Song of the Day 4/28: Bad Company, “Can’t Get Enough”
At this point I’m not even going to bother slagging the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s decisions about who does and doesn’t get in. By now everybody knows that bands and artists of some renown are snubbed for years, usually for reasons unknown, while others with tenuous connections to rock and roll are admitted.
Given that history, this year’s induction class is remarkably lacking in controversy, unless you want to gripe that the winner of the fan voting, Phish, didn’t make the cut. The same thing happened to the Dave Matthews Band, which was inducted three years later, so Phishheads can stay mellow.
The 2025 inductees, in alphabetical order:
Bad Company
Chubby Checker
Joe Cocker
Cyndi Lauper
Outkast
Soundgarden
The White Stripes
You might notice that the only acts on the list that aren’t defunct are Cyndi Lauper, who’s on her farewell tour, and 83-year-old Chubby Checker, who still performs sporadically – he was in Lancaster, Pa., last month. Joe Cocker died in 2014, and Soundgarden ceased to exist when Chris Cornell died in 2017. Outkast has been “on hiatus” since 2014, when Big Boi and Andre 3000 briefly reunited, but they’re on good terms, so that should enliven the annual concert. So should Jack White, though Meg White left the business after the duo split in 2011.
That leaves Bad Company, and while founders Paul Rodgers and Mick Ralphs are still alive, drummer Simon Kirke said a while back that their poor health made a reunion impossible. Both have cardiovascular problems, and a stroke left guitarist Ralphs paralyzed on his left side.
The band formed in 1974 as a supergroup. Rodgers left Free and Ralphs left Mott the Hoople and recruited the rhythm section of Rodgers’ Free bandmate Kirke and King Crimson bassist Boz Burrell. After a strong initial run from 1974 to 1982, they reunited and reformed several times – Kirke was the only constant member – and gave their last show in 2019.
Both Rodgers and Ralphs wrote the sort of blues-based rockers that kept Brits enthralled for years, though they always were more popular in America. A strong batch of tunes made their eponymous 1974 debut LP a smash on both sides of the Atlantic – it was the rare beach party that summer that didn’t have “Bad Co.” on the turntable.
Several Bad Company songs become classic-rock staples, but none was a bigger hit than their first single, “Can’t Get Enough.” It hit No. 5 in Billboard but No. 1 in Cashbox. Based on a riff Ralphs recycled from a Mott the Hoople song, Rodgers’ powerhouse vocals and the stripped-down production made it stand out amid the soft rock that dominated Top 40 radio at the time.
Here’s what the song sounded like the first time Ralphs wrote it, as “One of the Boys,” with lyrics by Mott the Hoople frontman Ian Hunter. It appeared on the band’s 1972 “All the Young Dudes” album.
