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/
Fields Of Gold
Michael Bolton Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Among the fields of barley
You can tell the sun in his jealous sky
When we walked in fields of gold
So she took her love for to gaze awhile
Among the fields of barley
In his arms she fell as her hair came down
Will you stay with me? Will you be my love?
Among the fields of barley
And you can tell the sun in his jealous sky
When we walked in fields of gold
I never made promises lightly
And there have been some that I've broken
But I swear in the days still left
We will walk in fields of gold
We'll walk in fields of gold
I never made promises lightly
And there have been some that I've broken
But I swear in the days still left
We will walk in fields of gold
We'll walk in fields of gold
Many years have passed
Since those summer days
Among the fields of barley
See the children run as the sun goes down
As you lie in fields of gold
You'll remember me when the west wind moves
Among the fields of barley
You can tell the sun in his jealous sky
When we walked in fields of gold
When we walked in fields of gold
When we walked in fields of gold
The lyrics to Michael Bolton's "Fields of Gold" take us on a romantic journey through golden fields of wheat and barley, where two lovers wander and make promises of eternal love. The first verse speaks of the memories the singer hopes his lover will hold on to when the west wind blows through the fields of barley. The line "you can tell the sun in his jealous sky" suggests that their love was so bright that it made the sun jealous. The second verse describes the lady's hair falling in her lover's arms while they gaze at the beauty of the golden fields. The chorus invites the lover to stay with him, and the promise of walking in fields of gold is repeated twice, emphasising its importance.
The third verse takes us to the present time, where many years have passed since the blissful summer days of wandering through fields of barley. The children running as the sun goes down suggest that life goes on, and the memories of the summer days in the fields are cherished. The final verse repeats the promise to walk in fields of gold, reminding us again of the hope for eternal love.
"Fields of Gold" was written and recorded by Sting in 1993, and Michael Bolton's version was released in 1995. The song was a commercial success, reaching top 40 in several countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. It won awards for Song of the Year and Record of the Year in several countries, including the United Kingdom.
Line by Line Meaning
You'll remember me when the west wind moves
I will remain in your memory after I am gone
Among the fields of barley
in a landscape that is comforting and familiar to you
You can tell the sun in his jealous sky
You can see the power and beauty of the light
When we walked in fields of gold
As we once shared a moment of beauty together
So she took her love for to gaze awhile
She needed to spend time in a peaceful place with her emotions
Among the fields of barley
In a familiar terrain that brought comfort
In his arms she fell as her hair came down
He held her close and comforted her as she let her defenses down
Among the fields of gold
In a place of magic and beauty
Will you stay with me? Will you be my love?
Can our time together be a lasting connection of love?
Among the fields of barley
Within this landscape that draws us to one another
And you can tell the sun in his jealous sky
We will create something so beautiful that even nature will be envious
When we walked in fields of gold
When we shared that moment of beauty together
I never made promises lightly
I do not make commitments without taking them seriously
And there have been some that I've broken
I have made mistakes in the past
But I swear in the days still left
I promise to make the most of the time we have left
We will walk in fields of gold
We will create more beautiful moments together
We'll walk in fields of gold
We'll share more magical moments together
Many years have passed
Time has gone by
Since those summer days
Since we shared that moment
Among the fields of barley
Within that comforting landscape
See the children run as the sun goes down
As the years go by, new generations enjoy the beauty of that same landscape
As you lie in fields of gold
As you rest in peace in that same place
You'll remember me when the west wind moves
I will continue to be with you in spirit
Among the fields of barley
Within the place that brought us together
You can tell the sun in his jealous sky
You can still see the beauty of that same light
When we walked in fields of gold
When we shared that moment of beauty together
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Gordon Sumner
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind