Love Affair's first single, "She Smiled Sweetly", written by
Mick Jagger and
Keith Richards and released on
Decca Records, flopped, but the band reached the top of the
UK Singles Chart in January 1968 with "
Everlasting Love". By this time the group had relocated to
CBS Records. Lead vocalist
Steve Ellis had a similar vocal style to
Steve Marriott of the
Small Faces, and the production was similar to a
Motown soul
record. Controversy ensued when the group admitted they had not played on the record, but that all the work was done by
session musicians, although such a practice had long since been common.{{cite book Four further top 20 hits followed, "
Rainbow Valley", "
A Day Without Love" (both 1968), "One Road" and "
Bringing on Back the Good Times" (both 1969). At the end of that year, they released the album
The Everlasting Love Affair. The group became frustrated at being treated like teen idols, unable to hear themselves on stage because of the constant screaming and at being pigeonholed as a "pop group". All the
A-sides featured heavy orchestral and brass arrangements behind Ellis's vocals, with minimal participation from the others, although they wrote and played on the heavier B-sides themselves. As Ellis wrote in the booklet notes to a later
compilation CD, ''Singles A's and B's'', "In an attempt to break the mould we recorded a song far removed from the anthemic-like previous hits." The song was called "Baby I Know". Released at the end of 1969, competing with releases from other big names for a place in the charts over Christmas, it failed completely. Ellis felt the band had run its course and he left in December 1969 for a solo career: "We never really made it big anywhere but Britain and I think that if we had started to happen in America, I wouldn't have left".{{cite book After Ellis' departure, the rest of the band soldiered on without any further success in Britain, continuing briefly with new vocalist, August Eadon (a.k.a. Gus Yeadon). Further releases never charted in Britain, although they did land a No. 14 hit in New Zealand with "Lincoln County". Love Affair recorded a
progressive rock album in 1971. In 1971, they recorded the song "Wake Me I Am Dreaming", an English cover of "
Mi ritorni in mente" (music by
Lucio Battisti and Italian lyrics by
Mogol). By the end of 1974, Love Affair was over. The group has since been revived, though sometimes without any original members, for cabaret dates; and Ellis has also performed live with a reconstituted Steve Ellis's Love Affair. Love Affair's first hit song, "Everlasting Love", was used in the film
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. However, the CD of the soundtrack contained
Jamie Cullum's cover version, instead of the Love Affair version used in the film. Cullum's version is played over the end credits. In 2021, "Everlasting Love" was featured in the Kenneth Branagh film
Belfast. It was also sung in the film by Jamie Dornan. ==Personnel==