“Through The Eyes Of Love” is the latest single from Manchester’s forthcoming album, RE:VIEW, her 25th, a collection of several of her nineteen Billboard® charted hits, re-envisioned and re-recorded.
For the “Through The Eyes Of Love” music video, Manchester “wanted to share with my fans some of the dear people, my ‘Beloveds,’ who have enriched my life’s journey.” She adds, “I wanted to convey, as well, that the message of this song still stands true and timeless.”
RE:VIEW the forthcoming album 2023
“The whole point of RE:VIEW is that, in these times, as with many of my colleagues, the original record company owns all of my masters,” she explains. “The only way I can empower myself and own my masters is to re-record these old songs – with a little bit of a tweak, just to make it interesting.”
The album has been slow-released, song by song, periodically throughout the pandemic, with a full album release (including a bonus track) slated for April 2023, in celebration of Manchester’s 50-year career. Some of RE:VIEW’s tracks, like “Through The Eyes Of Love,” remains mainly true to the original recording while others are substantially re-imagined.
Nominated for an Academy Award
The second of Manchester’s Oscar®-nominated songs in the 1980 Academy Awards broadcast was the David Shire/Alan Bergman/Marilyn Bergman ballad “I’ll Never Say Goodbye,” a favorite in Asia, but it was largely eclipsed in the U.S. by the popularity of the Ice Castles feature film and its theme, “Through The Eyes Of Love,” which became the wedding song to thousands of couples.
“It was a thrill when ‘Through The Eyes Of Love’ was nominated for an Academy Award,” exclaims singer Melissa Manchester. It set the stage for her to become the first artist ever to have two Oscar®-nominated songs in a single year, and to perform them both on the 1980 Academy Awards telecast.
The GRAMMY® Award-winning singer/songwriter recalls, “Years ago, I had become friends with the late Marvin Hamlisch through my writing partner, Carole Bayer Sager. In that moment, they were writing the song for the upcoming film Ice Castles. That song turned out to be their lovely ‘Through The Eyes Of Love.’”
Peaking at #13 on the 1979 Billboard® Adult Contemporary charts, the theme song drew its foundation from the figure skating landscape of its movie. “Marvin told me that the opening melody was inspired by the image of the leading character, a skater, practicing her figure eights,” explains Manchester. “’Round and round she’d go,’ he told me, ‘and the notes started to reflect her movements.’”