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/
Soul Of My Soul
Michael Bolton Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
We may be worlds apart somehow
And it's hard to accept
The things we just don't understand
So blind to each other
We only see one side of nowhere
Some things we may never know
If there's one thing you should ever know
Soul of my soul, heart of my heart
The greatest treasure of my life that's what you are
Soul of my soul, child of my heart
I love you more than you know, soul of my soul
Into this world
We come with a heart that's open wide
And the best of this life
Is all I ever want for you
The love you believe in, your every dream
Your every passion
In time I know you'll come to see
Nothin' means as much to me
Soul of my soul, heart of my heart
The greatest treasure of my life that's what you are
Soul of my soul, child of my heart
I love you more than you know, soul of my soul
There'll come a time when you'll be on your own
But in your heart you're never far from home
Eery road you take
Your ever living day
You will always be, you will always be
The soul of my soul
Soul of my soul, heart of my heart
The greatest treasure of my life that's what you are
Soul of my soul, child of my heart
I love you more than you know, soul of my soul
Soul of my soul, heart of my heart
Some kind of miracle of my life that's what you are
Blood of my blood, light of my life
You mean much more than you know
Soul of my soul
The song "Soul of My Soul" by Michael Bolton is a touching tribute to the deep and abiding love a parent has for their child. The lyrics speak to the idea that although we may come from different worlds and have different perspectives, there is a bond between parent and child that transcends all of these differences. The first verse acknowledges that there may be things that we do not understand about each other, but that despite these misunderstandings, there is an unbreakable connection between parent and child. The chorus emphasizes this connection by repeating the phrase "Soul of my soul, heart of my heart," which suggests that the child is a part of the parent's very essence.
The second verse of the song emphasizes the importance of love, dreams, and passion in a child's life. The parent wants nothing more than for the child to experience the best that life has to offer and to pursue their dreams to the fullest extent. The final verse acknowledges that there will come a time when the child must strike out on their own, but that the parent will always be with them in spirit, guiding them and supporting them no matter where life takes them.
Overall, "Soul of My Soul" is a deeply emotional and heartfelt song that celebrates the powerful love between parent and child.
Line by Line Meaning
We may be strangers
Although we may not know each other well
We may be worlds apart somehow
We may have very different perspectives or experiences
And it's hard to accept
It can be difficult to understand or come to terms with these differences
The things we just don't understand
There may be some things we are unable to comprehend or explain
So blind to each other
We may not fully see or appreciate each other's point of view
We only see one side of nowhere
We may have limited understanding of the world around us
Some things we may never know
Certain things may be unknowable or beyond our understanding
If there's one thing you should ever know
However, there is one thing I want you to be certain of
Soul of my soul, heart of my heart
You are the most important thing to me
The greatest treasure of my life that's what you are
You are my most valuable possession
Soul of my soul, child of my heart
You are my beloved offspring
I love you more than you know, soul of my soul
My love for you is deeper than you can imagine
Into this world
As we enter this life
We come with a heart that's open wide
We are initially open and receptive to the world around us
And the best of this life
The most valuable thing in life
Is all I ever want for you
Is what I wish for you the most
The love you believe in, your every dream
The things you care about most
Your every passion
The things you love to do or pursue
In time I know you'll come to see
I'm confident that eventually you'll understand
Nothin' means as much to me
There is nothing more important to me
There'll come a time when you'll be on your own
Eventually you will be independent
But in your heart you're never far from home
No matter where you go, you will always be loved and welcomed back
Every road you take
Every path you choose
Your ever living day
Throughout your entire life
You will always be, you will always be
You will always remain
The soul of my soul
The most important person in my life
Some kind of miracle of my life that's what you are
You are an amazing and wonderful thing that has happened to me
Blood of my blood, light of my life
You are an essential part of me and bring light to my life
You mean much more than you know
I value and treasure you immensely
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Realsongs, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: Walter Afanasieff, Michael Bolton, Diane Warren
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind