Hello there! This is the seventh installment in our new feature: “Tim’s Cover Story Goes To The Movies.” Here we discuss a famous song that makes an important contribution to a major movie.
This week’s entry is Everybody Needs Somebody To Love. This is a pop song composed by Solomon Burke, Bert Berns, and Jerry Wexler, and sung by Burke.
We will start with a brief review of Solomon Burke’s career. We will next discuss a cover of Everybody Needs Somebody To Love by Wilson Pickett. We will conclude with a review of the movie The Blues Brothers, and show the song as performed in that film.
Solomon Burke and Everybody Needs Somebody To Love:
We wrote about Solomon Burke in an earlier blog post discussing the song Proud Mary. Here we will provide a brief discussion of his life and career.
Solomon Burke is one of the greatest largely unknown artists in the history of soul music. He released 35 albums during his lifetime for 17 different record companies, and he sold nearly 17 million albums. But he never had that blockbuster hit that would have made him a household name.
Like so many other R&B artists, Solomon Burke came to soul music from gospel. He first gained fame as a teenage preacher, where he gave sermons and sang in tent revivals. Like former gospel singers such as Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett, Burke had considerable ambivalence and guilt about abandoning gospel music for popular music.
In fact, because of the taboo that the blues was the “devil’s music,” Burke was highly reluctant to be labeled a “rhythm and blues” performer, always insisting that he was a “soul artist.” He only adopted the title “soul singer” after clearing it with his church.
There was no denying the influence of gospel on Solomon Burke’s music. Eventually he was reconciled to believe that popular music was simply an efficient alternative method to deliver God’s message.
Burke’s live performances adopted many of the trappings of revival tent meetings, and audience members experienced some of the same emotions and audience participation that are characteristic of gospel services.
Burke took seriously his nickname as the “King of Rock ‘n Soul,” so much so that his live performances would often include
a crown, a scepter, a cape, robe, dancing girls, and colored lights.
Burke’s performances pre-dated those of James Brown, whose act also included capes and other apparel. At one point Burke was paid $7,500 to appear at one of James Brown’s concerts and `surrender’ his robe and crown (Burke took the cash, but continued to use the props in his own act).
Below is a photo of the “King of Soul” circa 1972, complete with throne and ermine-trimmed cape.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe song Everybody Needs Somebody To Love is self-explanatory. Burke explains that everyone needs to be loved, and that the world would be a more peaceful place if this were the case.
Everybody needs somebody
Everybody wants somebody to love
Honey to hug, yeah
Sugar to kiss
Baby to miss now, yeah
Baby to tease
Sometimes to please, yeah
And I need you you you
And I need you you you
In the morning baby you you you
When the sun goes down you you you
Ain’t no nobody around you you you
The song Everybody Needs Somebody To Love is credited to Solomon Burke, Bert Berns and Jerry Wexler. Burke consistently maintained that he wrote the song himself, and that his agreement to share songwriting credit with Berns and Wexler was simply for convenience.
Burke claimed that Berns and Wexler
told me that song would never make it. I said, ‘Well, I tell ya what—I’ll give you a piece of it.’ They said, ‘That’s the way we’ll get the record played, so we’ll take a piece of it.’ In those days, they took a piece of your songs—a piece of the publishing—but in the end, you didn’t have any pieces left.
If this was simply an argument between Burke and Berns, I would believe Burke. Van Morrison, who worked closely with Bert Berns early in his career, is still peeved at what he claims was shabby treatment from Berns.
However, Jerry Wexler (who had a high reputation for integrity) claimed that the song was indeed a collaborative effort between the three songwriters. Wexler said:
“The whole process of making a record is a collaborative affair and the issue of who does just what on a song sometimes gets confusing, but not on that song. We wrote it in Bert’s apartment. Bert had a guitar and we wrote it together.”
Here is Solomon Burke performing Everybody Needs Somebody To Love live in 2003 on the British TV show Top of the Pops.
