- published: 22 Apr 2016
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"Longer" is a song written and recorded by the American singer-songwriter Dan Fogelberg. The song can be found on Fogelberg's 1979 album Phoenix. It was also included on his 1982 greatest hits album as well as various other retrospective and compilation recordings.
Fogelberg, who had released more rock-oriented songs throughout the 1970s, jokingly described "Longer" in the liner notes to one of his retrospective albums as "the song that put me on the elevators." He wrote the song while vacationing in Maui, "lounging in a hammock one night and looking up at the stars. It just seems this song was drifting around the universe, saw me, and decided I'd give it a good home." Accompanying Fogelberg's vocals is an acoustic guitar (played by the singer) as well as a flugelhorn solo by Jerry Hey.
Lyrically, the song compares various events ("Longer than there've been stars up in the heavens") with his emotional attachment to the one he loves ("I've been in love with you").
"Longer" was released as a single in late 1979, prior to the release of the album Phoenix. It became Fogelberg's highest-charting hit of his career, spending two weeks at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in March 1980. It was kept from the summit the first week by "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" by Queen, and remained in the runner-up spot the next week behind "Another Brick in the Wall" by Pink Floyd. In addition, "Longer" became the first of the singer's four #1 songs on the Billboard adult contemporary chart between 1980 and 1984. The song reached #85 on the Billboard country music chart.
Michael John Douglas (born September 5, 1951), better known by the stage name Michael Keaton, is an American actor known for his early comedic roles, most notably his performance as the title character of Tim Burton's Beetlejuice (1988). Keaton is also famous for his dramatic portrayal of Bruce Wayne/Batman in Tim Burton's Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992). He has since appeared in various other films, including Pixar's Cars (2006) and Toy Story 3 (2010).
Keaton, the youngest of seven children, was born in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, and lived in Robinson Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. His father, George A. Douglas, worked as a civil engineer and surveyor, and his mother, Leona Elizabeth (née Loftus), a homemaker, came from a Scots-Irish community in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania. Keaton was raised in a large Catholic family and attended Montour High School in Pennsylvania. He studied speech for two years at Kent State before dropping out and moving to Pittsburgh.
An unsuccessful attempt at comedy led Keaton to working as a TV cameraman at public television station WQED (TV) in Pittsburgh. Keaton first appeared on TV in the Pittsburgh-based public television programs, including "Where the Heart Is" and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (1975), as one of the "Flying Zucchini Brothers." He also served as a full-time production assistant on the show. (In 2004, following Fred Rogers' death, Keaton hosted the PBS memorial tribute program, Fred Rogers: Everybody's Favorite Neighbor.) Keaton also worked as an actor in Pittsburgh theatre; he played the role of Rick in the Pittsburgh premiere of David Rabe's Sticks and Bones with the Pittsburgh Poor Players.
Kelly Maria Ripa (born October 2, 1970) is an American actress, talk show host, and television producer. Ripa, who played Hayley Vaughan on the television soap opera All My Children from 1990–2002, is best known as host of the popular syndicated morning talk show Live! with Kelly. Additionally, Ripa and her husband Mark Consuelos own a New York based production company, Milojo.
In 2012, The Hollywood Reporter named her one of the Most Powerful People in Media.
Ripa was born in Stratford, New Jersey, the daughter of Esther, a homemaker, and Joseph Ripa, a labor-union president and bus driver. She has a younger sister, Linda, who is a children's book author. She is of Italian and Irish descent. Her father has been the Democratic County Clerk for Camden County, New Jersey since June 2009. She is the first in her family to enter the acting profession. She has studied ballet since age three, plays the piano, and, in her words, is "no Barbra Streisand," but can carry a tune.
Ripa graduated from Eastern High School in Voorhees Township, New Jersey, where she became a cheerleader and was later encouraged by her drama teacher to pursue acting. "I owe so much of my career to Jim Beckley," she said. "He thought I was a natural performer and so he gave me the lead in the next show." She starred in local theatre productions and was discovered while performing in the comedy play The Ugly Duckling (c. 1941), by A.A. Milne, during her senior year. She attended Camden County College studying psychology, but dropped out and moved to New York City to be an actress.