I dedicate my song today to my Facebook Friend, Margaret Shaw from Huddersfield who celebrates her birthday that ends in an ‘0’.
Today’s song is ‘Penny Lover’. This song was the title of the fifth and final single released from Lionel Richie’s multi-platinum and Grammy Award-winning 1983 album, ‘Can’t Slow Down’. The song was written by Richie and his then-wife, Brenda Harvey Richie.
As with all the other singles taken from ‘Can’t Slow Down’, ‘Penny Lover’ was a top ten hit on the ‘Billboard Hot 100’ chart, spending two weeks at Number 8 in December 1984. The song reached an identical Number 8 peak position on the Billboard ‘R&B chart, while on the Billboard ‘Adult Contemporary Chart’. the song reached Number 1. On the ‘UK Singles Chart’, the song reached Number 18. In Canada, it peaked at Number 12 on the ‘RPM Singles Chart’.
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There is one line in this song that resonates so much with everything I have known, with all I believe. The line is, ’When a man’s in love, he’s only one story.’ Every time during my romantic life I have found myself ‘falling in love’ all over again with a beautiful woman, I have noticed something strange occur in my mind and body. In short; I find myself totally preoccupied in thought, sunk in the physical desires and emotions of a man in love; completely lost in the reverie of being in love. I do literally find myself on ‘Cloud Nine’ and whatever is happening outside the immediate orb of myself and the new woman in my life is locked out from my mind and mental cabinet of objective consideration.
It is as though nothing else in the world matters except me and my loved one, and our feelings for each other. The roof could fall in, Russia could declare universal war, a meteor could be hurtling towards earth, threatening to blast all life to smithereens, Jeremy Corbyn could have changed his lifelong political allegiance to the Tory Party; all this could be in motion and quite frankly, I wouldn’t care a fig! Not because of any insensitivity on my part I might add, or of any genuine lack of concern about this world and the welfare of all its inhabitants. No! My mind would be too filled with the love of the woman in my life to exist elsewhere; my eyes would be filled by her beauty alone to see anything or anyone else before them. I would be alive but mesmerised in trance, still in the first flush of love. All critical analysis would be temporarily suspended on ‘Cloud Nine’ until I again came back down to earth and my feet touched the ground.
Why? I hear you ask. What would cause such a dramatic reaction in the overall life of a good man? The answer is clear to anyone who has ever tasted 'love at its ripest'. It is because my love for my woman would blot everything else out of my mind. She would be the only face where I would find personal contentment because her face would be the only place that I’d look for my happiness. Hers would be the only hand I’d want to hold, her desire the most pressing of mine to fulfil. In short: her wish would become my instant command, we would breathe the same breath, share beat in the same heart and live one life in every moment we spent together.
It has been said that when a young man or young woman make love for the very first time, the effect on the body is so great that even a few hours later, the signs of that day’s loving moments still light up one’s face. It is a similar experience for me, every time I fall in love; and I can recognise this state instantly in the faces of other couples who are in love.
I have had a terminal blood cancer for seven years now and have had an additional four cancers to deal with since; three of them during the past year involving four full operations and twenty sessions of radiotherapy (blood, bottom and skin cancers). People frequently remark about my positive attitude in the face of my medical circumstances. I will let you all into a secret, but only on the strict understanding that you will share it with as many other people as you can, and as often as you can!
It’s because I am driven in everything I do by the ‘Power of Love’. It is because I am still ‘in love’. Indeed, there has never been a single moment since my birth when I haven’t been in love with something, someplace or someone in my life. I am ‘in love’ with my God, my wife, Sheila and my life around me. It is impossible to be ‘in love with life’ and not to fully embrace it, and not seek to serve it to the best of my ability.
To modify a famous saying of the late President of the United States of America, John F. Kennedy, ‘Ask not what life can give you, but what you can offer life?’ And the ultimate thing a person can offer life is their own life in return for the life received. That is how I can deal with cancer in my body, because of the 'love' that resides in my body. I know that all the love in my body will act as a defence mechanism and will never allow my illness entry into my mind to unsettle it.
I dedicate today’s song to my Facebook friend, Margaret Shaw from Huddersfield who celebrates a big birthday today. It ends in an ‘0’ but I wouldn’t dream of divulging any woman’s age (especially a woman who has been blessed with youthful looks and possesses the good fortune to pass for someone ten years younger!) All I know about Margaret is that we share many good Facebook friends, so that obviously puts her in the premier league of anyone’s contacts. I also know from her daily entries on her Facebook page that she is a strong family woman.