Isn’t this a great song? Burke deliberately wrote it to convey the spirit of a black preacher exhorting his flock. And here this succeeds brilliantly.
Somebody To Love became one of Burke’s signature tunes. Burke appears with his massive frame seated on a throne, befitting his nickname as the “King of Soul,” and sporting a ten-gallon hat. Burke has a full backing band, including saxophones, trumpets, trombones and – WTF, a harp?
In this performance, Somebody To Love begins with a couple of sentences directed towards the audience. However, the record of the song began with a much longer preface.
Anyway, Burke races through this song, with the band keeping pace, the horns shouting in unison, and the bass and drums thumping along.
The song indeed brings to mind a Sunday meeting at a particularly enthusiastic black church. The Top of the Pops congregation/audience chimes in when asked to sing along, and Burke leads the way with his booming vocals.
One would have expected this song to sell like hotcakes; however, it was a disappointment, reaching only #58 in the Billboard pop charts.
In 2001, Solomon Burke was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This was a well-deserved honor and must have been appreciated by Burke, since he had been nominated but failed to be inducted eight times previously.
Although Mr. Burke was a very large man, late in his life he became truly gigantic. His weight hovered in the vicinity of 400 pounds; since he sang while seated, it was unclear whether or not he could stand up.
In 2010, Burke died while on a plane that had just landed at Amsterdam Airport. No autopsy was performed, and it was believed that he died of a pulmonary embolism.
At the time of his death, it is believed that Mr. Burke had 14 children, including at least two born out of wedlock. He also had 90 (!) grandchildren. This suggests that he was highly successful in finding “somebody to love.”
Wilson Pickett, Everybody Needs Somebody To Love:
We covered Wilson Pickett in an earlier blog post on the song Hey Jude. Here we will briefly review Pickett’s life and work. We will find that Pickett’s story closely intersects that of Solomon Burke.
Wilson Pickett was an R&B and soul singer-songwriter who carved out an impressive career for himself. Like so many R&B singers, including Solomon Burke, Pickett started out with a gospel group.
In the mid-50s, Pickett toured with a gospel group called the Violinaires. When a number of his fellow gospel singers departed for careers in pop music, Pickett decided to join them.
Below is a photo of Wilson Pickett in the Muscle Shoals studios in Nov. 1969.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe first soul group that he joined was called The Falcons. Pickett co-wrote a song called If You Need Me, and sent a demo to producer Jerry Wexler. Wexler gave it to Solomon Burke, the top R&B star at Atlantic Records at that time, and it became a hit for Burke.
Pickett was deeply disappointed that he was not given the chance to release If You Need Me under his own name. But in 1964, he was signed to a record contract at Atlantic Records.
Pickett’s first big success occurred with songs recorded at Stax Records in Memphis. There, he teamed up with the Stax “house band,” Booker T and the MGs. His first major hit was the 1965 release, In the Midnight Hour, which Pickett co-wrote with Eddie Floyd and Booker T guitarist Steve Cropper. The song went to #1 on the R&B charts and #21 on the Billboard pop lists.
In 1965, Pickett began recording at Rick Hall’s Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Backed by the terrific Muscle Shoals session musicians, Pickett garnered some of his biggest hits, songs such as Land of 1,000 Dances and Mustang Sally.
Here is Wilson Pickett in a live performance of Everybody Needs Somebody To Love.
This song was released as a single from the 1966 album The Wicked Pickett. Like the Solomon Burke version, the song begins with a brief spoken introduction to the crowd before Pickett jumps into this tune.
Pickett is backed by a band with several horns that provide a counterpoint to his great R&B vocals. In the middle of the tune, Pickett and the drummer continue to blast away. And Wilson gives us a full dose of his blues screaming, to the delight of the crowd.
Wilson Pickett last had a song on the pop charts in 1974. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991, and in 1999 he released an album called It’s Harder Now for which he was named Soul/Blues Male Artist of the Year by the Blues Foundation.
