Ken Foote Summer Song Extra: Endless Summer Nights

(CBS11) - OK, you have probably figured out how I am selecting years for summer songs (1968, 1973, 1978, 1983, 1988, etc). Now I had not planned on writing another blog this week... until I heard this artist the other day on Sirius XM 80's on 8.

Richard Marx (born September 16, 1963 in Chicago) was a pop singer/composer in the 80's and 90's. His style of music was adult contemporary and contemporary pop/rock. He sang for commercials at one time and performed as a backup vocalist for artists such as Lionel Richie, Whitney Houston, and Julio Iglesias. He released his debut album in 1987. Out of gate, he had two songs that both hit #3 on Billboard: "Don't Mean Nothing" and "Should've Known Better." He had three #1 hits: "Hold On To The Nights," "Satisfied" and "Right Here Waiting." Of the fourteen songs that charted on Billboard, nine of them were top 10 hits.

The song featured here was not a #1 hit…..but #2….and on the charts longer than any of his other songs. "Endless Summer Nights," written and produced by Marx, was released in January 1988. It stayed at #2 for two consecutive weeks and on the chart for 15 weeks, second only to his 1992 song, "Hazard." Running 4:30 on the album version, the lyrics go like this:

"Summer came and left without a warning
All at once I looked and you were gone
And now you're looking back at me
Searching for a way that we can be like we were before

Now I'm back to what I knew before you
Somehow the city doesn't look the same
I'd give my life for one more night
Of having you here to hold me tight; oh, please
Take me there again
Oh, oh

And I remember how you loved me
Time was all we had until the day we said goodbye
I remember every moment of those endless summer nights"

The song was based on a trip that he and his wife to be, Cynthia Rhodes, took to Hawaii. Rhodes was a member of the group Animotion. They married in 1989 but later divorced in 2014.

So sit back, relax, and enjoy this song from 1988!