If Ever You’re In My Arms Again
“If Ever You’re in My Arms Again”- 1984
Music: Tom Snow, Michael Masser
Lyric: Cynthia Weil
Song History: Recorded by R&B singer Peabo Bryson. Released as a single from his album Straight from the Heart, the single became Bryson’s first Top 10 single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, where it peaked at #10 during the summer of 1984. It also peaked at #6 on the R&B chart, and it spent four weeks at #1 on the adult contemporary chart.
Author’s Note: My only collaboration with Michael Masser resulted in a strong melody but another composer-lite lyric. Whatever he and I came up with (I can’t remember our title) was tossed in favor of letting a real lyricist to write the words. Shrewd move.
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Dear Tom Snow,
If you don’t mind my asking (i.e., it’s not confidential), who wrote the verse and who wrote the chorus for the song “If Ever You’re in My Arms Again” as far as you and the late Michael Masser are concerned. (Unless, of course, you both collaborated on both parts of the song.) I’ve always been curious about this.
Best regards,
David Kramer
Dear David,
Thank you for commenting. Always appreciated. For the most part, Michael and I wrote the song together. I was always at the piano. My memory is that we had fashioned a verse melody together and I sort of blurted out a chorus melody after a few attempts. He pounced on what I was singing saying something like, “A new floor for the record company! A new floor, Tom!”- translation: “It’s a hit!.” He was far better at recognizing hit material than I so I took his word for it. Lo and behold his words proved to be prophetic. We wrote a lyric but Michael knew Cynthia Weil would do a much better job. I think our title was, “I’ll Never Feel Love Like This Again.”
Thanks again for writing and for listening.
Cheers,
Tom