Remembering Don’t Give Up on Us singer David Soul

I have in my mind a list of what I believe are perfect recordings. These are not just songs. These titles are those wherein, the song, the interpreter, the arrangement, the use of instruments and other sounds and most of all, the mix come together to create a great music moment.

Needless to say, these recordings are also timeless. These sounds as current today as they did when they were first released.

That perfect quality is what I think brings dancers to the floor or anywhere possible each time September by Earth Wind and Fire is played. This is what gets you to start moving your shoulders to the beat of Rock with You by Michael Jackson.

Even the urge to sing along with Ed Sheeran to Thinking Out Loud or to Elvis Presley’s Suspicious Minds. And you certainly feel the ache of holding off a broken heart when you hear Don’t Give Up on Us by David Soul.

Don’t Give Up on Us is one of the best-known songs by the British composer and music producer Tony Macaulay. Among his other works are Baby Now That I’ve Found You, Build Me Up Buttercup, Last Night I Didn’t Get to Sleep at All, Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes and Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again.

In 1976, Macaulay was asked to provide a song and to produce a record for David Soul who was then a big star on American television. Soul and Paul Michael Glasser were the leads in the hugely successful cop series, Starsky and Hutch. Glasser was Starsky and Soul was Kenneth Hutchinson or Hutch.

Soul was born David Richard Solberg in Chicago, Illinois on Aug. 8, 1943, the son of a teacher and a Lutheran minister who was also a history and political science professor. He could have easily followed in their footsteps, as his brother, grandparents and other relatives were either teaching or preaching.

But Soul got bitten by the acting and music bugs and after three years in college, went off to Hollywood to become an actor.

After the usual bit roles in films and TV shows, Soul got the lead alongside Bobby Sherman in the sitcom Here Come the Brides in 1968, which ran for two years. But it was in Starsky and Hutch where he rose to prominence globally.

The show was on the air from 1975 to 1979 and Soul and Glasser were the daring heartthrobs from the boob tube that fans feasted on for an hour every week.

With his career at an all-time high, Soul decided to return to his early love, music, and that was when Macaulay and Don’t Give Up on Us came in. A soft pop guitar-based ballad the recording turned out beautiful.

It made No. 1 in hit charts in the US of A, the UK and other countries. Soul never made another hit and Don’t Give Up on Us is considered one of the greatest one-hit-wonders in the history of popular music.

The song remains a huge favorite among us overly sentimental and romantic Filipinos. It is constantly played on the radio and in live gigs. It has been covered successfully by major artists like Kuh Ledesma, Zsa Zsa Padilla, Jimmy Bondoc and Piolo Pascual. It was even used as the title of a local movie.

Soul never got to duplicate his early successes on television and as a singer. In his later years, he relocated to the UK where he starred on stage and enjoyed a relatively quiet life. He was plagued by various health problems though and battled lung cancer, COPD and other illnesses over the years.

David Soul passed away in a London hospital last Jan. 5, surrounded by his family. He was 80 years old. The news was an excuse to listen to Don’t Give Up on Us again and for me to go, “Ang galing” again.