| Can't Stay Away from You | |
| Cover: | GloriaCantStayAway.jpg |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine |
| Album: | Let It Loose / Anything for You |
| B-Side: | Let It Loose |
| Released: | November 10, 1987 |
| Recorded: | 1987 |
| Genre: | Pop |
| Length: | 4:00 |
| Label: | Epic |
| Producer: |
|
| Prev Title: | Betcha Say That |
| Prev Year: | 1987 |
| Next Title: | Anything for You |
| Next Year: | 1988 |
"Can't Stay Away from You" is a song by Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine. The song was released in November 1987 by Epic as the third single from their multi-platinum album, Let It Loose (1987). It became the group's fifth top 10 hit in the United States, peaking at #6 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart; it was their second #1 hit on the adult contemporary chart, following 1986's "Words Get in the Way". The song originally peaked at #88 on the UK Singles Chart in May 1988, however the song was re-released after the success of its follow-up, "Anything for You", peaking at #7 in March 1989.
The song is a pensive ballad sung from the perspective of a woman who is in love with someone who doesn't feel the same, but she is unwilling to walk away from their relationship because she does not want it to end. The European single contains as a bonus cut a remixed version of "Surrender", an album cut from "Let It Loose", which Estefan performed on "Solid Gold".
Popular Latin singer Jaci Velasquez recorded a Spanish version of the song called "Mi Vida No Es Nada Sin Ti" for her album Milagro.
The song appeared in 1988 episodes of the soap operas Another World and The Young and the Restless.
AllMusic editor Jon O'Brien described the song as "haunting".[1] Kris Kirk from British magazine Melody Maker wrote that Estefan perhaps will "finally go UK gold" with this "beautifully-performed" ballad.[2] In an ironic review of 4 February 1989 the Phil Cheeseman, reviewer of Record Mirror, chided the song for lack of class to match the previous own work and described it as a "wearisome ballad".[3] Stuart Maconie of New Musical Express echoed by saying "Have you noticed how the billing of the Sound Machine gets progressively tinier whilst Gloria becomes correspondingly more prominent?" and made a forecast that MSM will "vanish entirely from this earth" soon.[4]
| Chart (1989) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA)[6] | 60 |
| Finland (Suomen virallinen lista)[7] | 15 |
| Chart (1989) | Position | |
|---|---|---|
| Belgium (Ultratop Flanders)[10] | 20 | |
| Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)[11] | 19 | |
| Netherlands (Single Top 100)[12] | 14 |
Original versions
| Region | Date |
|---|---|
| US | |
| Japan | |
| Europe | |
| UK | |
| UK (Rerelease) | |