The British singer who took “Everlasting Love” to the top of the U.K. charts — only for it to emerge that his band had not played on the record — has died.
Steve Ellis, the frontman and lead vocalist of the 1960s group Love Affair, died on the evening of Friday, Oct. 30, 2026, at 76, following complications from a chronic illness, according to a statement posted on the singer’s official Facebook account.
The announcement opened, “Dear Friends, It’s with a heavy heart that we share the news of Steve’s passing,” and said he had slipped away peacefully with his loved ones around him. It asked fans to leave their thoughts, memories and condolences for the family, then closed with the two words that made him famous: “Everlasting Love.”
Record producer and songwriter David Courtney, a longtime friend, announced the death on his own Facebook page before the family’s statement appeared, writing that his thoughts were with the family. Tributes from fans and fellow musicians flooded in behind him.
The Cover That Topped the Charts
Love Affair, a pop and progressive rock group, formed in 1966. Its second single, “Everlasting Love,” reached No. 1 on the U.K. singles chart in January 1968.
Ellis, who was born in Middlesex, had started his first band, Soul Survivors, at 15. That group became Love Affair, with a lineup that also included Rex Brayley, Mick Jackson, Lynton Guest and Maurice Bacon.
The song was not theirs to begin with. Robert Knight recorded the original, written by Buzz Cason and Mac Gayden, and his version reached No. 13 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. A disco remake by Carl Carlton in 1974 climbed to No. 6 on the same chart.
Decades later the song kept finding new listeners through the movies, turning up in “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason” and in Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast,” where the actor Jamie Dornan sings it.
The Hit Nobody in the Band Played
The triumph came with an asterisk. Controversy erupted when it emerged that Love Affair had not played on their own chart-topper, the music having been supplied by session musicians. The band claimed the resulting backlash had been engineered by their management for publicity.
The hits kept coming anyway. “Rainbow Valley,” “A Day Without Love” and “Bringing on Back the Good Times” all reached the U.K. Top 10. Ellis left the band in 1969 to go solo, and later fronted other groups including Widowmaker and a band called Ellis. Love Affair reunited several times over the years.
Learning to Walk, Then Touring Again
A forklift accident in 1980 left Ellis with severe foot injuries that cost him years of hospital visits and rehabilitation as he learned to walk again.
He told The Strange Brew earlier in 2026 that he had abandoned the music industry at the start of the 1980s, but was encouraged to play again while recuperating from an injury. He returned to the road with various bands, working small venues around the country rather than the package tours of his youth.
Solo albums followed, among them 2026’s “Baby Faced Assassin.” He had also recorded another record, which was in the mixing stage while he sought a distribution deal.
“A Legend With the Mod Movement”
Paul Weller, best known as the guitarist, principal singer and songwriter of The Jam, wrote on Facebook: “God bless ya Stevie safe travels everlasting love for sure.”
Blues musician Norman Beaker, who recorded one of his own songs, “She Heals My Soul,” for Ellis’ new album, said he had lost a good friend and a great voice. “He was a legend with the mod movement, a great character, he will be sadly missed,” Beaker wrote.
Boom Radio called Ellis the legendary frontman of Love Affair and said his voice would never be forgotten. Heritage Chart Radio said it was deeply saddened, praising his talent, his passion for music and his place in the soundtrack of so many lives.
BCM Entertainments Ltd, a festival company based in Kent, said Ellis had been a familiar and much-loved face at its events for years, where his voice and his back catalog drew audiences in. The company sent its condolences to his family, friends and fellow musicians, and thanked him for the music and the memories.
