Dan Hill

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Daniel Grafton "Dan" Hill IV (born 3 June 1954) is a Canadian pop singer and songwriter. He had two major international hits with his songs "Sometimes When We Touch" and "Can't We Try", a duet with Vonda Shepard, as well as a number of other charting singles in Canada and the United States.

Hill was born in Toronto, the son of social scientist and public servant Daniel G. Hill, and brother of the author Lawrence Hill and the late novelist Karen Hill. He studied guitar in his teens, leaving high school at 17 to work as songwriter for RCA. At one point he was working for the Ontario provincial government, delivering office supplies, while performing at the Riverboat at night. In 1975, he released his first album, Dan Hill, which produced a Canadian hit single, "You Make Me Want to Be".

In 1977 Hill recorded the ballad "Sometimes When We Touch". He also wrote the lyrics and was assisted in the music by Barry Mann for the album from the same year, Longer Fuse, and it was released as a single. It was Hill's biggest hit, peaking at #3 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Canadian RPM Singles chart, and leading to Hill's appearances on The Merv Griffin Show and The Mike Douglas Show. Tina Turner covered the song in 1978 on her album Rough.

Another one of his hit songs was "It's a Long Road", which he recorded for the 1982 action movie First Blood. In 1985, he was one of the many Canadian performers to appear on the benefit single "Tears Are Not Enough" by Northern Lights. Although he had many hits in his native Canada, further singles did not fare as well in the United States, where, after "Let the Song Last Forever" in late 1978, he went almost a decade without cracking any of Billboard's singles charts.

In 1987, Hill returned to the Billboard Hot 100 with the Top 40 hit "Can't We Try", a duet with the then-unknown Vonda Shepard (her last name was incorrectly spelled "Sheppard" on the label). It peaked at No. 6 on the Hot 100. He also had a near Top 40 hit with "Never Thought (That I Could Love)". Both records reached #2 on the Adult Contemporary chart and set the stage for Hill to have three more top 10 U.S. AC hits through 1991's "I Fall All Over Again," though he did not make the Hot 100 again after "Never Thought (That I Could Love)."

A road trip to a Hill concert was the subject of the 1994 Canadian comedy film, South of Wawa.

In 2007 he toured with the CBC Radio program The Vinyl Cafe.

Hill was a lifelong friend of writer Paul Quarrington, and the two also occasionally performed together as a folk music duo, billed as Quarrington/Hill. The pair's final collaboration, a song about death called "Are You Ready", was completed just ten days before Quarrington's death in early 2010, and will be featured in a forthcoming television documentary, Paul Quarrington: Life in Music.

His wife is lawyer Beverly Chapin-Hill, with whom he wrote the songs "Can't We Try" and "(Can This Be) Real Love".

Some sources have incorrectly stated that he was married to American country singer Faith Hill whose surname comes from her first marriage to an unrelated Nashville record executive also named Daniel Hill.

Hill wrote an article in the 14 February 2008 edition of Maclean's entitled "Every Parent's Nightmare", about the terror he experienced from friends his son brought home.  On 14 March 2008, CBC Television's The National aired an in-depth interview with Hill discussing his son's involvement with Toronto gangs.

In early 2009, Hill published I Am My Father's Son: A Memoir of Love and Forgiveness (ISBN 978-1-55468-190-7) which recounts his childhood.

Hill is the brother of novelists Lawrence Hill and Karen Hill.

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"Sometimes When We Touch" is a 1977 ballad written by Dan Hill (lyrics) and Barry Mann (music) on the album Longer Fuse, but was also released as a single in 1978. It was Hill's biggest hit, peaking at # 3 on the United States Billboard Hot 100 and #10 on the Easy Listening chart.  Musicians included Bobby Ogdin (piano), Larrie Londin (drums), Bob Mann (guitar), Don Potter (guitar), Tom Szczesniak (bass). The record was produced by Fred Mollin and Matthew McCauley, recorded at Manta Sound, Toronto.

Tina Turner recorded a version for her 1978 album, Rough. An Estonian language version of the song (entitled "Puudutus") also exists. Often performed as a duet, the song has been covered by Koit Toome and Maarja-Liis Ilus among others. On Toome's acoustic greatest hits album, "Allikas", the song is present as a solo piece with the tune credited to "H. Dan".

UK dance singer Newton also took the song into the top 40 in the UK (peaking at #32 in February 1996) and to #5 in Australia, also in 1996. Newton's version went Gold in Australia.

In 2008, Daniel Evans performed the song at his first audition on series 5 of the X Factor (UK) bringing judge Cheryl Cole to tears after he sang in memory of his wife, who died shortly after childbirth. The clip has had nearly 20 million views on YouTube. He subsequently released the song on his debut album No Easy Way in 2010.

The ska band Five Iron Frenzy also did a cover of this song as part of a "Medley" during their farewell tour in 2004. There is also a version recorded in 1980 by Cleo Laine and James Galway. Tammy Wynette covered the song in 1985 with country-pop singer Mark Gray. Their duet version peaked at No. 6 on the country singles chart in 1985. British singer Rod Stewart recorded the song for his 1996 album If We Fall in Love Tonight. Veteran British entertainer Tommy Steele recorded this on his Family Album.

Manny Pacquiao sang this song on November 3, 2009 showing of the Jimmy Kimmel Live! show. This was Pacquiao's first guest appearance on an American late night TV talk show and his first singing performance on American TV. He would later revive this song on April 2011 as his single and reached number 19 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary top 20 list and has become the third most added song on radio playlists in the US. In August 2012, Dream Theater performed an impromptu short cover in Rio de Janeiro.