Bruce Springsteen has just released an album of the ’60s R&B songs he grew up listening to, with this as the title track. While Bruce does a passable job on them, mainly they made me want to listen to the originals again.
Springsteen isn’t even the biggest name to cover what became Jerry Butler’s highest-charting hit (it reached No.4 on the Hot 100 in 1968) — that honor would go to Elvis Presley. Billy Paul and Rod Stewart also recorded the tune, which was written by Butler along with Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff.
Butler grew up in Chicago and met Curtis Mayfield when both sang in the same church choir. He became a member of the group that became the Impressions, but he was making solo records by 1958, usually with the Impressions and Mayfield singing backup. He also had strong ties to Philadelphia, where DJ Georgie Woods dubbed him “the Iceman,” and recorded for several years with Gamble and Huff before joining Motown in the late ’70s.
In 1985 he joined the small club of popular musicians who served in political office when he won a seat on the Cook County Board of Commissioners, a position he held for 33 years.
Here’s Bruce’s cover.
