spend two weeks at No. 40 UK in January 1968. In the spring of 1974, Knight's "Everlasting Love" had a second UK release to follow up the Top Ten success of the reissue of Knight's "Love on a Mountain Top"; this time the first-named track reached No. 19.

An airplay staple on American oldies radio stations (though less so than the 1974 Carl Carlton version), Knight's "Everlasting Love" has become a "cult favorite" of the beach music scene. In a 2011 interview, Buzz Cason stated that the Robert Knight original of "Everlasting Love" remained Cason's favorite version of the song: "I just think Robert's was the one [version] that had the magic in it."^[1]

"Everlasting Love" was recorded by Love Affair in 1967. According to the band's lead vocalist Steve Ellis: "We had two managers, David Wedgebury and John Cokell, who both worked at Decca [and] had access to all the imports on the Monument label. We rehearsed in a factory in Walthamstow and one night they turned up with 'Everlasting Love' by Robert Knight. I loved it and so we set about putting it down on tape."^[11] Muff Winwood produced the original Love Affair version of "Everlasting Love" which was recorded at Island Studios and featured the group's actual members: Island Records passed on releasing the track but CBS in-house producer Mike Smith - after failing to interest his regular clients Marmalade in recording the song (which Marmalade deemed "too poppy") - cut a new Love Affair version of "Everlasting Love".

The second Love Affair recording of "Everlasting Love" in fact featured only one member of the group: lead vocalist Steve Ellis who fronted a session ensemble comprising arranger/conductor Keith Mansfield's 40-piece orchestra plus a rhythm section, the session musicians including Peter Ahern (triangle percussion), Clem Cattini (drums), Alan Parker (guitar), Russ Stableford (bass), and a chorale comprising Madeline Bell, Kiki Dee, Lesley Duncan, and Kay Garner: the track was recorded in two takes.^[12] Mike Smith would eventually attribute the non-utilization of the actual musicians in Love Affair to the need for expediency, arguing that "there just wasn't time for the group to learn the arrangement in time, so we used session musicians",^[13] a UK release for the Robert Knight original version being imminent.^[10]

Debuting on the UK Top 50 dated January 2, 1968, "Everlasting Love" by the Love Affair rose to No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart for a two-week stay that February.^[14] The track was also a Top 20 hit in a number of other European countries in 1968.

When the Love Affair appeared on the ITV programme Good Evening I'm Jonathan King host Jonathan King asked group bassist Mick Jackson if the band had actually played on their hit recording of "Everlasting Love" and Jackson admitted the track had featured Ellis backed by session musicians. Steve Ellis has stated that Jonathan King was aware of the background of the Love Affair hit and ambushed Mick Jackson to invoke controversy, although Jackson would state: "We announced it ourselves because there were rumours about it in the business and we heard a Sunday newspaper was going to blow the story". Jackson also stated: "At first we didn’t worry that much when the story about us not playing came out... Then the thing escalated and people all over the place started slagging us. We got to regard it as a terrible nuisance, every time we opened a paper there was someone having a go at the Love Affair."^[13] The bad press had little if any negative impact on the band's popularity:^[10] their follow-up to "Everlasting Love", "Rainbow Valley" – another Cason/Gayden composition introduced by Robert Knight – reached number 5 in the UK and the additional success of "A Day Without Love" (number 6) made Love Affair the UK's top group in singles sales for 1968, apart from the Beatles.^[15] (The Love Affair singles continued to feature Ellis fronting a session ensemble with no other group members participating.)

All of these singles were released by CBS in the label's native United States on its Date Records subsidiary. However, despite their popularity in Europe, none of the Love Affair's singles charted in the US.^[16]

Carl Carlton recorded "Everlasting Love" in October 1973 at the Berry Hill (Tenn) studio Creative Workshop, which was owned by Buzz Cason; however, Cason was not involved in the recording of Carlton's version - the singer had himself chosen to record "Everlasting Love", which he knew via the version on David Ruffin's 1969 album My Whole World Ended. Produced by Papa Don Schroeder and Tommy Cogbill, Carlton's cover features Hayward Bishop on drums and percussion, Cogbill on bass, and Reggie Young on guitar. The recording was engineered by Travis Turk. The track features a distinctive countermelody running through most of the song consisting of background vocal harmonies. Brenda Russell is among the background vocalists.

Carlton's original recording of "Everlasting Love" was issued as the B-side of the 1973 single "I Wanna Be Your Main Squeeze"; the track (i.e. "Everlasting Love") was then issued in July 1974 as an A-side after having been given a disco style remix, and became a discothèque favorite before breaking on the Hot 100 in September 1974 to proceed to a No. 6 peak that November, almost reaching the R&B Top 10 at No. 11.

