Elvin Bishop – Fooled Around and Fell In Love

Some songs really take me back to a place I was when I heard it. This one was going roller skating with my sister who took me along with her. I never understood why my 16-year-old sister wanted to talk to guys while I was having the time of my life skating as an eight-year-old.

If you hear the rest of Elvin Bishop’s catalog…you wouldn’t believe this came from him. It’s a love song and a good one. Bishop is a blues guitarist who played in The Paul Butterfield Blues Band before forming his own group in 1968. Mickey Thomas who sang the song was a vocalist in Bishop’s band and sang lead on “Fooled Around And Fell In Love” and would later sing in Jefferson Starship.

Elvin can sing but his voice is suited more for blues. Elvin wrote the song and thought Mickey Thomas could sing it better…Mickey did a great job with it. The song peaked at #3 on the Billboard 100, #34 in the UK, and #22 in Canada in 1976.

In 2015, Bishop was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and again in the Blues Hall of Fame as a solo artist in 2016. Many younger listeners discovered this song when it was used in the 2014 film Guardians Of The Galaxy and included on the soundtrack, which went to #1 in America.

I stumbled across a newer cover of this song that I really like around 6 months ago…it’s by the Winery Dogs. The band included Richie Kotzen, Billy Sheehan, and drummer Mike Portnoy. Give it a listen as well…they stayed true to the original and it sounds good.

Elvin Bishop: “My voice is very plain. It’s better suited for blues. It’s been good for me, because it’s made my songwriting strong, because to really get over with a voice like mine, which is not a thrill in itself – the quality of the voice – you have to have a strong story and really good words to capture people’s imagination. 

And that tune, I gave it a try. The producer, Bill Szymczyk, said, ‘We need one more piece of material here. You got anything else laying around?’ I said, ‘Well, there’s this tune I wrote the other day.’ Well, not the other day. I’d actually tried to get a couple of other people to sing it, but somehow it didn’t work out. I said, ‘How about this ‘Fooled Around and Fell In Love’?’ We cut a track, it was a really nice track. I tried singing it, and I said, ‘That’s not buttering my biscuit, my vocal on this. Why don’t we give Mickey a shot at this?’ And the producer said, ‘Well, that’s big of you.’ And I said, ‘Well, I don’t think so. It’s just common sense, you know?’ And Mickey just tore it up.”

Fooled Around and Fell In Love

I must have been through about a million girls
I’d love ’em then I’d leave ’em alone
I didn’t care how much they cried, no sir
Their tears left me cold as a stone

But then I fooled around and fell in love
I fooled around and fell in love, yes I did
I fooled around and fell in love
I fooled around and fell in love

It used to be when I’d see a girl that I liked
I’d get out my book and write down her name
Ah, but when the, the grass got a little greener over on the other side
I’d just tear out that page

I fooled around and fell in love
I fooled around and fell in love, since I met you baby
I fooled around and fell in love
I fooled around and fell in love

Free, on my own is the way I used to be
Ah, but since I met you baby, love’s got a hold on me
It’s got a hold on me now
I can’t let go of you baby

I fooled around and fell in love
I fooled around and fell in love, oh yes I did
I fooled around, fooled around, fooled around, fooled around,
Fooled around, fooled around, fell in love
Fooled around, fooled around, fooled around, fooled around,
Fooled around, fooled around, fell in love
I fooled around, fell in love
I fell in love, I fell in love, yes I did

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

37 thoughts on “Elvin Bishop – Fooled Around and Fell In Love”

  2. One of the real great ‘One hit Wonders’ of the 70s, love this song. Until I started my blog (hence began researching songs) I assumed Bishop was the singer, was surprised to find he wasn’t and more so to find it was the guy who’d soon be doing those insipid Starship songs! Kudos to Elvin for being smart enough to know someone could sing it better than him!

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    1. Mickey’s voice soars on this, an outstanding vocal. Great bit of songwriting too. The guitar solo shimmers, then the last cutaway note sets up Mickey to carry on. It’s a top top pop song.

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    2. Yea it’s one I will always remember…I like the guitar solo a lot…that is where Bishop came in to play… yea the only song I liked from Mickey would be Jane after this.

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  3. I agree quite incongruous to the rest of Bishop’s work but he land a doozy of a pop song. I like that cover, this is one song I’ve not researched so it was interesting to get some background.

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      2. Our little part time garage band played this one a while back..and I ran across the Winery Dogs version… I loved this song as a kid.

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  5. I’ve loved this song since I was a little kid too, probably even skated to it like you- those were the days!
    One of my former bands opened for Elvin Bishop in the late 80’s – we played with a lot of “Where are They Now?” bands back then – and the place was packed. I wasn’t until then that I realized Elvin wasn’t the vocalist on the original version!
    Thanks for the memories!

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    1. That is cool that a band you were in opened for them. Our band never opened for anyone like this…with a giant hit. I do remember playing on the same bill as the big famous Royal Guardsmen…lol.

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      1. There’s a good scene in the cult holiday film ‘The Family stone’ where an upright Sarah Jessica Parker gets loose and dancin’ at a bar when the song comes on. I’m glad modern movies are keeping it fresh for younger generations

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      2. You brought up a great point. The Guardians of the Galaxy pretty much brought back those songs.

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  9. Elvin Bishop was often overlooked by playing with the legendary Mike Bloomfield in The Paul Butterfield Blues Band – but if you listen to “East West” you’ll know he has chops himself. A lot like Gary Duncan in Quicksilver Messenger Service, overshadowed by John Cipollina – but if you listen to “Gold and Silver”, you know they had an embarrassment of riches on guitar.

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    1. That was some lineup in that…I don’t know much about Bishop…but I have listened to enough of his blues recordings to be awed…
      I have a post coming on Saturday….that I would wager you will be one of the very few to know the artist…outside his most devoted fans.

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    1. Yea…it was probably a lot of people’s entry point into him…but after you and others talked about his past stuff…I started to listen to it…and yea it is out of character.

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  11. Nice song – super catchy! Now, Max, I got one question for you. Why would your 16-year-old sister take you to roller skating and talk to guys instead of roller skate herself? 🙂

    I also enjoy the cover by Winery Dogs and like their frontman’s apparent good sense of humor!

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