"(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" is an R&B and soul song credited to Gary Jackson, Raynard Miner and Carl Smith. Chess in-house writers Smith and Miner first wrote it, and The Dells recorded it for Chess, but that version went unreleased. Jackson reworked the song and pitched it to producer Carl Davis at Brunswick. Jackie Wilson recorded it in July 1967 at Columbia's studios in Chicago, backed by the Funk Brothers and The Andantes. Davis advised Wilson to sing it as an uptempo jump rather than a soul ballad, and Wilson cut the lead vocal in one take. Brunswick released it in August 1967 (catalogue number 55336) on the album Higher and Higher. The single reached number one on the Billboard R&B chart and No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 1967, and No. 2 on RPM Canada Adult Contemporary. UK re-entries peaked at No. 11 in 1969 and No. 15 in 1987. The song is ranked No. 246 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs and entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. Later versions by The Dells, Rita Coolidge, Dolly Parton, Bette Midler, Aaron Neville and Rod Stewart followed.
