Tag: Hard to Handle

Otis Redding – Hard To Handle

I first heard this song in 1989 or 1990 by the Black Crowes. I loved it from the minute I heard it. It was great to hear a rock/soul song on the radio at the time, with a throwback feeling to the early seventies. I soon found out that it was an Otis Redding song when a friend played me a video of Pigpen of the Dead singing the song and told me. 

This song was recorded in 1967, just months before Redding’s tragic death in a plane crash on December 10th of that year. He never got to see the song’s success. It was one of several tracks released posthumously as part of his 1968 album The Immortal Otis Redding, which compiled unreleased material from his final sessions. The song was written by Otis Redding, Allen Jones, and Al Bell. Jones and Bell were key figures at Stax Records. Bell was a top executive, and Jones was a prolific producer and songwriter.

The song by Otis peaked at #51 on the Billboard 100 (this is why charts don’t matter all of the time), #38 on the Billboard R&B Charts, and #15 in the UK in 1968. It must be said, though, it was released as the B side to a song called Amen, a terrific soul/gospel song, so it didn’t get the full exposure it could have with an A-side slot. 

I just saw a picture I had never seen before. Jimi Hendrix and Otis Redding are talking, probably at Monterey. 

Otis’s live reputation was growing stronger after Monterey. I would have loved to have heard Jimi Hendrix and Otis Redding play together. It’s not like one wasn’t enough, but I could only imagine what they would have sounded like. 

The Dead with Pigpen doing lead vocals. 

Hard To Handle

Baby, here I am, I’m a man on the sceneI can give you what you wantBut you got to go home with meI’ve got some good old lovingAnd I got some in storeWhen I get through throwing it on youYou got to come back for more

Boys and things will come by the dozenThat ain’t nothing but drug store lovingPretty little thing, let me light your candle‘Cause mama, I’m sure hard to handle, now, yessir’am

Action speaks louder than wordsAnd I’m a man with a great experienceI know you got another manBut I can love you better than himTake my hand, don’t be afraidI’m wanna prove every word I sayI’m advertising love for freeSo won’t you place your ad with me?

Boys will come a dime by the dozenBut that ain’t nothing but ten cent lovingPretty little thing, let me light your candle‘Cause mama I’m sure hard to handle, now, yessir’am

Baby, here I am, I’m a man on the sceneI can give you what you wantBut you come go home with meI’ve got some good old lovingAnd I got here in storeWhen I get through throwing it on youYou got to come back for more

Boys will come a dime by the dozenBut that ain’t nothing but drug store lovingPretty little thing, let me light your candle‘Cause mama, I’m sure hard to handle, now, yessir’am

Give it to me, I got to have itGive it to me, good ol’ lovingSome of your good loving

…

Max Picks …songs from 1990

1990

The La’s – There She Goes

This song played a key part in making me love the power pop genre. It’s one of my favorite power pop songs of all time. It was originally released in 1988 but wasn’t played over in America until 1990. So I’m cheating on this but I had no way of hearing it before then.

A song by a British band called The La’s. A very good pop song that has no verses…it just repeats the chorus four different ways four different times. It was written by the singer Lee Mavers and recorded in 1988 and remixed and released again in 1990. It only peaked at #49 in 1990 in the US.

Many people think the song was about heroin. Paul Hemmings an ex-guitarist for the band denies that rumor. Either way, it is a perfectly constructed pop song. It’s been covered by a lot of artists but probably most successfully by Sixpence None the Richer. I’ve always liked The La’s version the best.

The Black Crowes – Hard To Handle

When I heard this song in 1990 I was thrilled because it sounded like the Faces of the 70s. It was plain rock and roll and had a timeless quality about it. I waited the entire 1980s for rock and roll like this to be back on the mainstream charts. The Replacements were the other rock band but not in the charts. It happened occasionally (Georgia Satellites and Guns and Roses) but not much. This song was originally recorded by Otis Redding, who wrote it with Allen Jones and Al Bell. It was the only cover song on The Black Crowes debut album which sold over five million copies.

The album also had songs like Jealous Again and She Talks To Angels. I knew things were changing when I saw the success of their album.

The two other versions that I like are Otis Redding and Grateful Dead version with Pigpen taking the lead.

The Replacements – Merry Go Round

This one is off of their last studio album All Shook Down. I was going to conclude with this one having one off of their studio albums but there is one more coming next week.

