Exile – Kiss You All Over (1978)
Description
“Kiss You All Over” is a 1978 song performed by American group Exile, written by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn. It was included on the band’s third album, Mixed Emotions (1978), and featured lead vocalist Jimmy Stokley and guitarist J.P. Pennington on vocals. On the American Top 40 broadcast of May 26, 1979, Casey Kasem reported that Chapman stated his source of inspiration for “Kiss You All Over” was “It’s Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next to Me” by Barry White. The song was a number one single in the United States, but proved to be Exile’s only big hit in the pop market (they would later have great success on the country music charts).
It held the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks (starting September 30), and Billboard ranked it as the No. 5 song for 1978. The track also reached number-one in at least three other countries. In the United Kingdom, the song was released on Mickie Most‘s RAK Records, and peaked at number 6 on the UK Singles Chart. The strings are played with a synthesizer in a backing track. In 2010, Billboard ranked the song tenth on its list of “The 50 Sexiest Songs of All Time”.
Lead vocalist on the number, Stokley was ousted from the band in 1979, his health declining thereafter until he died at the age of 41 in 1985. After the success of “Kiss You All Over”, soft rock singles from the albums Mixed Emotions and All There Is had lower chart positions, in comparison.
The band moved into country music in the 1980s, after their own composed pop singles, despite failing, would become hits for other acts such as Alabama and Huey Lewis and The News. The music change worked for Exile, as they would have over ten #1 hits in the U.S. Country market.