Over the course of his life, Pickett had some troubles with the law. In 1987, he was fined and received two years’ probation for carrying a loaded shotgun in his car. Then in 1993 he struck an 86-year-old pedestrian with his automobile. The pedestrian eventually died, and Pickett pled guilty to drunk driving charges. He received a one-year prison sentence and five years’ probation.
In 2006, Wilson Pickett died of a heart attack at age 64. His good friend Little Richard spoke at his funeral.
The Blues Brothers and Everybody Needs Somebody To Love:
We previously discussed the Blues Brothers in a blog post on the song Gimme Some Lovin’. Here we will review the career of the Blues Brothers, and discuss The Blues Brothers movie.
The Blues Brothers originated in a Saturday Night Live skit that “went viral.” In January, 1976, following a “King Bees” sketch, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, still wearing their “king bees” costumes, performed the Slim Harpo song “I’m a King Bee.” The song featured Belushi on vocals and Aykroyd on harmonica.
Dan Aykroyd had been a serious blues fan for many years. Growing up in Ottawa, Canada, and as a student at Carleton University, Aykroyd attended concerts of American blues greats such as Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and Buddy Guy.
When hired as cast members for Saturday Night Live, Aykroyd and Belushi would frequent New York blues clubs after SNL rehearsals. Following their “King Bee” blues sketch in 1976, Aykroyd and Belushi raised the idea of forming their own blues group.
The “Blues Brothers” appeared in a skit in April, 1978. Following that, with the help of SNL pianist and arranger Paul Shaffer, they assembled an all-star Blues Brothers Show Band and Revue.
They began with guitarist Steve Cropper and bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn from the Memphis combo Booker T and the MGs. The group also included drummer Willie Hall who had worked with Isaac Hayes, blues guitarist Matt Murphy, and horn players Lou Marini, Tom Malone and Alan Rubin who had been members of Blood, Sweat and Tears.
Below is a photo of the Blues Brothers in performance.
Embed from Getty ImagesIn 1978 the Blues Brothers issued an album, Briefcase Full of Blues. Their method of operation was straightforward: Aykroyd and Belushi, backed by their all-star band, found R&B songs that they enjoyed. They then produced note-for-note covers of the originals.
The Blues Brothers were an extremely enjoyable group. Although John Belushi’s vocal talent was limited, his enthusiasm for these blues classics showed, and he was an exceptionally good mimic. And Dan Aykroyd was a talented harmonica player.
The Blues Brothers took off after Belushi’s 1978 film National Lampoon’s Animal House became a smash hit. At that point, Briefcase Full of Blues became a runaway best-selling album.
John Landis, who had directed Animal House, was chosen as the director of a film The Blues Brothers. Dan Aykroyd sat down to write a script outline for the movie. However, he was hampered by the fact that he had never previously written, or even read, a screenplay.
As a result, Aykroyd produced a rambling document roughly 3 times the length of a normal screenplay. When he submitted his draft, to highlight its length Aykroyd placed it between the covers of a Los Angeles Yellow Pages directory. John Landis subsequently re-wrote the screenplay.
The premise of the film is that ex-con Jake [John Belushi] and his brother Elwood [Dan Aykroyd] decide to re-form their blues band. Their “mission from God” is to raise sufficient funds to pay off the property tax bill on the Catholic orphanage where they were raised.
Overcoming a number of obstacles, Jake and Elwood succeed in re-constituting the band. Along the way, they encounter artists such as Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, James Brown and Cab Calloway, each of whom performs a musical number.
Here are the Blues Brothers performing Everybody Needs Somebody To Love, a scene from The Blues Brothers movie. This supposedly takes place at a charity concert to raise funds for their orphanage.
The song Everybody Needs Somebody To Love brings down the house. Jake appears on lead vocals, while Elwood plays harmonica and talks to the crowd. The great backing band rocks away on guitar, bass, drums and horns.
Note the exceptional dance moves from both Belushi and Aykroyd. In particular, fans were stunned to see the mammoth Belushi doing cartwheels and backflips. This song was an unforgettable highlight of the Blues Brothers movie.
