The English Congregation was a short-lived British pop-ensemble that achieved one-hit wonder status in the United States. Formed in Britain as simply The Congregation, they amended their name in early 1972 for U.S. releases, presumably to avoid confusion with the then-popular Mike Curb Congregation.
Their sole moment in the sun came in early spring 1972 with "Softly Whispering I Love You," a track written by noted songwriting team Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway (who originally recorded it in 1967 under their David and Jonathan moniker). The merging of sweeping orchestration and choir with guitar work by Alan Parker and lead singer Brian Keith's Levi Stubbs-like declamatory vocal produced a memorable number 29 hit in the United States. It also reached #4 in the United Kingdom and #10 in Germany. The group had no subsequent hit singles or albums and faded into obscurity. Keith went on to provide studio vocals on numerous projects, none of which sold in significant amounts.The lack of further chart presence left the English Congregation as transatlantic one-hit wonders.
I've always liked this song since I first heard it as a teenager back in 1972. I remember I looked and looked for the single, but none of the shops I visited had copies of the song. A few years later I was lucky enough to find a used copy of the album, but over the years it has become lost or misplaced. I remember that on the back of the album was a list of the singers in the group, something like a dozen or more names. I would have liked to have given them credit, but couldn't find my copy of the album.
I have also created another video of another song by Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway. You can view that here:
Morgana King - Desert Hush / I Am A Leaf
[ Ссылка ]
SOFTLY WHISPERING I LOVE YOU
(Words and Music by Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway)
Softly, whispering I love you,
echoes of your voice are calling still through my dreams,
softening the chill of the breeze.
Through my window,
I can see the moonglow
painting silver shadows on a rose-colored land;
A world that we walk hand in hand
in a day of gold
colored by the glow of new love.
Oh, Woman, I can feel your warm face ever close to my lips
and the scent of you invades the cool evening air.
I can close my eyes and you´re there in my arms still
and I know your soft kiss,
turning into music every beat of my heart,
When I hold you close to my heart
and I hear your voice
whispering I love you.
