Spencer Davis Group – Gimme Some Lovin’

I heard this song on an oldies channel in the mid-1980s, and it sounded so fresh and powerful. I remember wanting to know more about them, but books on the Spencer Davis Group were in short supply at that time. Before I started blogging, I knew very little about this band.

Let’s talk about the not-so-secret weapon here: Steve Winwood. The kid was 17, but he sings like a man three divorces deep with a gospel choir in his chest. He is simply electric when he plays or sings. No buildup, no easing into it, it’s all gas, no brakes, and all the more thrilling because of it. A teenage Steve Winwood, somehow sounding like a man who had lived five blues lifetimes by age seventeen.

The song peaked at #1 in Canada, #7 on the Billboard 100, #5 in New Zealand, and #2 in the UK in 1966. Steve Winwood’s voice and his B-3 organ drives this song. The Spencer Davis Group formed in 1963, with Spencer Davis on guitar, Pete York on drums, and Muff Winwood on bass, while his brother Steve Winwood, remarkably, was just 14 years old.

By 1966, the Spencer Davis Group had a few hits under their belt in the UK (Keep On Running, Somebody Help Me), but they needed something fast to keep the momentum going. Their producer, Jimmy Miller (who later remade the Stones) asked for an original song that would go over well in the US. So Steve Winwood sat down at the Hammond, punched out that legendary riff, and the band built the rest around it in about 30 minutes. Steve Winwood, Spencer Davis, and Muff Winwood are listed as the writers. 

In 1980, The Blues Brothers returned this song to the Billboard Top 20 when their cover reached #18.

Gimme Some Lovin’

Well, my temperature is rising, got my feet on the floor
Crazy people rocking ’cause they want to some more
Let me in baby, I don’t know what you got
But you better take it easy ’cause this place is hot

And I’m so glad you made it, so glad you made it
You got to gimme some lovin’, gimme, gimme some lovin’
Gimme some lovin’, gimme, gimme some lovin’
Gimme some lovin’ everyday

Well, I feel so good, everything’s getting high
You better take it easy ’cause the place is on fire
Been a hard day and I had no work to do
Wait a minute baby, let it happen to you

And I’m so glad we made it, so glad we made it
You got to gimme some lovin’, gimme, gimme some lovin’
Gimme some lovin’, gimme, gimme some lovin’
Gimme some lovin’ everyday, yeh

Well, I feel so good, everything’s getting high
You better take it easy ’cause the place is on fire
Been a hard day nothing went too good
Now I’m gonna relax, buddy everybody should

And I’m so glad we made it, hey hey, so glad we made it
You got to gimme some lovin’, gimme, gimme some lovin’ woo ooo
Gimme some lovin’, gimme, gimme some lovin’

Gimme, gimme, gimme some of your lovin’, baby
You know I need it so bad woo ooo
Gimme some of your lovin’, baby

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, 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. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

45 thoughts on “Spencer Davis Group – Gimme Some Lovin’”

  2. Winwood really is an amazing talent. So great at such a young age. While I certainly knew of him because of Traffic and Blind Faith I never really appreciated Winwood until I bought Arc of a Diver. That got me exploring his early work and songs like this one that I knew of but didn’t realize his involvement.

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  10. One of those songs that you recognize from the first notes…but that first organ glissando takes it to another level. This might be the first Finnish TV I’ve seen. Winwood channels Ray Charles when he sings “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out”.

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    1. I had a post a long time ago about the best known “rock intros” and I left this one out like an idiot. I might update that post coming up since no one read it the first time.
      I agree with you about Winwood as well.

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  11. Good song in either version & you’re right…Winwood is truly amazing. Not only a great musician but to sound and write like that at 17!? Wow. Only comparison that comes to mind is Alex Chilton with ‘The letter’

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  14. Rebecca and Megan Lovell of Larkin Poe started 20 years ago in The Lovell Sisters with their oldest sister. I think they are 32/33 now, so they literally had just become teenagers! Being in your early thirties with a 20-year career under your belt is pretty incredible!

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  16. So much to like about this. The thumping drum intro first, then the Hammond ramps it all up, then the amazing vocal that miraculously manages to sustain itself above the whole thing. How he gets his voice to stay above it all and so effortlessly is amazing. That is where other covers can’t quite get to, IMHO.

    Listen to ‘I’m A Man,’ ‘Keep On Running,’ and ‘Gimme Some Lovin” back to back and if you ain’t happy it’s high time to get a mood transplant.

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    1. Oh it’s great. Yea why even listen to a cover of this one. Some songs…aren’t meant to be covered. Now live is one thing but recording? Nope…I don’t see this being topped.

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  17. For so long I assumed that this was a Motown/soul song being covered by a rock group. Until I covered the Spencer Davis Group for their number ones and realised that it was all them. Love this one, though ‘Keep on Running’ is still my favourite.

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  18. This song always does and always has given me goosebumps when I hear it. I was fourteen or fifteen when it came out and I bought the single (may still have it, I’ve some of my vinyl left but nothing to play them on anymore!) I prefer the studio version to live versions of it because it’s much tighter and brings back the original feelings more easily to me.

    By the way, we were astonished at Winwood’s talent at his young age even then!

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