ENTERTAINMENT

The writers of 'Everlasting Love' tell their story

Dave Paulson
dnpaulson@tennessean.com
Bart Herbison, center, talks with songwriters Mac Gayden, left, and Buzz Cason.

Mac Gayden started writing "Everlasting Love" when he was 5 years old. Those "oooh" vocals that float in the background of the chorus? It's a melody he came up with at that age. "I just kind of drew it out of the air," he says.

Well, young Mac was on to something. Decades later, he and Buzz Cason created "Everlasting Love" in a matter of minutes — they didn't even write a second verse. That didn't stop "Love" from being a universally adored tune, recorded by everyone from U2 to Gloria Estefan, though Robert Knight, Carl Carlton and Love Affair are the ones who cemented its sound.

Cason and Gayden told the story of "Everlasting Love" to Bart Herbison of Nashville Songwriters Association International.

I’ve talked to you both about (this song) through the years, but I did not know that you wrote it as a B-side while you were in the studio cutting an album on a guy named Robert Knight. What the heck is an R&B artist doing cutting a record in Nashville in the late '60s anyway?

BC: We wrote it out at my house. ... The next day we went into the studio and recorded it. In those days, you had to have four songs for a three-hour session, so you could get, hopefully, two singles out of it. We lacked that fourth song. We had a song that you may remember Mac, “The Weeper.”

MG: We thought that was our (hit).

BC: It was a killer!

So, you were kind of writing this as a B-side, maybe?

MG: It was just …

BC: Another song …

MG: Buzz and I thought there was something unique about it. We were taking a chance on this song. It was kind of like an orphan song; we were getting it out of the rain. At the last minute, we just kind of spontaneously threw it all together. The template was already laid down.

I read that the roots of this song go back to your childhood (Mac Gayden), melodically. Tell us about that.

MG: One of the melodies, yeah. The counter-melody in the background behind the chorus. That melody was from when I was five years old. I just kind of drew it out of the air.

Robert Knight records it. He puts out a single, but by this time I think there is another group in England; this was in the days when you covered songs pretty quickly. They put the song out at the same time. Their name was the Love Affair. Recall that for us.

BC: They were on CBS Records and Al Gallico was a great mentor for many of us here in town, and Al told me, “Buzz, you need to give this song to my partners, the Phillips Company.” Peter Phillips’ father, Jimmy Phillips, had KPM Music (in England). (Al) said, “You should give that ‘foreign’ to my partners.” Well, my partner Bobby Russell and I, on the publishing end, didn’t know much about “foreigns,” so I said, “Yeah, we’ll give it a try and send it to them and see what he thinks.” He immediately ran with it to CBS (Records) and the producer, and (Love Affair) jumped on it and recorded it. It was a No. 1 record in England.

MG: Yeah, and that was the London Symphony playing behind them, so they were kicking butt. It was a really good record.

So, Carl’s recording at (Cason's) studio, but you weren’t there the day they cut this song?

BC: Well, Robert’s (version) was recorded in ’67, but it really hit over on into ’68. ... Then, Papa Don Schroeder came in with Carl Carlton in ’74. I believe the story goes that he had tried to record it at Quadraphonic (Studios) or somewhere else and didn’t like the cut. (Carl) came out with Travis Turk, our engineer, and recorded it. I did get to sing background on it. That was great to me because I got to sing it on Robert’s record. It was a million seller.

Buzz, I think I called you before you could get everything instantly on the internet. I heard it on the radio and said, “Buzz, I swear to God I heard a bad work tape of U2 doing ‘Everlasting Love.’ ” So, what was the story behind that?

MG: Well, they asked me, when I was down in Birmingham at their concert backstage, what I thought of the record and I told them the truth (laughs). I later learned to like it because they were just trying to do a folk/rock version. ... Bono kind of made up his own words, too (laughter). That’s OK, Bono, that’s OK, you just send the checks.

They put it out on an album?

MG: Yes. What happened was, it was hitting (bigger than the A-side) in L.A. and New York, so (Island Records) had it taken off of playlists. ... So, when I was backstage they said, “We’re going to make it up to you.” I thought they were just trying to soften things up, but sure enough they put it on "The Best of U2."

Did you really write this song in 20 minutes?

MG: We spent about 30 minutes on it as a template.

BC: When Mac put those two melodies together and we had a template for it, I said, “We’ve got to finish this thing.” We were kind of running out of time; it was getting late in the afternoon. I said I would put some kind of lyric to it, so we always tell audiences that’s why there’s no second verse … we just “ooh” it. Until the Rachel Sweet record, there were no lyrics for the second verse. They made up some and had Mac and I approve them. The next day we showed it to Robert. He didn’t even have time to rehearse; we had to teach it to him during the session.

That’s a lesson to these young writers. Some days you need to just show up, right?

MG: The neat thing about this song is that we didn’t overthink it. All the parts came together and we just let it do its thing. It was beautiful how it happened. We learned a lesson from that.

About the series

In partnership with Nashville Songwriters Association International, we will release a video interview with a songwriter about his or her work each week.