Carlton's version of "Everlasting Love" is the most successful US release of the song. It remains an airplay favorite on American oldies radio stations. According to Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI), the 1974 Carl Carlton version has been played more than 4 million times. One of the earliest pop hits to crossover from disco airplay, Carlton's "Everlasting Love" is a staple of disco compilations, including the second installment of the Pure Disco CD compilation series.

"Everlasting Love" was recorded as a duet by Rex Smith and Rachel Sweet. This version features revised lyrics including an additional verse of uncredited authorship which was approved by the song's composers^[33] and which would be retained by Sandra for her 1987 remake. Recorded at the Record Plant (NYC) and featured on both Smith's Everlasting Love album and Sweet's ...And Then He Kissed Me, "Everlasting Love" as a single featured a two-track B-side featuring Smith's "Still Thinking of You" and Sweet's "Billy and the Gun", respectively taken from each singer's album cited above.

Both Rex Smith and Rachel Sweet were on the roster of Columbia Records with the album ...And Then He Kissed Me marking Sweet's label debut subsequent to two album releases on the new wave oriented Stiff label: according to Sweet, upon submitting the tracks intended to comprise her first album for Columbia - all original songs produced by Pete Solley - she'd been told: "we'd like you to cut some more songs. And we'd like it if they weren't yours." (Sweet would typify the "outside material" which would eventually appear on ...And Then He Kissed Me as "lighter and more overtly commercial than her own songs".) Smith meanwhile had recorded a solo remake of "Everlasting Love" intended for his album produced by Rick Chertoff - then best known for his work with Air Supply - and after Rachel Sweet's manager (and father) Dick Sweet learned of Smith's recording of the song, arrangements were made for "Everlasting Love" to be recorded as a duet: Chertoff remained as producer of this version which was the first "outside" track recorded for ...And Then He Kissed Me, and on the basis of his work on the Smith/Sweet version of "Everlasting Love", Chertoff was invited by Dick Sweet to record four additional tracks with Sweet which, with "Everlasting Love" and four of the tracks from the Peter Solley sessions, would eventually comprise the ...And Then He Kissed Me album.^[34]

The single was released in June 1981 in the US, July in the UK, and August in Australia. With neither Smith nor Sweet being a strong Top 40 force - Smith's solitary Billboard Hot 100 single had been "You Take My Breath Away" (No. 10 in 1979) while Sweet had yet to rank on the Hot 100 - their collaboration on "Everlasting Love" would only generate qualified chart impact: the single peaked at No. 32 on the Billboard Hot 100 in August 1981, affording Sweet her only Top 40 showing and Smith his second and last. It also appeared on Billboard's Hot Adult Contemporary chart peaking at No. 31. The single was also a mid-chart item in the UK at No. 35; in Australia it reached No. 41 mainly due to its being a local Top 10 hit in Adelaide at No. 9. In 1982, the Smith/Sweet version of "Everlasting Love" became a Top 10 hit in Switzerland and Denmark. The song received a positive review from the Austin American-Statesman which described it as "one of the best [recent hits]... superbly produced with a crystalline intensity [evoking] Phil Spector [classics]. A fine arrangement & the vocal [input] of the incomparable Rachel Sweet make [this] a pure delight."^[35]

A promotional video was shot for "Everlasting Love" with Smith and Sweet playing a couple getting married. The singers performed "Everlasting Love" live on the Solid Gold episode aired February 19, 1983: Smith was currently co-hosting the show on which Sweet guested to promote her current single "Voodoo".^[36]

German singer Sandra released a cover of "Everlasting Love" in 1987 as the lead single from her first greatest hits compilation Ten on One (The Singles). She was introduced to the song through the Love Affair version; she'd say of the song: "I have always loved it... Even as a little child I heard that song and I said that I would like to sing it sometime." However, for her remake of the song Sandra would use the lyrics of the 1981 Rex Smith/Rachel Sweet duet version. Sandra's version was produced by her partner, Michael Cretu.

The single was a hit in continental Europe in late 1987 and early 1988, reaching the Top 10 in her native Germany, as well as Switzerland, Austria, Greece, Denmark and South Africa . In Germany and Austria, it was also a top 5 airplay hit,^[44][45] and a No. 13 airplay hit in Switzerland.^[46] In the pan-European rankings, it reached No. 6 on the sales chart and No. 34 on the airplay chart.^[47] In the UK, the song originally only reached No. 88. The track was subsequently acquired by Pete Waterman, who had "Everlasting Love (the PWL mix)" - remixed by Pete Hammond - released in the UK in the summer of 1988 to barely improve on the original's UK chart performance with a No. 79 peak. However, "Everlasting Love (the PWL mix)" re-entered the UK chart in December 1988 to rise as high as No. 45 in January 1989, while in its Australian release, it reached the Adelaide hit parade at No. 21 and had a national chart showing of No. 72. In the US, "Everlasting Love (the PWL mix)" rose as high as No. 22 on the Billboard maxi single sales chart. The PWL mix of "Everlasting Love" was showcased on an Everlasting Love album, which was released in December 1988 only in the UK and the US. Besides "Everlasting Love (the PWL mix)", the album comprised the original versions of several of Sandra's European hits. The song remains one of Sandra's most successful singles and has reportedly sold in around three million units.^[1]

The track was re-recorded as a ballad for Sandra's 2006 album Reflections.

