Song of the Day 7/13: Janis Joplin, “To Love Somebody”
Most of Janis Joplin’s hits were reworked blues songs, often re-arranged to the point where the original song was barely recognizable. That’s pretty much the case with the Bee Gees’ “To Love Somebody,” which Joplin covered for 1969’s “I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama!” LP and performed live on the Dick Cavett show. This is easily the most often covered song in the Bee Gees catalog, by everyone from Lulu to Gram Parsons and the Flying Burrito Brothers, but nobody, not even the Bee Gees themselves, has ever done it like this.
Barry and Robin Gibb composed the song at the suggestion of manager Robert Stigwood, who wanted them to write something for Otis Redding to record. Redding died in a plane crash before he could record the song, so the Bee Gees did it themselves. Decades later, Barry Gibb declared it his favorite of the score of hit records he wrote or co-wrote. Barry was no Otis Redding, but the brothers’ harmonies make up for the relative lack of soul.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrWqDv3Kfsg
My fave is from the Animals –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs_FYcF5o3s
Hi, Alby,
“Piece of My Heart” – Janis or Erma Franklin?
I love the Animals with Eric Burden for this song, especially the way they end it.
@Nancy: I’m partial to the resignation of Gram Parsons’ countrified version, but the Janis footage was too good to pass up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfbHScyol1k
Fond memory from the late 70s when a person was likely as not to run into George Thorogood at the Deer Park:
I’d just scored Joplin’s Early Performances double album from I Like It Like That record store and was in the middle room of the Deer Park at a table with friends. George, with snake skin boots and all, sidled up and exclaimed what a prize that album was.
He was right!
I knew Thorogood and his friends through my older sister.
https://www.discogs.com/Janis-Joplin-Early-Performances/release/11201832