Nights Are Forever: A Compilation, by England Dan & John Ford Coley

Okay, this is going to get complicated, so let’s go carefully. After two failed album releases and being dropped by their first label, soft-rock duo England Dan & John Ford Coley recorded the album “Nights Are Forever” and hit the top ten with two singles from that album, “I’d Really Like To See You Tonight” and the sort of title track “Nights Are Forever Without You.” For the rest of the 1970’s and into the early 1980’s they release moderately popular albums and end up with a decent number of hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and even more on the Adult Contemporary chart. Let’s flash forward to 2018, and after a wide variety of compilations that have been released for sale but somehow aren’t available for streaming on Spotify, the re-issue label X5 releases a bulk compilation called “Nights Are Forever,” named after the group’s first successful album, but strikingly the compilation doesn’t include the group’s first and biggest hit in “I’d Really Like To See You Tonight.” This omission suggests that the Warner Brothers label wants to hold on to the key song and make its own definitive compilation, only it’s 2026 as I review this and such a definitive compilation is nowhere in sight. Despite the fact that this album is not the definitive compilation, is it any good? Let’s find out.

It is my normal habit to review albums by giving a track-by-track review, but although listening to 25 mostly tuneful but obscure songs by a nearly forgotten soft rock duo was a pleasant experience, it would not be a pleasant experience writing or reading an account of songs that mostly sound the same and trying to find minor differences between them. Even though the compilation is missing the group’s biggest hit, it includes most of their other hits, including single versions of the following songs: It’s Sad To Belong, Love Is The Answer, We’ll Never Have To Say Goodbye Again, Gone Too Far, and Some Things Don’t Come Easy. All of these songs are pretty strong songs and it’s easy to see why they were at least mildly popular. Album songs like “Nights Are Forever Without You,” “What’s Forever For,” “Soldier In The Rain,” “Broken Hearted Me,” later made a hit by Anne Murray, and “Westward Wind” are pretty excellent tracks that were mostly popular on Adult Contemporary. For me, one of my favorite songs on the tracklist is the obscure “You Can’t Dance,” which is as late-era song by the duo that shows the group being self-aware that they are viewed as a soft-rock dance but have more versatility than they are given credit for, with a danceable mid-tempo song that, as the group says, “If you can’t dance to this than it’s your own fault.”

So, what can one say about the group England Dan & John Ford Coley after listening to 25 songs of theirs? By and large, this is pleasant music. It’s tuneful, with beautiful harmonies, professional instrumentation in the studio, lyrics that range from mildly thought-provoking to inoffensive and enjoyable. This is music that one usually doesn’t have to think too heavily about but can enjoy. The two singers blend voices well, are at least competent songwriters (there is nothing here as embarrassing as the lyrics of Andrew Gold), and their music allowed a sonic escape from mundane exist to a world of warm breezes or even the thought of lovemaking to the sound of a thunderstorm (Lovin’ Somebody On A Rainy Night). So even though this is not a definitive compilation, because of the lack of securing the rights for the group’s biggest song, this compilation does show that there is a lot more than that one definitive hit to the group’s music, and that there is at least an hour and a half of music that is well worth listening to. Perhaps someday I will try to take a look at this group album by album, but this particular compilation certainly whets the appetite for more, and that is enough of a reason to appreciate this compilation for the best of the songs of England Dan & John Ford Coley that the label was able to secure the rights for.