Donald Trump’s escape from Turkey via a catering cart has already become the stuff of legend, and not in a good way. While journalists fume about being used as decoys, Iranian propagandists have already produced another Lego video mocking him for his cowardly escapade.
Trump keeps telling reporters that he’s an assassination target – that’s what happens when you go around assassinating people, Donnie, people conclude turnabout is fair play – so he’s obviously scared shitless. Given his long career as an unindicted criminal, it seems fitting that he now lives in fear, like a hunted rat.
“You Better Run” was written by Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati of the Rascals, who were still the Young Rascals when it was released in 1966. It reached No. 20 on the Hot 100 but it was considered a commercial disappointment coming on the heels of their No. 1 hit “Good Lovin’.”
The best-remembered version probably is Pat Benetar’s, released on her second album, “Crimes of Passion,” in 1980. Her single didn’t even make the Top 40 (it peaked at No. 42), but it was the second video ever aired on MTV, and it paved the way for her next single, “Hit Me With Your Best Shot,” which made her a star.
The Rascals’ original release triggered a sort of reverse British Invasion. Two fledgling English bands released covers on the same day in October 1966. Listen, a band from the West Midlands, featured 17-year-old lead singer Robert Plant on his first recording. You can hear that he was still imitating American soul singers; there’s no sign of the upper register that made him famous in Led Zeppelin.
The other cover was by a group from Wolverhampton called the N’ Betweens, who played it at a slightly slower tempo. Three years later their manager changed their name to Slade, and after embracing the glam-rock movement they became the biggest-selling band of the 1970s in Britain.