This is not my favorite off the album but it did have a commercial sound for that time and it’s something that I thought would have charted in the Billboard 100. Merry Go Round did peak at #1 on the alternative charts. The album peaked at #69 in the Billboard Album Chart in 1990.

“Merry Go Round” was written about the lives of Westerberg and his sister Mary (“They ignored me with a smile, you as a child”).

The band went to Los Angeles to make a video for Merry Go Round. With Westerberg’s okay, Warner Bros. hired Bob Dylan’s twenty-three-year-old son Jesse Dylan, who was just starting to direct.

AC/DC – Thunderstruck

As much as I love Angus Young’s intro to this…it’s his brother’s rhythm guitar that makes this song go. Brothers Angus and Malcolm Young wrote this song.

A side note to this song. In 2012 a couple of Iranian uranium-enrichment plants were hacked and their computers shut down but not before blasting Thunderstruck at maximum volume like you are probably doing right now or will be soon.

The album was recorded with producer Bruce Fairbairn at his Little Mountain Sound Studios in Vancouver, where he also produced Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet and the Aerosmith albums Permanent Vacation and Pump. It was the group’s first time working with Fairbairn.

Sinéad O’Connor – Nothing Compares 2 U

This song was everywhere in 1990. Prince wrote this song in 1984 but didn’t release it. He gave it to a group called The Family that was signed to his label. The Family included it on a 1985 album but it never went anywhere. Five years later it became the biggest hit of 1990.  Prince recorded his own version as well, but it wasn’t released until 2018, two years after his death.

It was O’Connor’s manager, Fachtna O’Kelly, who suggested she record a version of the track. O’Kelly knew it would be perfect for her.

…

Black Crowes – Hard To Handle

When I heard this song in 1990 I was thrilled because it sounded like the Faces of the 70s. It was clear rock and roll and had a timeless quality about it. It peaked at #26 in the Billboard 100, #40 in Canada and #45 in the UK. This song was originally recorded by Otis Redding, who wrote it with Allen Jones and Al Bell. It was the only cover song on The Black Crowes debut album, which sold over five million copies.

The two other versions that I like are Otis Redding and Grateful Dead version with Pigpen taking the lead version.

From Songfacts.

Running a compact 3:08, The Black Crows turned the song into a rocker, using guitars instead of horns and extending the song from Redding’s 2:18 original.

This was The Black Crowes’ third single, following “Twice As Hard” and “Jealous Again.” It made #45 in the US in December 1990, as the group was rapidly gaining momentum. After “She Talks To Angels” hit #30 in May 1991 – over a year after the album was released

 “Hard To Handle” was reissued, this time going to #26 and becoming the highest-charting single for the band on the Hot 100. The group had been together for five years before signing a record deal with Def American, which prepared them well for the onslaught of success. Their live act had already been honed, and many who saw them remained lifetime fans as they became more of a jam band.

Hard To Handle

Baby here I am
I’m the man on the scene
I can give you what you want
But you gotta’ come home with me

I have got some good old lovin’
And I got some more in store
When I get through throwin’ it on
You gotta’ come back for more

Boys will come along a dime by the dozen
That ain’t nothing but ten cent lovin’
Pretty little thing, let me light your candle
‘Cause mama I’m sure hard to handle now, yessir’am

Action speaks louder than words
And I’m a man of great experience
I know you’ve got another man
But I can love you better than him

Take my hand don’t be afraid
I’m gonna prove every word I say
I’m advertising love for free
So you can place your ad with me

Boys will come along a dime by the dozen
That ain’t nothing but ten cent lovin’
Pretty little thing, let me light your candle
‘Cause mama I’m sure hard to handle now, yessir’am

Yeah
Hard to handle now
Oh baby

Baby here I am
I’m the man on the scene
I can give you what you want
But you gotta’ come home with me

I’ve got some good old lovin’ 
And I got some more in store
When I get through throwin’ it on you
You got to come a-runnin’ back for more

Boys will come along a dime by the dozen
That ain’t nothing but ten cent lovin’
Pretty little thing, let me light your candle
‘Cause mama I’m sure hard to handle now, yessir’am

Hard
Hard to handle now
Oh yeah, yeah yeah yeah

Boys will come along a dime by the dozen
That ain’t nothing but ten cent lovin’
Pretty little thing, let me light your candle
‘Cause mama I’m sure hard to handle now, yessir’am

Yeah
So hard to handle now
Oh yeah

Baby
Good lovin’
Baby, baby
Ohh, good lovin’
I need good lovin’
I got to have it, oh yeah
Yeah
So hard to handle, now, yeah