The “Golden Hits Of The 70s” 

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DEBBY BOONE

 “YOU LIGHT UP MY LIFE”

(Joe Brooks)

Warner Bros. 8455

No. 1   October 15, 1977

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Like it or not, “You Light Up My Life,” composed by Joe Brooks–a one-time $500,000-a-year advertising

man–spent more time at number one than any song since Guy Mitchell’s 1956 hit “Singing the Blues.”  It

garnered a Grammy Award for “Song of the Year,” one for Debby Boone as “Best New Artist of the Year,”

and an Academy Award for “Best Original song” of 1977.  “Light” eventu­ally sold more than 5 million

copies worldwide, making it the biggest-selling record of the year and the biggest­ selling single in Warner

Bros. history.

Born Deborah Anne Boone–the third daughter to Shirley and Pat Boone and granddaughter to country

staple Red Foley–in Hackensack, New Jersey, on Sep­tember 26, 1956, Debby was surrounded from birth

by the sounds of music.  During her teen years, Debby and her three sisters toured state fairs, theaters,

and revivals with their parents.  The Boones–Cherry, Lindy, Laury, and Debby–cut some white-soul

singles for Motown and later for Warner Bros./Curb, but none of these efforts sold well, so each clan

member moved onto other interests.  Debby still wanted to pursue music.  MIKE CURB–producer, anti-

drug crusader, and future lieutenant governor of California–obliged, offering her the title song of a low-

budget Columbia Picture.

Deb has had a few modest pop chartings–“California” (#50, 1978) and “God Knows” (#74, 1978)–and a

few major country successes–“My Heart Has a Mind of its Own” (#10, 1979), “Free to Be Lonely Again”

(#14, 1980), and “Are You on the Road to Loving Me Again?” (#1, 1980)–but has yet to find another

“Light” in her life.  She is married to Gabriel Ferrer, the son of actor Jose Ferrer and jazz/pop singer

Rosemary Clooney.  In the late ’80s, Deb decided to do acting instead.  She resurfaced in 1990 as Maria in

a Broadway stage revival of The Sound of Music.