Glory Of Love (Theme From The Karate Kid Part II)
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Album Summary
"Glory of Love" — the theme from The Karate Kid Part II — came straight from the heart of one of the most gifted voices in the game. Peter Cetera, fresh off his departure from Chicago, stepped out on his own and delivered something truly special for Full Moon/Warner Bros. Records in the summer of 1986. Written by Cetera alongside the legendary David Foster and Diane Nini, and produced by Foster himself, this single arrived right in step with the film's theatrical run and announced to the world in no uncertain terms that Peter Cetera was not just a band member — he was a solo star of the first magnitude. It was a moment, and everybody who heard it on the radio that summer knew it.
Reception
- "Glory of Love" climbed all the way to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in August 1986, holding that top spot for two weeks and cementing itself as one of the quintessential pop moments of that long, golden summer.
- The song earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song at the 1987 ceremony, as well as a Golden Globe nomination, giving this beautiful ballad the kind of awards-season recognition it so richly deserved.
- The single performed with tremendous strength on the Adult Contemporary chart, proving that Cetera's warm, emotive tenor connected deeply across multiple radio formats and demographics.
Significance
- "Glory of Love" stands as one of the purest and most powerful examples of the mid-1980s cinematic power ballad — a seamless marriage of lush orchestration, soft rock sensibility, and Hollywood grandeur that influenced countless soundtrack singles in the years that followed.
- The song's success demonstrated with unmistakable clarity the commercial force of pairing a major pop artist with a blockbuster film franchise, helping to shape the entire strategy of soundtrack marketing throughout the latter half of the 1980s.
- The track further cemented David Foster's standing as the undisputed maestro of polished, emotionally rich adult contemporary production — a sound that defined mainstream pop radio during the decade and left a fingerprint on an entire era of popular music.
Tracklist
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A Glory Of Love (Theme From The Karate Kid Part II) —
4:20
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B Glory Of Love (Theme From The Karate Kid Part II) —
4:20
Artist Details
Peter Cetera is the smooth-voiced, Chicago-born bass guitarist and lead vocalist who helped define the sound of one of rock's most beloved bands — Chicago — rising to fame in the late 1960s and carrying that blue-eyed soul and orchestrated rock sound all the way through the seventies and beyond. That man could wrap his voice around a ballad like warm velvet, and when he stepped out on his own in the mid-eighties, songs like Glory of Love proved he had that solo star power to match his band legacy. As the heart and heartbreak behind so many Chicago classics, Cetera left a mark on adult contemporary and soft rock that still echoes every time someone puts on a slow song and lets the feeling take over.
