Randy Crawford - You Might Need Somebody (1981)

A track made famous by Shola Ama's 1997 cover, You Might need Somebody was first recorded in 1979 by Randy Crawford. Tom Snow wrote the music for the song and collaborated on the lyrics with Nan O’Byrne pretty much in one sitting, apparently in Bonnie Raitt’s living room one night in 1978; the song was chosen for Randy by her producer Tommy Lipuma  and released on her solo album, Secret Combination, in 1981. The album stayed on the UK charts for sixty weeks and You Might Need Somebody  (her seventh single release in total) reached no.11 on the UK Singles Chart.

The song has been cut by multiple artists through the years; notably by Joe Walsh and most famously, Shola Ama in 1997. Shola Ama’s version reached no.4 on the UK charts and remained in the top 40 for almost 2 months. It broke airplay records in England and topped charts in France, Italy, Germany, Israel, Australia, New Zealand.

It continues to be recorded in many different formats today (Joe Walsh, Mick Fleetwood and Turley Richards among many others have recorded versions) and although it was a hit twice, with Randy Crawford in '79 and eighteen years later with Shola Ama, it never achieved hit status in the US. Go figure.
The song is a great example of the elegant appeal of simplicity; it requires a great vocalist to use it's potential to the fullest - no room for Autotune here. But out all of these versions (even Shola Ama's oh-so-sweet and soulful version of this, which I love), Randy's version has that extra touch of class that shines through for me. The song is purpose-written for her vocal style and it shows; the way she wraps her voice around the words is a classic RC trademark.

A fine example of 'the original and best'.