Who Did It Better? Some Guys Have All The Luck

Who Did It Better?

Some Guys Have All The Luck

It's rather amazing the developmental paths a song sometimes needs to take in order to finally hit it big. This week we have four versions of the same song - sort of. Fact is, we have a version done as an old-school R&B ballad, a reimagined synth version incorporating different lyrics, a pop/synth version featuring a vocal refrain from an old blues song, and a countrified version from a female perspective. In addition, the song spent a number years sung as a reggae tune although we're not going to include those in this competition. In the end, only one version managed to scale the charts and secure the song a place in our collective cultural consciousness. Which will it be? Let's take a look and a listen and find out in this week's edition of Who Did It Better?

  

Some Guys Have All the Luck was written by Jeff Fortgang, a Yale graduate (class of 1971) who recorded with The Whiffenpoofs and composed jingles and radio spots for public service announcements.

The song was first recorded by the vocal group The Persuaders as part of their 1973 Atco album Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me. Released as a single, it managed to hit #39 on Billboard's Hot 100. It also made it to #7 on the R&B chart and # 64 in Canada. Their version was done as an R&B ballad, similar to the work of the Stylistics. The group is primarily remembered for their first hit, 1972's A Thin Line Between Love And Hate which hit #15 on the Hot 100 and #1 on the R&B chart.

 

After that, the song was recorded a number of time by various groups as a reggae tune, most notably by Inner Circle in 1974,  The Shakers in 1976, Junior Tucker in 1980 and Judge Dread in 1981. 

In 1982,  Robert Palmer released a reimagined version of the song as a single from his live/studio album Maybe It's Live. It snagged the #16 spot on the UK Singles chart. In addition it charted in Australia (#41), Germany (#52) and New Zealand (#49). 
 
Palmer's version has a significantly altered melody and lyrics in comparison to other versions of the song. Palmer spoke about his reinterpretation in 1989: "I was working with Moon Martin when I wrote Some Guys. I played it to him and a few days later he said he'd just heard someone singing it in the studio across the road, which seemed impossible since I hadn't finished it myself! What happened was that I must have heard it subliminally, I think it was on Australian radio, and just hadn't realized. The only thing I remembered was the title line."

Two years later, Rod Stewart took a crack at it. Released as the second single from 1984's Camouflage, it would climb to #15 in the UK, while grabbing the #10 spot in the US in October 1984. In addition it was #11 in Ireland, #16 in Canada, #32 on the Adult Contemporary chart in the US, #58 in Germany and #95 in Australia. 
 

Stewart's version is unique because it incorporates a vocal refrain from  the Clarence 'Frogman' Henry song, Ain't Got No Home. It should also be noted that after Palmer's death in 2003, Stewart began performing the song in concert using Palmer's arrangement while featuring backup singers dressed and dancing in a manner similar to the signature look Palmer featured for the women in some of his most popular videos.  

 In 1985, Louise Mandrell, television co-star and sister of Barbara Mandrell, recorded a version of the song. Changing it to a female perspective, she retitled it Some Girls Have All The Luck. Released as the third single from her 1985 album, Maybe My Baby, the song reached #22 on Billboard's Hot Country Singles chart and #37 on the Canadian Country chart. 

And that's the whole story.

Now? On to the competition!

The Song: Some Guys Have All The Luck/Some Girls Have All The Luck

The Competitors: The Persuaders vs. Palmer vs. Stewart vs. Mandrell

Some Guys Have All The Luck - The Persuaders

Some Guys Have All The Luck - Robert Palmer

Some Guys Have All The Luck - Rod Stewart

Some Girls Have All The Luck - Louise Mandrell

The Persuaders

Love that intro. Big horns aplenty. It's the sound of the Stylistics. And a sound folks like Hall & Oates sat up and paid attention to. 

Douglas Scott, singing lead, has the pipes and the intonation and great intuition. Listen how he makes the word  'feel' ring like a bell. 

Yep, there's a flute under there. Let's hope it knows enough to keep in its place. 

As we introduce the chorus, in chime some actual bells. The harmonies are kept down in the mix... a minor disappointment.  This sounds very natural and alive, and a bit pitchy every now and then. 

A different vocalist takes the second verse. Interesting choice. His is a much more guttural sound. That natural rasp with all those breaks adds a bit of grit to the mix. As is, his vocals are effective if lacking a bit of color. 

So both vocalists have been singing the melody on the chorus. The second vocalist is mixed lower on the first time around, while taking more of the lead on the second. Subtle, but it adds a lot of aural texture.

The instrumental bridge is a wonder, a study in contrasts. Those stinging/crying guitars, the insistent horns, and gleeful strings. With the strings taking the lead, it's a bit too elevator music for my taste. 

Very Marvin Gaye on the slight c-section. 

Wow. That is an inspired way to go out; one taking the chorus, while Douglas Scott sings the first verse... it works - a little messy, but I blame the mix. The two vocalists seem to play off one another fine. 

I am surprised this was not a bigger hit. It deserved to be.  

This is lovely.

Robert Palmer

An intro capturing Palmer's signature sound; the insistent programmed drums, the throbbing synth bass and the electric guitar filling in the back beat. 

His voice is unmistakable and used to great effect here; part sly, part cynical, part knowing, part detached.

The mix is a sludge, but that's on purpose. I like the weird little pops on the chorus - like a shredded guitar neck. And the falsetto is messy, but a great contrast to that rock bottom. Goes on too long though.

Well, this is a 'reimagining' where I do believe all he kept was the hook in the chorus. 

We are now treated to his impression of Talking Heads. It's not commercial, but it is timely. And that bleeds right into some truly zany vocals, sort of a riff on 1950's rock, and a brave, brilliant choice. 

Fortunately, we zoom right into the chorus again. Those drum explosions are fun. Keep in mind many of the elements he's introducing here become Top 40 bread and butter in a matter of two years. He was very much ahead of the times. That he wasn't heralded as more of an innovator is most likely due to the fact that early on critics had dismissed him as a white-blues poser. 

I like the twin guitar instrumental break. It's traditional, but mixed in a very static manner. 

His spoken verses are the issue here. Not only are the indecipherable, but they detract from the melodic fun found reinventing this soulful ballad as an edgy synth rocker. 

Still the lunacy, which brings to mind Spike Jones old 'everything but the kitchen sink' approach to music. This is whacky and fun which frequently borders on a kind of tuneless brashness, which we are constantly being rescued from thanks to the incredible hook from the original song. 

Innovative and fun, but far from perfect. 

Rod Stewart

Popping off like a gat there... straight into programmed hell. 

A little background on this: this cut is from the highly-derided Camouflage album, which featured a great song called Infatuation and filled out with a flank of dreck cover songs. Critics hated it with the main target being his cover of the Free standard Alright Now, done as a bit of soulless synth rock. And while the critics were not all wrong, the album still held the one component which almost guarantees a good time on any Rod Stewart album; his cheeky charm. His aura, that of a common pub crawler, always makes hearts warm to his particular brand of karaoke. 

This is mixed brighter than the shiniest of toys. And I wouldn't mind it at all except that those guitars - which should be adding a bit of warmth and grit seem rather lifeless and buried. 

Stewarts typical slyness is no where to be found here. His vocals are the very definition of perfunctory. His vocals are mixed in the middle and it causes this weird static scratchiness to bubble up. 

The doubling of the vocals on the second chorus warm things up immensely. And the whoah-oh-ohs are fun. 

This mix is frighteningly antiseptic, save for those aforementioned whoahs and whenever the vocals are doubled, which they smartly are on the tail end of phrases in the second verse. 

By the third chorus that rhythm track is hitting my brain like a hammer to the temple - and not in a good way - and we are only at the halfway mark!

And then we get the obligatory sax - it's like, if an arranger couldn't think of anything better to do, in came a sax solo. This one is mixed at the same level as Stewart's vocals, which means it doesn't ride on top, which also means it fails to catch fire or sound lively. It serves as nothing but a piece of aural padding, which, quite frankly, this version of this tune does not need in the slightest. 

That's 27 seconds of my life I would like back, please.

The odd thing is... that lackluster sax seems to have woken up Stewart. He sounds like himself on this final (we hope) verse, that is to say, present and awake and a bit of a rogue. Again, those backing vocals singing along are helping immensely. 

I like the little ascending synth bits. They make for nice fill - heartless sounding, but of interest. 

If Stewart had been smart, he would have made that chorus into one big pub sing-along. I've always felt he was most effective as 'one of the boys'.

By the 3:31 mark, I am done with this. And yet it continues for another full minute, as Stewart sings like he's being paid per word. 

Sigh.

Louise Mandrell

A couple of things before we get started here. 

First - that album cover has to be one of the biggest fails I have ever seen. It's supposed to be her glamourous television with-it self on a big billboard in a high-rise urban area. Instead it looks like they had an album cover and then decided to go with something else but failed to center it correctly. Either album cover would have been more effective than the mess they ended up with. Just shaking my head and feeling sorry for Miss Mandrell.

Second - I never understood the appeal of that damn variety show she was on. None of them look like sisters. So you have Barbara, the uber-successful one who was trying to come across as some downhome Dolly Parton diva, then Louise, the tall and glamourous one with a slight edge and then poor Irlene - who not only got stuck with that name, but was also cast as the dumb, untalented comic relief. 

It must have appealed to the trailer court crowd. Anytime Barbara whipped out her fiddle to demonstrate how versatile she was, I reached for the remote. That said... they made a huge success of it, which is also why we have this version of this song. Because without that television show, I don't think Louise would have ever amounted to more than a back-up singer for her sister and a duet partner for her former husband R.C. Bannon. 

Okay... now, back to the song.

Huh. I like the chug of that twangy opening. It's warm and charming. The mix is not clean, but it is bright. 

And she's smart. She's got backing vocals right out the gate, which makes this an every-woman sort of appeal. And punchy - those drums are whipsmart. The rhythm guitar work here reminds me of a lot of 1970's pop gems from the UK. They had jangle to them that's present here. It's smart because, again, it provides an inclusive, community feel to the proceedings. 

Sadly, Madrell fails bring any warmth or color to the verse. It's a straightforward reading - with a degree of defiant toughness, which comes off as musically dismissive. Yeah, her voice is not full-bodied. It's serviceable, but not much more. The little natural ache she has brings to mind Brenda Lee. So, while not full-bodied, there is some character present.

On the second verse we get some bottleneck guitar work. That's a nice touch. 

Okay, the production work is on the cheap side. And I think this song would have worked better in the hands of someone a little more cynical and less-Hollywood, like say Wynona Judd or Mary Chapin Carpenter. As is, this is a bit of country fluff - fun, but not life-altering. 

And I can tell you right now that the reason this did not do better on country radio was because of the that instrumental section. It's just the intro replayed. And there's nothing going on. That is 15 seconds of dead air, my dear, that's what that is.

And, based on that 35 second play out, it's obvious that the producers had no idea what to do with this song. I mean, they don't even try to play with a counter melody or anything. That is another airplay killer.

Sort of a shame. This was not without its charms and Ms. Mandrell's vocals grew on me quite a bit - though it would have been nice if she'd cut loose a little and let us know that she was not being held hostage. 

The Verdict

Oh, lawd, I do prattle on. 

Okay. This is rather easier than I thought. 

First, bravo to Palmer. Very innovative... which isn't the same as being musically successful. I liked his zaniness. I did not like his garbled word segments. Pass.

Mr. Stewart. Glad he woke up near the end. Liked the whoah-oh-ohs. But this was DOA for me. Pass.

Ms. Mandrell. I think she's rather likeable. And I like any kind of girl power/every-woman anthem. It's bright and likable, but the producers failed to actually try to bring anything interesting to the arrangement - which is the warmest of the three upbeat versions. So, there's that. 

In the end? I'm going with the group that brought this song to the party. I am a sucker for anything that smacks of The Stylistics. So, forgive me for being rather sentimental. But I also don't understand why this wasn't a bigger hit for the group. Marketing? Probably. I think the vocals are incredible. I love the mix. I like the arrangement, even though those strings do get a bit syrupy. It's a glittering affair and I'm all for getting swept up in a big romantic gesture. 

So, it's The Persuaders for me. 

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And that's enough of me. 

Okay, your turn. You know what to do: leave your thoughts and choice in the comments section. I love a differing opinion. And I must say, I can see arguments for two of the other versions. So, let me hear it.

That's all for now.

Until next time...

I thank you. For reading... and listening!

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Some Guys Have All The Luck - Robert Palmer

Some Guys Have All The Luck - Rod Stewart

Some Girls Have All The Luck - Louise Mandrell