Endless Love was a notoriously sentimental romance about two mismatched, doomed teens. Upon its release in 1981, it was a smash success, but years afterward, it's best known as one of Brooke Shields' best performances and as the catalyst for "Endless Love,"
Lionel Richie and
Diana Ross' sweeping, unabashedly mawkish love theme. Richie and Ross had one other song on the album, "Dreaming of You," but
Cliff Richard's "Dreaming" and Kiss' "I Was Made for Lovin' You" both climbed into the upper reaches of the charts. Apart from those three hits, however, there's precious little to recommend the soundtrack.
Jonathan Tunick's languid score tries hard to be tragic and romantic, but it winds up being overwrought yet strangely faceless. The three hits make Endless Love into a nostalgia piece for fans of the film, but they're not quite enough to sustain interest throughout the record. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine