Last week's post about Midnight Train To Georgia ended up with me going both backwards and forwards from the most famous version of the song to track down both the original and more recent covers. This led me to thinking about songs I didn't know were cover versions when I first heard them, which brings us to "Uncover Me Monday", a feature that may or may not rotate with "Cover Me Monday", but at least gives me more options to write about.
Case in point, Freddie McGregor's 80s reggae hit, Just Don't Want To Be Lonely, a top ten hit in the UK when I was 15. It wasn't particularly a favourite at the time, but like most songs from that year, I now feel a great nostalgic warmth towards it. But I had no idea, until very recently, that it was a cover.
The song was originally recorded by Ronnie Dyson, who looks about 12, but was apparently 23 when he scraped the US charts with this trumpet-tastic version...
What a beautiful song. You are right though, Ronnie looks about 12 but sounds as if he's in his 30s. Bit weird to be honest but I think I like his version best. Didn't know of Cuba's dad but he was a junior for good reason I suppose. Their version reminds me of a lot of soul groups from the early 80s who often had spoken word lines. An idea for a series I wonder?
ReplyDeleteI am a sucker for spoken word intros...
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