Now back to the plot of the movie. During the concert, the Blues Brothers manage to elude their pursuers and obtain funds for the orphanage. They outrun the police, a country band and the Nazis in a frantic car chase that involves an incredible number of car wrecks and death-defying antics.
Eventually the Blues Brothers and their Bluesmobile, a beat-up 1974 Dodge Monaco police vehicle, reach Chicago City Hall and pay off the property tax lien, before they are arrested by what appears to be the entire Cook County police force.
In the final scene of the movie, the Blues Brothers play Jailhouse Rock for their fellow inmates in Joliet Prison while the closing credits flash across the screen.
Production of the Blues Brothers movie was rather disastrous. An effort was made to produce the film quickly, in order to retain the momentum from Belushi’s notoriety in Animal House. However, the scriptwriting took much longer than anticipated.
Filming was delayed by Belushi’s partying and drug use while on location in Chicago. A private bar, the Blues Club, was constructed on-set for the film’s stars and crew. Actress Carrie Fisher,
Aykroyd’s girlfriend at the time, says most of the bar’s staff doubled as dealers, procuring any drug patrons desired.
Belushi was then dealing with a serious cocaine addiction. As a result, he would frequently miss location calls, or would be found crashing on the sofa in his trailer. Both Dan Aykroyd and Carrie Fisher spent significant time attempting to keep Belushi sober.
In addition, the movie featured a number of spectacular car crashes. Thirteen different Dodge Monacos were used (and often demolished) as the Bluesmobile in different scenes of the movie.
For the large car chases, filmmakers purchased 60 police cars at $400 each, and most were destroyed at the completion of the filming. More than 40 stunt drivers were hired, and the crew kept a 24-hour body shop to repair cars.
Up to that point, this movie featured more car crashes than any film in history. In one additional scene, the “Illinois Nazis” drive their car off an unfinished freeway ramp. To simulate the car flying and crashing, an actual Ford Pinto was dropped 1,200 feet from a helicopter. This required the movie’s producers to obtain a “Special Airworthiness Certificate” from the Federal Aviation Administration for the stunt.
Production costs spiraled out of control. The final cost for the movie was $27.5 million, $10 million over the film’s budget.
One final setback occurred when the head of the Mann Theatre chain that dominated film distribution in the Western U.S. refused to book the Blues Brothers movie in many locations. Ted Mann did not want black patrons driving into white suburban neighborhoods to see the movie, and he guessed that whites would have little reason to see a film that featured over-the-hill black R&B artists.
Universal Studios became concerned that they might be responsible for an incredibly expensive dud; as a result, both the initial release and the publicity for the film were quite limited.
Universal need not have worried. The film eventually grossed more than $100 million. The combination of Belushi and Aykroyd, classic blues by R&B legends, and some genuinely bizarre side-plots produced a cult classic. Belushi, Aykroyd, and Landis were riding high. It appeared that the Blues Brothers movie would likely jump-start an entire series of films and albums.
Alas, all this was blown to bits when John Belushi died in March, 1982 after being injected with a “speedball,” a mixture of heroin and cocaine. For some time, Belushi had been notorious for his excessive drug use. Friends and family had been unable to stop him, and in retrospect his lifestyle appears to have been a train wreck waiting to happen.
In 1997 Aykroyd, John Goodman and Jim Belushi (John’s brother) were half-time headliners as “The Blues Brothers” at the Super Bowl.
In 2000, Aykroyd and John Goodman teamed up with John Landis in a film sequel, Blues Brothers 2000. Despite the fact that the film assembled a dynamite cast of R&B artists, and featured even more car crashes than the original, the re-make was both a critical and commercial disaster.
Dan Aykroyd continues to make occasional appearances as one of the Blues Brothers, frequently accompanied by Jim Belushi.
Source Material:
Wikipedia, Everybody Needs Somebody To Love
Wikipedia, Solomon Burke
Wikipedia, Wilson Pickett
Wikipedia, The Blues Brothers
Wikipedia, The Blues Brothers (film)
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