You are here: »
Home » Posts filed under To Love Somebody
On 20 May, 2012, another one of the three brothers that has been so influential in pop music history in the last sixty years passed away. Robin Gibb, the co-founder of Bee Gees, died at 62. He died nine years after the death of his twin brother and another Bee Gees co-founder, Maurice. Based on this site, along with their brother Barry, the two aforementioned has wrote, either personally or in collaboration, nearly one thousand songs between 1958 and 2009.
The "Brothers Gibb" started their music career in Australia around 1958, under many names including Rattlesnake. Entering the sixties, they started to use the name Bee Gees, but they found it hard to make a break there, so they decided to return to England in 1966. In 1967, the Gibb brothers finally made that huge step into pop music world when they released “To Love Somebody,” originally written by Otis Redding. This single became the song that actually opened the door to fame and fortune for them, and over the years, it becomes the most covered Bee Gees song.
From 1968 until now, numerous artists and bands had recorded or performed their covers for this song. Just one year after the original version was released, P.P. Arnold and The Animals released their own recorded versions. The most recent notable cover is probably by Bill Corgan, former Smashing Pumpkins front-man, in 2005. Taking into account the number of the cover versions made and how they are come from artists from various genres and periods of time, we can say that “To Love Somebody” is one of Bee Gees’ greatest and most influential songs in their career, and maybe in music history.
Bee Gees Original Version of To Love Somebody
Read Post
Janis Joplin’s version is part of her album, "I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama!", released in 1969. You've gotta love that amazing voice of hers. What a powerful blues rendition.
A haunting, grim electronic version of "To Love Somebody" by Billy Corgan, featuring Robert Smith of The Cure. It was released in his solo album, The Future Embrace.
Nina Simone recorded and released it as a single in 1969. The tempo and beat in the studio version is more similar to Bee Gees version, but in this live performance, she slowed it down into a gorgeous soul-ballad.
It’s a full-disco version by Moulin Rouge (Alvin Fields, Stephanie Spruill, Julia Tillman and Lorna M. Willard) for their 1979 self titled LP.
Read Post
The Cure meets Procol Harum meets Duran Duran. This fabulous gloomy swamp-rock version was recorded by Gallon Drunk, a band from London, as their single in 1997.
Too bad the recorded version by Dusty Springfield will never be heard by the rest of the world since it was burned in the Atlantic Records 1978 fire. But this BBC live recording is enough to show what a marvelous version she’d made.
“To Love Somebody” in reggae? Why not? Especially if it’s as groovy as the version recorded by Busty Brown and the Upsetters.
In 1968, P.P. Arnold recorded her cover of this Bee Gees hit. Her soul-blues version still sounds amazing even to this day. Listening to her vocal in this song, somehow it just feels right.
Read Post
See the Cover Versions in Part 2 (Janis Joplin, Billy Corgan, Nina Simone, Moulin Rouge)
Back to Main Part of this Post (A Glimpse on the Song History and Bee Gees Original Version)
