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/
Fallin'
Michael Bolton Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Saw the mountains crumble
Fell in love with the wind
And all the time I spent
Dreamin' of you
And all the love we made
But I never knew I found you
I can see it comin', hey
'Cause heaven sent you down to me
Heaven sent you down
Oceans re conforming
To pave the way before me
Revealing your flawless aura
I saw your wings unveil, inviting to me
A world of love
But I wasn't even looking for ya baby
I can feel love fallin', fallin'
I can see it comin', hey
'Cause heaven sent you down to me
Heaven sent you down
You became rain in the air
When you appeared to me
Like a love mystery, feels so real to me
'Cause you came from heaven
Sent down straight to me
And there's not another that ya can love
Oh I can feel it fallin'
I can feel love fallin', fallin'
I can see it comin', hey
'Cause heaven sent you down to me
Heaven sent you down
The lyrics to Michael Bolton's song "Fallin'" paint a vivid picture of the profound impact that love can have on an individual's life. The opening lines - "Angels heard me callin'/ Saw the mountains crumble/ Fell in love with the wind" - suggest the idea that the power of love can transcend the natural world and even reach the spiritual realm. The singer goes on to describe how they dreamed and longed for this love, but never realized they found it until it fell upon them.
The chorus of the song - "I can feel love fallin', fallin'/ I can see it comin', hey/ 'Cause heaven sent you down to me/ Heaven sent you down" - further emphasizes how this love feels like a gift from above. The imagery of oceans re-conforming and revealing a "flawless aura" creates a sense of cosmic beauty and the idea that this love was fated to be.
The second verse takes on a more personal tone as the singer describes how this love was not something they were actively seeking, but rather a surprise that appeared before them - "But I wasn't even looking for ya baby." The idea that the person they love was "sent down straight to me" continues the heavenly metaphor and underscores the idea that love can be a powerful force that we may not always understand or anticipate.
Overall, "Fallin'" explores the transformative power of love and the idea that sometimes, love can be a true gift from the heavens.
Line by Line Meaning
Angels heard me callin'
I was desperately calling for love and it was as if angels heard me.
Saw the mountains crumble
The world was altering around me as I was envisioning the love that I truly wanted.
Fell in love with the wind
I fell in love with the idea of love that is intangible like the wind.
And all the time I spent
I had spent a lot of time seeking the love that my heart desired.
Dreamin' of you
I was dreaming of the one who completes me.
And all the love we made
My heart was filled with all the love that we have made even in thoughts.
But I never knew I found you
I was unaware of the fact that I have found my true love.
Oceans re conforming
The beauty of the seas altered because true love reshapes the whole world around my love.
To pave the way before me
The path for us to unite was being cleared by the oceanic forces
Revealing your flawless aura
I saw the beauty and purity within you.
I saw your wings unveil, inviting to me
It was as though you revealed your heavenly wings inviting me to a world of love.
A world of love
A world full of love and hope that you will bring.
But I wasn't even looking for ya baby
I wasn't searching for love, but it found me anyway.
You became rain in the air
Your presence was like rain in the air that transformed everything around me.
When you appeared to me
It was as if you came from nowhere and appeared right before me.
Like a love mystery, feels so real to me
It seems like a love mystery yet it's genuine and tangible to me.
'Cause you came from heaven
You are an angel sent from heaven above to be with me.
Sent down straight to me
You were sent solely for me with a purpose to love me.
And there's not another that ya can love
You are the only one that I could ever love.
Oh I can feel it fallin'
I can feel the love pouring down upon me more intensely.
I can feel love fallin', fallin'
I can sense that my heart is succumbing to the power of love.
I can see it comin', hey
I can see that love is coming and it's knocking at my doors.
'Cause heaven sent you down to me
It is certain that I was blessed with an angelic touch of love.
Heaven sent you down
I'm sure that you are an angel sent down for me so that my life becomes a world of love only.
Lyrics © BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Written by: Tony Rich
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind