Who Did It Better? What's Forever For

Who Did It Better? 

What's Forever For

The rule is typically: three strikes and you're out. But that doesn't hold true when it comes music. Certain songs, as you'll learn in today's Who Did It Better? - well, they sometimes need an extra turn at bat in order to knock it out of the park. 

What's Forever For is a song written by Rafe Van Hoy, a songwriter who wrote material with and for Deborah Allen - including her biggest hit, Baby, I Lied - along with a host of other country artists.

It was first recorded by soft rock duo England Dan & John Ford Coley and appeared on their 1979 album Dr. Heckle and Mr. Jive, but was not released as a single. It would serve as the final track on their last album for Big Tree Records, a label on which they'd enjoyed a string of hits and their greatest successes.

Anne Murray, who was also enjoying a string of hits at the time, included the song on her 1980 Capitol Records release Somebody's Waiting. What's Forever For served as the B-side of her cover of the Beatles' song I'm Happy Just to Dance with You.

It also made the cut for T. G. Sheppard's 1981 Warner Bros. album I Love 'Em All which contained his only Top 40 hit, I Loved 'Em Every One. 

Michael Martin Murphey, an established country/folk artist who had crossover success on the pop charts (Carolina In The Pines, Wildfire) had just signed to a new label in 1982 - Liberty Records, home of Kenny Rogers and Dottie West.  His self-named album was released in June of 1982, and for the second single, What's Forever For was chosen. It  would be the first of two number ones on the country chart for Murphey. Not only did it spend 16 weeks in the country Top 40, it also hit #4 on the Adult Contemporary Chart, #19 on Billboard's Hot 100 and was a #1 Country Hit in Canada. 

All this new success would culminate with Murphey being voted Best New Male Vocalist of the Year by the Academy of Country Music in 1983 - a bit odd, considering he'd been recording since 1971 and first hit the country charts in 1976. But, hey... I'm sure he was grateful just the same. 

And that's the whole story. 

Now? On To The Competition!

The Song: What's Forever For

The Competitors: England Dan & John Ford Coley vs. Murray vs. Sheppard vs. Murphey

What's Forever For - England Dan & John Ford Coley

What's Forever For - Anne Murray

What's Forever For - T.G. Sheppard  

What's Forever For - Michael Martin Murphey

England Dan & John Ford Coley

A little acoustic guitar, a pretty little piano intro. Have always liked Coley's vocals. They are just common sense and feel like home; a little John Denver, but with more pop sense. Not sure why he chooses to spread the word 'mind' across the breadth of his sinus passages, and maybe that choice alone was enough to nix this as a single. 

The other issue with it is that intro. It's too quiet, too soft. It doesn't grab hold. England Dan & John Ford Coley were at an odd point in their career. This was their swan song for Big Tree, a label who'd done pretty well by them. However, tastes had changed. Yacht Rock, as perfected by Pablo Cruise, Toto, and others had taken control of the airwaves, leaving soft rock in it's dust. Even long established artists like David Gates of Bread were giving it a shot (Took The Last Train). Which explains why England Dan & John Ford Coley followed suit, with their super-slick version of Todd Rundgren's Love Is The Answer. It also helps explain why a song like this, which used to be the duo's bread and butter, got relegated to album filler. 

Even this ballad gets a pop injection... listen to the build up to the chorus, with the sudden intro of that whirling canned guitar and the heavy-handed rhythm section laying it down uncharacteristically hard. The vocals are suddenly mixed way hot and it's a bit noisy and messy. And the way that guitar line screams, weaving in and out of the whole chorus? Meh.

Obviously producer Kyle Lehning isn't interested in the actual nature of the song itself, only in delivering a piece of timely product. Otherwise, his treatment of the chorus makes zero sense. The lyrics are asking a very sincere question, one he seems interested in making stadium-ready. 

The second verse is the duo's best 16 bars here. They sound engaged and like themselves -and, yes, as a group they had their charms. Those harmonies are stridently pitched, but lovely. 

However, the undoing of this piece? That guitar. It is loud. And canned. And obscuring the landscape while competing with the strings, it pulls the ear away from the song itself. 

Too bad. Because this song is the type this duo used to take Top 20 all the time.

Anne Murray

Anne Murray was at an interesting crossroads in her career, as well. Her profile had gotten a second wind, thanks to tunes like You Needed Me and I Just Fall In Love Again. She had, in fact, just released a bestselling Greatest Hits collection - the sort which typically leaves the public with less of an appetite for new material from that artist. But Capitol Records was not ready to let Murray go just yet, although, based on her next three releases, they had no idea what to do with her. 

That might explain the slow, steady crawl of this arrangement. It evokes You Needed Me, in a way. Unfortunately, it has nothing to do with this song. That tempo is leaden. And it makes Murray sound like she's fighting her way out of a Sominex-induced coma. 

Yet by the second half of the first verse, she's in fine voice. And by the second, she finds herself wrapped up in a plodding kind of homogenization that very few vocalists would ever be comfortable with. 

Oh, and the rhythm section on the chorus just slaps it down like a loaded paint brush - what a terrible, lifeless arrangement. So much so, Murray's typical smile and warmth are totally absent here. That's going to kill this one for sure. Seriously, Murray's most winning vocal moments are those delivered with her signature heavy-bottomed mezzo soprano with a bit of a slyness to them. It's that smile in her voice that signaled hope and sold those songs. Sadly, it's nowhere to be found here. If I didn't know differently, I would swear she was reading the sheet music for the first time - she sounds that disconnected from the song. 

Just listen to that piano pick-up into the final chorus. Why even bother? That tempo is deadly. 

A big disappointment.

T.G. Sheppard  

A very-John Denver opening, though that sustained string shimmer is a bit of a surprise. Sheppard's delivery is a little tight-lipped and clipped for my taste. Let's see if he relaxes into this. He sings his consonants, using the vowels as little more than bridges to that next syllable. Listen to what he does on the word 'understand.' He sings the first 'n' - which is a first for me. 

The arrangement. So far? Pretty much by the book and a bit colorless. But then, Sheppard's signature strings enter the picture and... wait. What's he doing with the chorus? That is some regimented singing. 'Ev-uh'? Really? Wow. This is not in the same class as his cover of Without You. I was looking forward to this based on how much I'd liked his take on that song. But this? This is dumb. This is cosmopolitan country at it's dumbest. 

Rather than just sing the words, he's injecting some ill-advised lilt/syncopation into the proceedings - a great idea, if the song warrants it, but... not this song, hon.

Weird. I hear the melody of this song and it's very connected, legato. There's a natural flow to it. Both Murray and Sheppard seems to be clued in to something that I don't think was ever intended for this song. 

Also, this seems stuck in first gear. I am not getting a sense of momentum or build or drive - something most middle-of-the-road by-the-book ballads need in order to become ear candy. 

Oh, and those backing vocals. No. Ugh.

Back to the chorus. It's not sludge, but there's no pulse either. That familiar guitar sound belongs to another artist (Firefall?). And the singing is so segmented, so regimented. 

This is stuck on the ground like a plane with no fuel. 

Michael Martin Murphey

Huh. 

Jumps right in. Big, warm sound. That keyboard has been around forever. But it's got some nice play. Murphey's vocals are spot on. See? I knew there was a melody there. 

Okay, as we move to the second verse, a levelness in Murphy's vocals becomes apparent. I want to use the term 'flatness' but, not the sort that has anything to do with pitch. It seems the lid is on pretty tight and I don't think Murphey has the sort of pipes that open up. I like the mini-harmony. 

The arrangement is playing it smart, so far... it's subtle, supportive and keeping Murphy in the spotlight. 

The chorus? A bit heavy-handed, vocally. I'd like there to be a bit of space between the various vocal parts. Still, at least he has a sense of the melody. I'm listening to this and wishing Anne Murray had been given this arrangement instead. That instrumental bridge at the end of the chorus, into verse three? That's what Murray needed in order to find her smile.

That said... this tempo? It plods. I just want it to kick into gear. Murphy's vocals come on way too strong to be stuck in first gear.

Even a key change does nothing to lift this song up. Weird. Was it the times? 

So... this doesn't soar. And it should. 

The Verdict

Oh. Dear. 

The problem is... three of these people seem to miss the point of the song. As I see it, and hear it in my head, the singer has the answers. The protagonist is commenting on the madness he sees other committing in the name of love. So he's not lost. This is not a lament, but a challenge. He's offering hope in the form of a riddle. 

Of the four performances here, only one comes close to understanding that. The others seem content to be sad - 'oh, woe.' 

The only one that sort of gets it is the original version - England Dan and John Ford Coley. Unfortunately, theirs is mucked up by a chorus arrangement which has an agenda all its own. But the singers, themselves? They understood this song. 

Murray is utterly lost. I don't even think she has an interpretation, she seems just going through the plodding motions of it all. I miss the smile and slyness of her best work. And that could have worked here, big time. You see, I believe the singer 'gets it' and has the answers. And Murray, in the past, has a marvelous way of cluing in listeners that she's on top of things when it comes to matters of the heart - sort of a 'been there, done that' sort of knowing. 

It doesn't happen for her.

It also doesn't happen for Sheppard, who seems hellbent on injecting some kind of syncopation to the mix that runs contrary to the song. A big miss on his part. 

And Murphey. It's serviceable. He recognizes the melody, which is something neither Murray or Sheppard seemed capable of. And he's smart enough to keep it simple, so that melody and the song's theme remain center stage. However, he's undone by an unforgiving tempo and his own inability to open up the top of his vocals, which are strong, but... so what? They don't lift me up. They don't elevate the material. They don't cause the song to soar. 

So, I'm back to England Dan and John Ford Coley. And, despite that horrible Toto-inspired arrangement on the chorus - yes, I looked it up and both Steve Lukather and Jeffrey Porcaro, the architects of Yacht Rock and members of the aforementioned group, are on board with their fingers in this pie - theirs is the version I would choose to listen to again. 

That said? None of them get it right. 

Which is a crying shame because this is totally the sort of thing these artists typically bring their skills to with the kind of grace and ease which generates Top 40 magic.

--- ---

And that's enough of me.

Okay, your turn. You know what to do; leave your choice and thoughts in the comments section. I love to hear a differing opinion. 

That's all for now. 

Until next time...

Thanks for reading... and listening! 

What's Forever For - Michael Martin Murphey