Gino Vannelli - "Living Inside Myself"

(Debuted March 21, 1981, Peaked #6, 20 Weeks on the Chart)

"Living Inside Myself" was the third and final Top 40 U.S. pop hit of the career of Canadian singer Gino Vannelli. On the surface, it shares many similarities with his biggest hit, 1978's "I Just Wanna Stop," but when you give it another listen, it is actually a deeper and richer song.

The song was written by Vannelli, and produced by him and his brothers Joe and Ross. It begins with an electric piano, but it doesn't take much time for Vannelli's voice to take center stage. It is raw and emotional, as if he's in physical pain over his situation. Before Vanelli's later flirtations with electronic music, he's content to simply allow his own voice to tell a story, which he does superbly. In fact, there are backing singers here but it's hard to tell unless you really listen for them; that is how much his voice takes command here.

"Living Inside Myself" was also the only Vannelli song that charted higher in the U.S. than it did in his native country. In Canada, it only reached #13. It also peaked at #5 on the U.S. adult contemporary survey.

Gino Vannelli - "Hurts to Be in Love"

(Debuted September 21, 1985, Peaked #57, 12 Weeks on the Chart)

American listeners know Gino Vannelli best for his 1978 hit "I Just Wanna Stop" and his lesser 1981 single "Living Inside Myself." The Montreal native had been working steadily since the early 1970s, however, and racked up several hit singles in his home country as well as a handful of lesser-charting songs in the U.S. By 1985, the music business had been changed by the advent of MTV and his LP Black Cars features layers of synthesizers (a Yamaha model, specifically) on every track. Vannelli had been an early proponent of the synthesizer -- his first Top 40 hit "People Gotta Move" featured one in 1974 -- but the sound and production style of the album definitely dates it as a 1985 artifact.

There was a song by Gene Pitney in 1964 called "It Hurts to Be in Love," but this is not a remake. It's a new song written by Vannelli.