Music Friday: Eddy Grant’s ‘Romancing the Stone’ Fails to Make the Final Cut of the Blockbuster Movie
May 2nd, 2014
Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you awesome songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics.
Today, we feature Eddy Grant’s 1984 hit, “Romancing the Stone,” which he wrote as the title song of what would become the international blockbuster movie starring Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and a giant emerald.
Although the song reached #26 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Chart, an apparent dispute between the music artist and the movie’s producers left nearly all of the title song on the cutting room floor and completely off the soundtrack album. Only a remnant of the song — a guitar solo — can be heard in the scene when Douglas and Turner are in a small house in the jungle.
Grant’s original video for the song featured scenes from the film. Later, the video was re-edited with no Romancing the Stone clips.
The action-adventure romantic comedy, in which all the main characters pursue “El Corazon,” a huge faceted emerald, went on to gross more than $86 million worldwide.
Grant eventually included “Romancing the Stone” as the first track of his 1984 album Going for Broke. The artist is best known for his 1983 hit, “Electric Avenue,” which reached #2 on the U.S. Billboard Top 100 chart.
“Romancing the Stone” includes the following lyrics: “I have found a love so precious, like an emerald so bold / It's a firelight escaping from the jeweler's hold.”
Check out the video of Grant performing our featured song on American Bandstand, with an introduction by the show’s host, Dick Clark. The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along:
“Romancing the Stone”
Written and performed by Eddie Grant.
I'm romancing the stone, never leaving your poor heart alone
Every night and every day gonna love the hurtin' away
I'm romancing the stone, never leaving your poor heart alone
Every night and every day gonna love the hurtin' away
Tonight, tonight I'm falling where the peaceful waters flow
Where the unicorn's the last one at the water hole
I have found a love so precious, like an emerald so bold
It's a firelight escaping from the jeweler's hold
I'm romancing the stone, never leaving your poor heart alone
Every night and every day gonna love the hurtin' away
I'm romancing the stone, never leaving your poor heart alone
Every night and every day gonna love the hurtin' away
Oh and in the heat of rapture when I feel the cold winds blow
Through the broken glass, I'll see at last the sweet desire in you
I will climb up on my pulpit and I'll preach a sermon, you
On the mountain roads, in Harlem, feel my jeweler's hold
I'm romancing the stone, never leaving your poor heart alone
Every night and every day gonna love the hurtin' away
I'm romancing the stone, never leaving your poor heart alone
Every night and every day gonna love the hurtin' away
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Tah4xGw3OUk
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