"To Love Somebody"

In the mid-1960s, the young British songwriter Barry Gibb was in New York City for the first time when he was visited at the Waldorf Astoria by one of his musical heroes: soul/R&B superstar Otis Redding.

Redding reportedly loved Gibb’s work and came to urge him to write a song for him to record. Legend has it that immediately after they met, Gibb went downstairs and, on a hotel piano, thrashed out “To Love Somebody,” rushing back to offer it to Otis.

Sadly, before getting the opportunity to sing Gibb's ode, Otis Redding was gone. Just months after that happy encounter, Redding was dead at 26, killed in a plane crash in Lake Monona near Madison, WI. The music world still mourns that loss.

The Bee Gees

The song ultimately was introduced by Gibb himself, along with brothers Robin and Maurice, on their international debut album, Bee Gees 1st.

Curiously, the tune — which years later Barry Gibb called his favorite of everything he had written — initially enjoyed only a lukewarm reception. As The Bee Gees’ second single, it reached only No. 17 in the U.S. and a humbling No. 41 on Britain’s own charts.

However, the song became ever-more popular as it was covered by other artists — more than 200 renditions have been recorded to date — and initially, some of the best versions were by top female artists of the day.

Nina Simone and Janis Joplin each recorded “To Love Somebody” within the first year and half of its debut. Roberta Flack waxxed a beautiful re-imagining of the song on her lovely Quiet Fire album in 1971. A decade and a half later, Bonnie Tyler was revisiting the song in the studio and in her live shows around the world.

Perhaps the song’s most popular cover came in 1992 when Michael Bolton released it as a single from his Timeless: The Classics album. His version reached No. 11 in the US and No. 2 in Canada.

“To Love Somebody” even has also had currency in country corners after Hank Williams Jr. put it on his 1979 Family Tradition album.

Our Take on the Tune

In the Floodisphere, it was a quarter of a century ago when Joe Dobbs’ son, Dale, first used the word “eclectic” to describe The Flood’s diverse musical tastes.

True, that. The Floodery does tap a wide variety of sources for its tunes, from blues and old-time string band numbers to jazz, jug band and classic rock.

But even the guys themselves didn’t see this one coming (though you diehard Bee Gees probably knew they’d get to you sooner or later). Here’s Randy Hamilton leading the way on Barry Gibb’s best composition.