It was originally recorded in 1976 by Northern Irish singer Clodagh Rodgers, for her album of the same title, and released as a single.

A recording of the song by Merrilee Rush debuted on the magazine's Hot 100 in the issue dated June 11, 1977, and reached number 54 during its seven weeks there.

[2] Her version also had a two-week run to number 49 on the magazine's Easy Listening chart that began the following month, in the issue dated July 2.

[3] That same issue also marked the first appearance of a recording of the song by Donna McDaniel that made it to number 90 pop over the course of five weeks.

The same year, Petula Clark released a French-language version Sauve-moi with unrelated lyrics written by Didier Barbelivien.