Steve Ellis, Love Affair's 'Everlasting Love' Voice, Dies at 76

Steve Ellis was 17 years old when his voice knocked the Beatles off the top of the UK charts. The Love Affair frontman, whose soaring vocal on 'Everlasting Love' made him a teenage sensation in 1967, has died aged 76. His death was announced on his official Facebook page on Sunday 1 November: after complications from a chronic illness, he 'peacefully left the world on the evening of October 30, 2026, in the presence of his loved ones.'

Born Stephen John Ellis on 7 April 1950 in Edgware, Middlesex, he grew up on 1950s rock and roll and rhythm and blues. At 15 he was singing in a band called the Soul Survivors; in 1966 they became Love Affair, with Rex Brayley on guitar, Mick Jackson on bass, Lynton Guest on keyboards and Maurice Bacon on drums. Their first two singles went nowhere. Then came the third.

THE SONG THAT BEAT THE BEATLES

'Everlasting Love' was a soul gem first recorded by the American singer Robert Knight, whose version had reached No. 13 in the US that autumn. Love Affair's cover, released on 8 December 1967, did what almost nobody did in that era: it displaced the Beatles' 'Hello, Goodbye' from the UK No. 1 spot in January 1968 and stayed there for two weeks. Ellis was 17. The single also reached No. 2 in Ireland and No. 4 in New Zealand, and charted across Europe, South Africa and Australia.

The recording carried a secret that later caused a controversy. As Ellis's own official website explains, session musicians played the instruments on the record — only the vocal was the band's. When the admission surfaced, it dented the group's credibility with a press that was already suspicious of manufactured pop. It never dented the song. 'Everlasting Love' has been sung at weddings and funerals for nearly sixty years; it featured in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, and in 2021 it appeared in Kenneth Branagh's Oscar-winning film Belfast, where Jamie Dornan sang it on screen. In one of his final interviews, in February 2026, Ellis happily noted how often the song was chosen for the moments when people most want to say they love someone.

AFTER THE AFFAIR

Love Affair never repeated the trick, though 'Rainbow Valley,' 'A Day Without Love' and 'Bringing on Back the Good Times' all reached the UK top 10. The band briefly continued with a new vocalist before disbanding, and Ellis went on to the short-lived bands Widowmaker and Ellis, plus a solo career. But he never stopped singing the song that made him: 'Everlasting Love' stayed in his set for the rest of his life.

THE TRIBUTES

Paul Weller — the Jam frontman and a longtime friend — led the tributes on Facebook: 'Our dear mate Stevie Ellis passed on last week. God bless ya Stevie safe travels everlasting love for sure.' Musician David Courtney, who confirmed the news, wrote that his thoughts were with Ellis's wife Val and their family, remembering 'my long time friend Steve Ellis' as warm and generous. Fans have filled the comments on Ellis's official page with memories and condolences, many signing off, as the announcement itself did, with the two words that will follow him forever: everlasting love.

He was, as one obituary put it, blessed with one of the finest soul-rock voices Britain ever produced — and he was barely old enough to vote when he used it to topple the biggest band in the world.