Hollies – He Ain’t Heavy (He’s My Brother)

What a soulful song this is coming out of the Hollies. After Graham Nash left the group, they started to change into more of a 70s rock band. 

The Hollies may be best known for their chiming guitars, close harmonies, and pop feel on songs like Bus Stop or Carrie Anne, but in 1969, they took a hard turn straight into emotional overdrive with this song. This wasn’t your typical British Invasion earworm. This was a slow-burning ballad with a title that sounded like scripture. The star of this song is Alan Clarke’s lead vocal. A gut-wrenching vocal that makes Clarke sound like he lived the song. 

It was released in 1969 and was written by Bobby Scott and Bob Russell. A young Elton John played piano on the song. It peaked at #7 on the Billboard 100, #11 in Canada, #3 in the UK, and #7 in New Zealand. It was used in a commercial in 1988 and in that year went to number 1 in the UK charts. I always thought the song had a spiritual sound to it.

Speaking of the songwriters, Bobby Scott was a jazz pianist, and Bob Russell was writing these lyrics while battling terminal cancer. The phrase “He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother” came from a story involving a Scottish orphanage and a child being carried on another’s back. Back in 1918, a boy named Howard Loomis was abandoned by his mother at Father Flanagan’s Home for Boys, which had opened just a year earlier. Howard had polio and wore heavy leg braces. Walking was difficult for him, especially when he had to go up or down steps. Soon, several of the Home’s older boys carried Howard up and down the stairs. One day, Father Flanagan asked Reuben Granger, one of those older boys, if carrying Howard was hard. Reuben replied, “He ain’t heavy, Father… he’s my brother.”

Tony Hicks: “In the 1960s when we were short of songs I used to root around publishers in Denmark Street. One afternoon, I’d been there ages and wanted to get going but this bloke said: ‘Well there’s one more song. It’s probably not for you.’ He played me the demo by the writers [Bobby Scott and Bob Russell]. It sounded like a 45rpm record played at 33rpm, the singer was slurring, like he was drunk. But it had something about it. There were frowns when I took it to the band but we speeded it up and added an orchestra. The only things left recognizable were the lyrics. There’d been this old film called Boys Town about a children’s home in America, and the statue outside showed a child being carried aloft and the motto He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother. Bob Russell had been dying of cancer while writing. We never got, or asked for, royalties. Elton John – who was still called Reg – played piano on it and got paid 12 pounds. It was a worldwide hit twice.”

He Ain’t Heavy(He’s My Brother)

The road is long
With many a winding turn
That leads us to who knows where
Who knows where
But I’m strong
Strong enough to carry him
He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother

So on we go
His welfare is of my concern
No burden is he to bear
We’ll get there

For I know
He would not encumber me
He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother

If I’m laden at all
I’m laden with sadness
That everyone’s heart
Isn’t filled with the gladness
Of love for one another

It’s a long, long road
From which there is no return
While we’re on the way to there
Why not share

And the load
Doesn’t weigh me down at all
He ain’t heavy he’s my brother

He’s my brother
He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother, he ain’t heavy

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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.

42 thoughts on “Hollies – He Ain’t Heavy (He’s My Brother)”

  2. Pingback: Hollies – He Ain’t Heavy (He’s My Brother) – MobsterTiger

  5. Good song. I have to admit if asked who wrote it, I would have guessed… wait for it… Bob Dylan. Something in my head told me it was one of his. The Hollies weren’t equals of the Beatles but they were good and seemed to learn from the fab four in varying the sound… would most people think this was the ‘Bus Stop’ group or ‘Air that I breathe’ was the same band as ‘Carry Ann/?

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    1. They changed no doubt. They had to though because those harmonies and those early songs would not have been popular in the late 60s…they were a totally different band by this time I agree.

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      1. Yeah, they moved on, adapting their sound. And the lead vocal could be the ruination of this song, but instead it – forgive me here- hit just the right note. (Imagine this being done by, say Bobby ‘Boo Hoo’Goldsboro or some such?)

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    1. Thank you Dana and I hope you are doing well! I’ll stop by your site this weekend. Yea I can remember what I was doing when I heard The Air That I Breathe…sitting on a homemade bench beside a tire swing…on a wonderful 70s day.

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    2. Sorry, I don’t want to butt into too many comments but I remember first hearing this in the old under-utilised tool shed me my brother and a friend had cleaned up a few years prior and made into a ‘boys club house.’ Back in those days we’d sit and bullspit under the light of a kerosene lamp, listening to whatever toons came out of my then still solid if slightly battered carry-case Pye Caddy transistor. When we’d first cleaned the mouldy old shed out we’d share a bag of potato chips and a coupla Pepsis. A couple of years later, by the time this song came wafting through the airwaves my friend had Elvis sideburns and a dodgy smelling ciggie permanently clamped in his pimply jaw, my brother was on the cusp of being physically a man, I was at the ragged ars- sorry, tail end of adolescence and we were sharing cold pizza and some warm cheap beers smuggled past the eagle-eyed parents. And now, I’m the one lone ranger out of the Three Amigos. Sorry, bummer. Hey, the song still sounds as good and fresh and heartfelt as it did then though.

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    1. You know…I read another story as well. I saw this one more than twice so I went with it but yea…they could have just copied the other one.

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  9. Sure, while “Bus Stop” and “Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress” may rank higher on my list of Hollies songs, “He Ain’t Heavy (He’s My Brother)” is a gorgeous song – there’s just no other way how to put it, at least in my book!

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  10. Beautiful song. Love all of the Post-Nash songs mentioned in the comments. I would add to that “Long Dark Road”. Allan Clarke’s voice was powerful and instantly recognizable.

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  11. I am more familiar with Neil Diamond’s version, and I’m wonder why not bowled over by the Hollies version..I’ve always found them a interesting band, and I remember being surprised that Graham Nash was once a member, and then digging through that era and found King Midas in Reverse…interesting

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    1. Again Warren….just like yesterday (Dance Little Sister)…you mentioned my favorite Hollies song today…King Midas in Reverse. I posted it and most of the people were like meh….but I love that one. Maybe it’s his voice you don’t like as much as Neils?

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  13. I have always like this song a lot. It was one of those surprises when I found out it was a cover. Kelly Gordon was the first to record and release it earlier in 1969. The story of the song fascinates me, as you point out the origin of the phrase “He Ain’t Heavy(He’s My Brother)” comes from Scotland, the song written and first recorded by Americans and made famous by a band from the UK. And how did Bob Russel come across the story in the first place? I have no idea. But if you listen to that demo, The Hollies certainly transformed that song big time.

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    1. They really made it come to life I agree. Their guitar player Tony Hicks…was/is a great guitar player and he helped arrange it. I’ve seen the story but two slightly different versions…I went with the one I saw more than once lol.

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  14. Pingback: Hollies – The Air That I Breathe – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

  16. I was vaguely aware of the song in late 1969 from a sheet music/lyrics book I bought in Singapore of hits from 1969, but I didnt properly get to hear it until 1974, after The Air That I Breathe which I much preferred, By 1988, though, it had grown on me and hitting the top of the charts deservedly that year converted me. It’s a classic!

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    1. The Air That I Breathe is my favorite song by them period…of all the eras. Yea this one is the song most unlike their other ones.

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