Small Faces – You Need Loving

This song exemplifies why I like the Small Faces so much. I’ve been listening to this song for years, and I can’t believe it was made in 1966. It was at least a couple of years before its time. Jimmy Page was listening very closely. Steve Marriott was asked to join Zeppelin later on, but his manager put a stop to it. Robert Plant has said he was heavily influenced by Steve Marriott, and if you want proof, listen to this recording. This song was written by Willie Dixon, and I think Zeppelin listened to this version more than Dixon…because Whole Lotta Love came out of it. 

Looking back, this is more than just an album cut; it’s an early marker of what British rock would become. You can trace a direct line from this track to Zeppelin, Free, and all the blues-rock that followed. I always thought the Small Faces never got the credit they deserved. People in America only heard Lazy Sunday and Itchycoo Park because their manager would never let them tour the US. 

The Small Faces were a band that always played bigger than their small size. If the Small Faces had had a good or even decent manager, they might have had a longer career and be more remembered today. They had a couple of great songwriters, Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane. A superb drummer with Kenney Jones and keyboard player Ian McLagan. They were laying down some of the rawest R&B-inspired rock coming out of Britain. This song, on their debut album Small Faces, is a perfect example.

A YouTube comment on this song was crude and rude, but I endorse: Steve m*thaf*ckin’ Marriott. The ultimate rock & roll voice. 

You Need Loving

Woah you foolin’Come and get coolin’I’m gonna send you right back to school, alrightMake your way down the new side girlYou know how woman, you need lovin’, lovin’, alrightI know you need lovin’ you here, oh yeah, alright

That’s right, well I’ve been yearnin’Hey baby you’ve been burnin’We’ll have a fun time, alrightYou’ll get some lovin’Cause baby we’re gonna excite youDeep in your heart woman, you need lovin’, yeah,oh lovin’, alrightThat’s all you need, lovin’ baby, yeah, alright

Eeny-meeny-miney-moEeny-meeny-miney-moCan’t take it no moreI can’t monkey and I can’t dogCan’t do the monkey, yeahI said you know how to ponyMony-baloney, I took you to the flyerPassed me byOh rock your ponyMashed potatoSaid I want to show youI want to show youIt’s alright, it’s alright…

Woman you need loving, yeah

…

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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.

33 thoughts on “Small Faces – You Need Loving”

  1. Pingback: Small Faces – You Need Loving – MobsterTiger

    1. Yes way later on…”originally uncredited to Dixon, a lawsuit in 1985 was settled with a payment to Dixon and credit on subsequent releases.”
      I’m glad he did get that. I love this cut though. Way ahead of it’s time in 1966

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  5. That was the thing: they all listened to Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Willie Dixon, Robert Johnson. The British Invasion was the British acts listening to American Blues then sending it back here and us thinking it was something new.

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  6. Bless ’em, Page and Co showed a lot of gall on their road to success. At least to their credit(?) they pilfered from the best. It must have taken a fair bit of lawyers flexing muscle to get Dixon some money back and his due credit.

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    1. I love this version of the Dixon song…again…I’m a Marriott biased fan …but I don’t care lol. Whats good is good.

      1985…what 17 years later. Don’t get me wrong…I like Zeppelin but I don’t know why Page had a problem in crediting people unless it was purely money…the other members called him “led wallet” …

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      2. Yes he does… he was such a power at the mic. He could do something low or high tempo and make it work.
        Yes…that would work!

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  8. Blatant rip-off by LZ in my opinion. I am not a fan of theirs anyway, and that is one reason why. I always say I’m going to listen to more Small Faces, and then I forget until you bring them up again. I like 99 percent of what I’ve heard. That YouTube comment sounds like something Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes would say.

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    1. Yea…I had to include that crude quote because I stand behind it.
      I became a huge Small Faces fan around 7-8 years ago. Totally underrated band.

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  9. Hoping Willie Dixon got royalties for this one and Whole Lotta Love. Marriott’s voice sounds similar to Plant’s in parts of it. I forgot why they are called Small Faces? What came first Faces or Small Faces? I know Rod Stewart is in there somewhere? They do sound like a prototype of bands that came after. Remember when I saw that netflix show about older people in the dating scene and one of them was Steve Marriott’s (ex?) wife? That threw me for a loop.

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    1. I don’t mean to pick on LZ…you know I like them…but The Small Faces did credit Dixon.
      Because they were all under 5.5 feet tall. Oh the Small Faces came first and then Marriott formed Humble Pie and the Small Faces got Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood and became The Faces.
      Wow…yea she has to be getting up there now.

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      1. I don’t think you are picking on them, just stating reality. Oh wow would not have expected why they named themselves that. Thanks for the info on who was what when. She didn’t look that old on the show, maybe 50s? 60s?

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      1. I wore a flat-top haircut until I was 11, then I had a duck-tail fastback held in place with Brylcream. In my rock n roll days it was all long and terrible looking, dorky, yes. Now, in my old age, I still have all my hair, all my original teeth, but am full of metal in my back. I beat the hell out of Cancer too boot. As too the small Faces, I think that German girl who cut the Beatles hair must have got hold of them. I would post a picture of my young self, but, I can’t find them.

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      2. My mom would get a bowl and do the rest. So I tell people that is not just a story. I’m losing my hair slowly but surely but that is alright…I’m still here somewhere.
        I think of that commercial when I hear Brylcream…”a little dab will do you”

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