Have a marvellous day, Margaret, and though I know you to be a woman filled with love, leave a bit of room for lots of birthday cake and a glass of wine! Thank you for being my Facebook friend. Bill x
Love and peace Bill xxx
Today’s song is ‘Penny Lover’. This song was the title of the fifth and final single released from Lionel Richie’s multi-platinum and Grammy Award-winning 1983 album, ‘Can’t Slow Down’. The song was written by Richie and his then-wife, Brenda Harvey Richie.
As with all the other singles taken from ‘Can’t Slow Down’, ‘Penny Lover’ was a top ten hit on the ‘Billboard Hot 100’ chart, spending two weeks at Number 8 in December 1984. The song reached an identical Number 8 peak position on the Billboard ‘R&B chart, while on the Billboard ‘Adult Contemporary Chart’. the song reached Number 1. On the ‘UK Singles Chart’, the song reached Number 18. In Canada, it peaked at Number 12 on the ‘RPM Singles Chart’.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
There is one line in this song that resonates so much with everything I have known, with all I believe. The line is, ’When a man’s in love, he’s only one story.’ Every time during my romantic life I have found myself ‘falling in love’ all over again with a beautiful woman, I have noticed something strange occur in my mind and body. In short; I find myself totally preoccupied in thought, sunk in the physical desires and emotions of a man in love; completely lost in the reverie of being in love. I do literally find myself on ‘Cloud Nine’ and whatever is happening outside the immediate orb of myself and the new woman in my life is locked out from my mind and mental cabinet of objective consideration.
It is as though nothing else in the world matters except me and my loved one, and our feelings for each other. The roof could fall in, Russia could declare universal war, a meteor could be hurtling towards earth, threatening to blast all life to smithereens, Jeremy Corbyn could have changed his lifelong political allegiance to the Tory Party; all this could be in motion and quite frankly, I wouldn’t care a fig! Not because of any insensitivity on my part I might add, or of any genuine lack of concern about this world and the welfare of all its inhabitants. No! My mind would be too filled with the love of the woman in my life to exist elsewhere; my eyes would be filled by her beauty alone to see anything or anyone else before them. I would be alive but mesmerised in trance, still in the first flush of love. All critical analysis would be temporarily suspended on ‘Cloud Nine’ until I again came back down to earth and my feet touched the ground.
Why? I hear you ask. What would cause such a dramatic reaction in the overall life of a good man? The answer is clear to anyone who has ever tasted 'love at its ripest'. It is because my love for my woman would blot everything else out of my mind. She would be the only face where I would find personal contentment because her face would be the only place that I’d look for my happiness. Hers would be the only hand I’d want to hold, her desire the most pressing of mine to fulfil. In short: her wish would become my instant command, we would breathe the same breath, share beat in the same heart and live one life in every moment we spent together.
It has been said that when a young man or young woman make love for the very first time, the effect on the body is so great that even a few hours later, the signs of that day’s loving moments still light up one’s face. It is a similar experience for me, every time I fall in love; and I can recognise this state instantly in the faces of other couples who are in love.
I have had a terminal blood cancer for seven years now and have had an additional four cancers to deal with since; three of them during the past year involving four full operations and twenty sessions of radiotherapy (blood, bottom and skin cancers). People frequently remark about my positive attitude in the face of my medical circumstances. I will let you all into a secret, but only on the strict understanding that you will share it with as many other people as you can, and as often as you can!
It’s because I am driven in everything I do by the ‘Power of Love’. It is because I am still ‘in love’. Indeed, there has never been a single moment since my birth when I haven’t been in love with something, someplace or someone in my life. I am ‘in love’ with my God, my wife, Sheila and my life around me. It is impossible to be ‘in love with life’ and not to fully embrace it, and not seek to serve it to the best of my ability.
To modify a famous saying of the late President of the United States of America, John F. Kennedy, ‘Ask not what life can give you, but what you can offer life?’ And the ultimate thing a person can offer life is their own life in return for the life received. That is how I can deal with cancer in my body, because of the 'love' that resides in my body. I know that all the love in my body will act as a defence mechanism and will never allow my illness entry into my mind to unsettle it.
I dedicate today’s song to my Facebook friend, Margaret Shaw from Huddersfield who celebrates a big birthday today. It ends in an ‘0’ but I wouldn’t dream of divulging any woman’s age (especially a woman who has been blessed with youthful looks and possesses the good fortune to pass for someone ten years younger!) All I know about Margaret is that we share many good Facebook friends, so that obviously puts her in the premier league of anyone’s contacts. I also know from her daily entries on her Facebook page that she is a strong family woman.
Have a marvellous day, Margaret, and though I know you to be a woman filled with love, leave a bit of room for lots of birthday cake and a glass of wine! Thank you for being my Facebook friend. Bill x
Love and peace Bill xxx
