Even the most basic and uninspiring Beatles songs have interesting back stories.
‘Hello, Goodbye’ is the sort of fluff that Paul McCartney could write in 15 minutes, and that’s kind of what he did. When Alistair Taylor, one of Brian Epstein’s assistants, asked McCartney about his songwriting process, Paul sat down at a harmonium and asked Taylor to do a call-and-response. Taylor would say the opposite of whatever word McCartney offered up, and Paul built the song around that framework.
Yesterday I speculated that one reason we haven’t seen a song repeat at #1 in the last 22 years is that modern artists are more likely to sample an old hit than cover it.
Perhaps the most notorious (pun intended) example of that is Puff Daddy’s 1997 release ‘I’ll Be Missing You,’ written about and released a couple of months after the murder of The Notorious B.I.G. Puff Daddy’s tribute to his late friend debuted at #1 on the Hot 100 and spent 11 weeks there, a record for a rap song until Eminem’s ‘Lose Yourself’ topped it in 2002.
Our final song to reach #1 by two different artists is also the one with the longest span between releases — 27 years.
‘Lady Marmalade’ first reached the top spot in 1974, recorded by the girl group Labelle (Patti Labelle sang the lead vocal). Patti later claimed to not know the French-language refrain (“Voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir?”) meant “Would you like to sleep with me tonight?”
I was prepared to call today’s Song of the Day another unnecessary rehash of a classic tune, but then I listened to it.
Don’t get me wrong. The 1970 Jackson 5 recording of ‘I’ll Be There’ is a stone-cold classic and the only version of the song the world needs. But I have no complaint with Mariah Carey’s treatment of the song 22 years later as part of her 1992 MTV Unplugged performance.
I’ll go out on a limb and say that, for every one of the nine singles to reach #1 by two different artists, the original is superior. Would anybody really pick Club Nouveau over Bill Withers, or Kim Wilde over The Supremes? Bananarama’s pop sheen over the 60s rock of The Shocking Blue?
Perhaps nowhere is the gap between versions more clear than in today’s example, ‘When a Man Loves a Woman.’ Percy Sledge had a #1 hit with his soulful performance in 1966, and 25 years later Michael Bolton registered one of only two #1 hits in his career with his 1991 recording.
Meet Me In Montauk 