The highest charted version of "Could It Be Magic" came from Take That in 1992 which made number 3 and had been their highest charting single to date. This was the first version many people under a certain age, myself included, had heard.
The following year, Barry Manilow who wrote this song, re-entered the charts with it. The general consensus was that Take That did a pretty good job of taking a dreary Barry Manilow ballad and making it a happy uplifting number.
However, what these people perhaps didn't realise was that Donna Summer did pretty much the same thing back in 1976, but only made number 40 with it.
This was the first version of the song to chart in the UK. The song dates back to 1971 and was first recorded by Featherbed, which was Barry Manilow plus some session musicians. A solo version was recorded by Barry Manilow in 1973, but it never charted in the UK until 1978.
Like with many of her early hits, this was produced by Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte. It was her second Top 40 hit having debuted at the start of 1976 with "Love To Love You Baby" which made number 4. Her follow up to this, "Winter Melody" was also a minor hit later on in the year reaching number 27.
The turning point though came in 1977 where she topped the charts with "I Feel Love" and would go on to have a long successful chart career with 26 Top 40 hits with her final one to date coming in 1994.
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