This song has been covered so often that I know it well, but I don't think I had ever heard the original until just now. The lead singer sounds good but the doo-wop backing vocals are a bit annoying.
Phil Phillips (1926-2020) was a gospel singer and a bellhop before co-writing and recording "Sea Of Love". It reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and sold over one million copies. Phillips claimed that he only received $6,800 for recording it and earned no royalties from it.
Phillips recorded a few other songs, including "The Evil Dope", recorded in the late 1960s or 1970, which is a lecture on the evils of drugs. I couldn't finish it but I am convinced that there is nothing like it in the world. After this, he became a radio DJ, and he and his wife had seven children. He was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2007.
"Sea Of Love" has been covered by Marty Wilde, Del Shannon, Iggy Pop, Tom Waits, Cat Power, and B. J. Thomas, among others. The Honeydrippers, Robert Plant's band, reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 with it in early 1985.
Created May 18, 2026.