Steve Ellis, Voice of 'Everlasting Love,' Dies at 76

Steve Ellis, the singer who fronted the 1960s pop-rock band Love Affair and took "Everlasting Love" to No 1 in the UK, has died aged 76. A message on social media announced that Ellis died "peacefully" on 30 October, after "complications from a chronic illness".

With his stirring, heartfelt croon, Ellis gave voice to one of the most enduring hits of the 1960s. "Everlasting Love" spent two weeks at the top of the UK chart in 1968 and remains a wedding-ceremony staple.

How did a building-site worker top the charts?

Ellis was born in Edgware, north-west London, in 1950. At 15 he formed the band Soul Survivors, inspired by Black US soul and R&B acts. Seeing James Brown live changed how he thought about performing. "He blew our socks off, he was phenomenal. I thought, that's how a singer has to be, so I started doing gymnastics," Ellis told the Express in 2021.

Soul Survivors morphed into Love Affair in the mid-1960s. Decca signed them, and their debut single, "She Smiled Sweetly," came out almost concurrently with the Rolling Stones' original version — and flopped.

The follow-up changed everything. "Everlasting Love," written by Buzz Cason and Mac Gayden and first recorded by US singer Robert Knight, became a major hit. Ellis recorded his vocal between shifts on a building site. His performance arguably out-spirited the original, really selling the song's pledge: "Need you by my side, girl, to be my bride / You'll never be denied everlasting love."

Other versions did better in the US — Carl Carlton reached No 6 in 1974 — but Love Affair's cut has endured as the most popular on streaming services.

What came after the hits?

Riding bombastic symphonic backings, Love Affair landed three more UK Top 10 hits within two years:

• "Rainbow Valley" — another Cason-Gayden song first performed by Knight, anchored by an emotionally wracked Ellis vocal; 11 weeks in the Top 40
• "A Day Without Love"
• "Bringing on Back the Good Times"

As fame waned later in the decade, Ellis grew disillusioned. "The band wanted to go progressive rock and that wasn't for me," he later said. "I'd always been a soul-boy. The main reason we broke up though was the screaming [fans]. We couldn't hear what we were playing."

In 1972 he formed the band Ellis, whose debut album was produced by Roger Daltrey. Then came Widowmaker, featuring ex-Hawkwind guitarist Huw Lloyd Langton and others; they recorded their self-titled debut in 1976 and continued without him.

His solo run included "The Last Angry Man" (1977) and "Basement Days" (1983). The 2008 album "Best of Days" reunited him with Daltrey, who appeared on two tracks.

That record also started an enduring collaboration with Paul Weller, who played on two tracks including a live acoustic version of "Everlasting Love." The two rejoined for 2018's "Boom! Bang! Twang!," with Weller co-writing two tracks and co-producing, and for a one-off co-written song in 2022, "Just to Simplify." Ellis's most recent album, "Baby Faced Assassin," arrived in September with three more Weller co-creations.

Weller paid tribute on Instagram: "God bless ya Stevie safe travels everlasting love for sure."

Ellis's catalog — most of it still streaming, anchored by a 57-year-old No 1 — now stands as the record of a career that stretched from UK beat-pop to late-life songwriting with one of Britain's most enduring mod-rock figures.