Songoftheday 8/15/18 - There's a light a certain kind of light that never shone on me, I want my life to be lived with you...
from the album Timeless: The Classics (1992)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #11 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 14
Today's song of the day comes from Michael Bolton, whose soft-rock bluesy belting had made him one of the biggest solo male acts of the late 1980s through the early 1990s. He had landed four top-20 pop hits in American from his Time Love and Tenderness album with "Missing You Now", "Love Is A Wonderful Thing", "Time, Love And Tenderness", and the #1 version of "When A Man Loves A Woman", as well as a top-20 airplay hit with the Bob Dylan co-write "Steel Bars". He won an American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock artist, his first of three times he won the trophy in the 1990s. Although a prolific songwriter with a lot of hits under his belt, he had a lot of success with the smattering of cover songs like "Georgia On My Mind", "Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay", and the aforementioned Grammy-winning "When A Man Loves A Woman". So in the fall of 1992 Bolton released an album of all remakes, Timeless: The Classics, with songs from the Beatles, Sam Cooke, and Sam & Dave included. The first single from the record was a take on a song from one of the biggest acts of the 1970s, the Bee Gees. "To Love Somebody", written by Barry and Robin Gibb originally intended for the late Otis Redding, became their second top-40 hit in the U.S. in the summer of 1967, when the band was a true band with five members (including non-Gibbs Vince Melouney and Colin Petersen, as well as brother Maurice). It reached #17 in the States, and #6 in their adopted home of Australia, but missed the top-40 in their birthplace of England by a hair, peaking at #41. It remains one of their most known and loved songs, and one that's the cornerstone of their early pre-disco career...
Bolton's version of course sports his overemotive singing style, as well as a bright and shiny production that at times distracts from the pain expressed in the song. However, all the ladies that loved Bolton ate this up like nachos, for these waning years of the adult-contemporary bubble on the charts in the early 90s. I guess that's why they released a "live" version for the music video played on VH1...
Bolton's take on "To Love Somebody" just missed the top ten on the American pop chart, peaking one notch under for two weeks in December of 1992. However on Billboard's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio format chart, the record was massive, spending five weeks at #1 (up to that point his longest-running stay at the top, though would be broken by double that in a few years). Internationally, the single spent four weeks at #2 in Canada, peaked at #7 in France, and reached the top 40 in Ireland (#13), the UK (#16, way better than the Bee Gees), New Zealand (#32), The Netherlands (#35), and Australia (#39).
The follow-up single from Timeless in the British territories was a cover of "Drift Away", made famous in the 70s by Dobie Gray. Michael's version hit #18 in the UK, #15 in Ireland, and #23 in New Zealand. Lastly, his take on the Four Tops classic "Reach Out (I'll Be There)" wasn't released as a single in the States, but got enough airplay to reach #8 on the Adult Contemporary list and #73 on the pop airplay chart. It also got to #27 in Canada and #37 in the UK.
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Here's the slick album version of Michael's version from the Timeless album...
A slew of music acts have covered the classic through the years, with many making the music charts in the US and abroad. In 1968, the soul vocal group the Sweet Inspirations (featuring Whitney Houston's mother Cissy) released their cover as a single, and reached #74 on the American pop chart and #30 on Billboard's R&B list...
The following year, singer James Carr made it to #44 on the R&B chart with the song...
That same year, jazz vocal great Nina Simone went all the way to #5 in the UK with her take on it...
Also in 1969, Janis Joplin recorded "To Love Somebody" for her first solo album I've Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Baby!...
Roberta Flack gave a delicate performance for her third album Quiet Fire in 1969...
The critically-revered country-rock band the Flying Burrito Brothers had one of the better takes on the song in 1976...
A year later, country singer Narvel Felts took his cover of "To Love Somebody" to #22 on Billboard's country chart...
Jackie DeShannon took on the classic in 1978, and got to #44 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio format tally...
In 1979, Hank Williams, Jr also put out a country version of the song, and peaked at #49 on the country chart...
Meanwhile, in Canada, veteran Billy "Crash" Craddock had a minor country hit with his cover, which went to #91 on the Canadian country list...
In 1990, gay icon and former Bronski Beat boy Jimmy Somerville released a reggae style take on "To Love Somebody" as a single from his Singles Collection hits set, and it became an international smash, reaching the top ten in the Netherlands (#4), Austria (#5), New Zealand (#5), the UK (#8, his second-biggest solo hit in his home country), and Italy (#9)...
Michael Buble' released the song as a single in 2013 from his To Be Loved album...
And finally, back to Michael live at the Royal Albert Hall in London...
Up tomorrow: Hard rock hooligans are still searchin'.
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