His achievements include selling 53 million albums, eight top ten albums, two number one singles on the Billboard charts, and awards from both the American Music Awards and Grammy Awards.
Michael Bolton had an extensive, though not very successful, career under his real name, Michael Bolotin, before emerging in the mid-'80s as a major soft rock balladeer. Bolton began recording in 1975. This first album was self-titled using his original surname, Bolotin. Early in his musical career, he focused on hard rock. His band, Blackjack, once toured with heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne. He turned up on RCA Records in the mid-'70s singing in a gruff, Joe Cocker-like voice both his own blue-eyed soul songs and cover tunes. Neither record buyers nor critics were much interested by the result. He then became the lead singer in Blackjack, a heavy metal band that made two albums for Polydor at the end of the '70s and the start of the '80s. In 1983, he changed his name to Michael Bolton, signed to Columbia Records as a solo act, and relaunched his career.
Michael Bolton was released in April 1983, and made the Top 100 bestsellers, as did its single, "Fools Game." At the same time, "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You," which Bolton had co-written, became a Top 40 hit for Laura Branigan. Nevertheless, Bolton's second Columbia album, Everybody's Crazy (1985), was a commercial flop. His breakthrough came with his third album, The Hunger, released in September 1987. On this album, Bolton abandoned the more hard rock aspects of his style to concentrate on blue-eyed soul singing: both on his own songs, such as "That's What Love Is All About," and on covers like Otis Redding's "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay." Those two songs became Top 40 hits.
Soul Provider, released in July 1989, turned Bolton into a superstar, reaching the Top Ten, selling four million copies, and spawning five Top 40 singles, including Bolton's number one version of "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You," and the Top Ten hits "How Can We Be Lovers" and "When I'm Back on My Feet Again." "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You" won Bolton a Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. Time, Love & Tenderness, released in April 1991, was even more successful, hitting number one, selling six million copies, and featuring four Top 40 hits, including the chart-topping cover of Percy Sledge's "When a Man Loves a Woman," and the Top Ten hits "Love Is a Wonderful Thing" (later the subject of a successful plagiarism suit brought against Bolton by the Isley Brothers) and "Time, Love and Tenderness."
Bolton won another Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, for "When a Man Loves a Woman," but he had to put up with abuse from two camps of detractors at the February 1992 ceremony. Just after Bolton had performed, pre-rock songwriter Irving Gordon won the Song of the Year award for "Unforgettable" and pointedly attacked songs that "scream, yell, and have a nervous breakdown" and singers who "have a hernia" when they sing. Then, backstage, Bolton faced a hostile press corps of critics unhappy with his tendency to copy great soul singers like Redding, Ray Charles, and Sledge. Bolton suggested they apply their lips to a certain part of his anatomy. He further responded with Timeless: The Classics in September 1992, an album made up entirely of cover songs. It went to number one, sold three million copies, and featured a Top 40 hit in Bolton's version of the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody." Bolton's next album of original material, The One Thing, came in November 1993. It hit the Top Ten, sold three million copies, and featured the Top Ten hit "Said I Loved You...But I Lied." Bolton released Greatest Hits 1985-1995 in the fall of 1995, which debuted in the Top Ten. The following year, This Is the Time: Christmas Album appeared.
Bolton returned with All That Matters, his first album of new material since 1993's The One Thing, in the fall of 1997. Instead of continuing his success, it was a surprise flop. Not only did it not generate a hit single, it barely cracked the Top 40 and fell out of the charts after 15 weeks. Its lack of success didn't stop Bolton from turning his attention to My Secret Passion, a collection of opera and arias that he released in January 1998. By classical standards, the album was a hit, and the record received a great deal of press and surprisingly good reviews. He supported the two albums with a summer tour which were co-headlined with Wynonna Judd. He voluntarily stepped back for almost four years, disappearing from the public eye until the spring of 2002 when he began promoting Only a Woman Like You, his first album on Jive Records. After a brief sabbatical, he returned with Til the End of Forever, a hybrid new album of seven new recordings and a live greatest-hits concert. In 2006 he released Bolton Swings Sinatra, a 12-song tribute to Ol' Blue Eyes that included a duet with fiancée/actress Nicolette Sheridan.