"Everlasting Love" was recorded by Cuban-American singer and songwriter Gloria Estefan for her fifth studio album, Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me (1994), which comprised remakes of well-known hits. "Everlasting Love" was the second US single following "Turn the Beat Around" (in some territories, including the UK, "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me" was the album's second single precedent to "Everlasting Love"). The single was first released in the US on January 3, 1995, and in the UK on February 6, 1995.

"Everlasting Love" peaked at number 27 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in March 1995 and also topped the Hot Dance Club Play chart. In the UK, "Everlasting Love" peaked at number 19 in February 1995. The single also peaked at number 12 in Iceland and number 16 in Scotland. As she had given birth a month prior to the song's release, Estefan did little promotion in support of the song, performing it only once on the February 19 UK broadcast of Top of the Pops. She would later go on to perform it on the Evolution World Tour in 1996. Australian music channel Max included Estefan's version in their list of "1000 Greatest Songs of All Time" in 2011.^[72]

• In 1968, Australian band Town Criers recorded a cover of "Everlasting Love" for their debut album of the same name. The single reached no. 17 in Australia.^[103]
• Joe Dassin recorded the song in French in 1968 as "Plus Je Te Vois, Plus Je Te Veux" "(The More I See You, The More I Want You)" and reached no. 35 in the Francophone region of Belgium.^[104]
• "Everlasting Love" was covered by Australian singer Doug Parkinson in 1974.
• In 1977, Patricia Paay released a cover of the song on her album The Lady Is a Champ. The single reached no. 25 in Belgium.^[105]
• Narvel Felts recorded his version of the song in August 1978. It was released on his album One Run for the Roses and as a single in 1979, becoming a hit in country charts in the US and Canada.^[106]
• Louise Mandrell released her version of "Everlasting Love" in 1979 which was a minor country hit in the US.
• Irish rock band U2 recorded a cover and released it as the B-side to the 1989 single "All I Want Is You". It reached number 10 in the Netherlands^[107] and number 11 on the Billboard Modern Rock chart in the US.^[108]
• UK boy band Worlds Apart released a cover of "Everlasting Love" in September 1993, which reached no. 20 in the UK^[109] and no. 23 in Ireland.^[110] It was included on their 1994 debut album Together. In September 1994, the single was issued in Germany where it peaked at no. 40.^[111] A new version of "Everlasting Love" with lead vocals by Nathan Moore was included on the French edition of the second Worlds Apart album Everybody.^[111]
• The cast from the BBC One TV series Casualty released a cover of "Everlasting Love" as a Children in Need charity single in 1998, with lead vocals performed by actress Rebecca Wheatley. The single reached no. 5 in the UK singles chart.^[112]
• Jamie Cullum recorded his cover of "Everlasting Love" in 2004 for the soundtrack to Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason and special edition of his album Twentysomething. The single reached the top 20 in the UK,^[113] the Netherlands, and Denmark.^[114]
• Kerry Norton recorded the song for her album Young Heart. Her version charted at no. 97 in the Netherlands in October 2005.^[115]
• Willy Sommers recorded the song with Dutch lyrics as "Liefde Voor Altijd" "(Love Forever)" for his 2011 album 40 jaar hits (40 years of hits). The song peaked at no. 18 in the Flemish region of Belgium.^[116]

• In a December 1994 storyline on The Bold and the Beautiful the characters Macy Alexander and Thorne Forrester gave a concert in the Netherlands which included a performance of "Everlasting Love": the performances featured on the TV show were culled from two concerts at the Rotterdam Ahoy headlined by Bobbie Eakes (Macy) and Jeff Trachta (Thorne) that October.^[117]
• A portion of U2's cover of the song is played during the end credits of the 1999 film Forces of Nature.
• U2's cover also features in a scene in the 2003 film Veronica Guerin.
• On the bonus track, "Out on the Town", from indie pop band Fun's 2012 album, Some Nights, singer Nate Ruess can be heard to quote the melody and phrasing from "Everlasting Love". Ruess even echoes the line, "Open up your heart", repeatedly prior to the final chorus of the song.
• "Everlasting Love" was also used for Kmart commercials in Australia.
• Towards the end of the 2021 Kenneth Branagh film Belfast, Pa (Jamie Dornan) sings the song to his wife (Caitríona Balfe) at a party. The song was prominently used in the advertising of the film.^[118]