It would be worth mentioning "Can I Touch You There" proved to be one of the all-time hit love songs from Micheal Bolton from the album Greatest Hits.
www.michaelbolton.com/
Che gelida manina
Michael Bolton Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Se la lasci riscaldar.
Cercar che giova?
Al buio non si trova.
Ma per fortuna
e una notte di luna,
e qui la luna l'abbiamo vicina.
Aspetti, signorina,
chi son, e che faccio, come vivo,
Vuole?
Chi son? Chi son? son un poeta.
Che cosa faccio? Scrivo.
E come vivo? Vivo.
In poverta mia lieta
scialo da gran signore
rimi ed inni d'amore,
Per sogni e per chimere
e per castelli in aria
l'anima ho milionaria.
Talor del mio forziere
ruban tutti i gioelli
due ladri:gli occhi belli.
V'entrar con voi pur ora
ed i miei sogni usati,
ed i bei sogni miei
tosto si dileguar!
Ma il furto non m'accora
poiche,poiche v'ha preso stanza
la speranza.
Or che mi conoscete
parlate voi. Deh parlate.
Chi siete? Vi piaccia dir?
The lyrics to Michael Bolton's "Che gelida manina" are sung in Italian and are a translation of the original aria from Giacomo Puccini's opera, La bohème. In the beginning of the song, the singer describes a cold hand, asking the person to warm it up. He then muses about what good it is to search in the dark without light. Fortunately, it is a moonlit night, and the moon is close by. The singer then addresses a woman, asking her if she wants to know who he is and what he does.
The singer reveals that he is a poet and that he writes. He lives a life of poverty but enjoys spending money like a wealthy man, writing love poems and songs. He has a rich soul, full of dreams and castles in the air. Sometimes, his dreams and treasures are stolen by robbers, but he doesn't mind since he has hope. The singer then invites the woman to enter his world, warning her that his dreams will vanish when she leaves.
Line by Line Meaning
Che gelida manina!
His hand is cold, and he is offering it to the lady.
Se la lasci riscaldar.
He asks the lady to warm his hand.
Cercar che giova?
He says there's no point in searching in the dark.
Al buio non si trova.
Things cannot be found in the dark.
Ma per fortuna e una notte di luna, e qui la luna l'abbiamo vicina.
Fortunately, tonight is a moonlit night and the moon is near.
Aspetti, signorina, le diro con due parole chi son, chi son, e che faccio, come vivo, Vuole?
The man says he'll tell her in a few words who he is and what he does, if the lady is interested.
Chi son? Chi son? son un poeta.
He's a poet.
Che cosa faccio? Scrivo.
He writes.
E come vivo? Vivo.
He lives.
In poverta mia lieta scialo da gran signore rimi ed inni d'amore,
Even though he's poor, he lives like a rich man by writing poems and love songs.
Per sogni e per chimere e per castelli in aria l'anima ho milionaria.
His soul is rich because of his dreams and imaginary castles.
Talor del mio forziere ruban tutti i gioelli due ladri:gli occhi belli.
Sometimes, two thieves steal from his treasure chest, and they are the lady's beautiful eyes.
V'entrar con voi pur ora ed i miei sogni usati, ed i bei sogni miei tosto si dileguar!
He wants to enter the lady's life and share his dreams with her, but he fears they'll disappear.
Ma il furto non m'accora poiche, poiche v'ha preso stanza la speranza.
But he's not afraid of the thieves, because hope has found a place in his heart.
Or che mi conoscete parlate voi. Deh parlate. Chi siete? Vi piaccia dir?
Now that he has introduced himself, he wants to know the lady's identity and if she's willing to tell him about herself too.
Contributed by Isaac J. Suggest a correction in the comments below.