Whenever You Need Somebody

I don't care about the things that people say. It's this song I think about each and every day. (Hmm, perhaps not every day, but pretty frequently, that's for sure.) Maybe I should stop quoting lyrics from this song and tell you something about it instead.

I'm late, again. If you were paying close attention, you would notice that this is coming out on Tuesday instead of Monday. But my plans haven't been affected all that much by what day it is. The time for the return is here.

The return of Rick Astley. One of the great voices is back.

No, I didn't come up with that line. I saw it in an ad. You're probably expecting me to tell you something about how Rick wrote the song, how he felt about the success of it, etc... but what if I told you that this wasn't Rick's song? 

I'm going to have some angry fans on my doorstep now. "But it's the title track for the album!" "I clearly remember watching him sing this on live TV when I was 13!" Unfortunately, even though my cover was mostly inspired by Rick's version, I must admit that the song isn't an original from him.

Listen to the song here
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What's the explanation for this, you may ask? You see, Rick was working with a music studio called SAW, which wrote and produced songs for a lot of popular artists at the time. (You can hold them responsible for the iconic "Never Gonna" opening chords.) They wrote this song in 1985 for O'Chi Brown, another singer they were working with. Her version was reasonably successful, but the record company eventually stopped selling it, and it was forgotten.

Two years later, when it became evident that Never Gonna Give You Up was going to be an international hit, SAW figured that their audience was going to want more. They decided to pull out their old composition and roll out a new version of it, with Rick singing. Because this one reached a much bigger audience than the original, a lot of people thought it was a brand new song.

"You know that song that everyone's listening to?"

"What song?"

"You know, never gon--"

"OH yeah oh yeah, that one. You don't have to keep singing lyrics to me. I know it."

"Well, GUESS WHAT? There's another one like it! I grabbed this from the record store. Come on, check it out."

"Hmm, I've never heard this one before. Must be a new song."

The record company responsible for O'Chi's version decided to start marketing the record again. They evidently weren't ready to be defeated by a 21-year-old who had just appeared on the scene months earlier. Let's just say that by the time they started that battle for popularity, they had already lost.

To attach Rick's name to the song even further, SAW ended up naming his album "Whenever You Need Somebody" after it. And since I brought up popularity, let me just point out that the album was released in the middle of November, and it still made it to the best-selling list for the year. There's really no way of predicting what's going to happen on the music charts.

Looking at the two versions now, they're different enough that I'm not sure which one I would say is better. There are good things about both of them. If there's anything I've learned from reading about this song, this is what I would say. Always make sure you give all the musicians the credit they deserve. 

And, of course, keep filling your teacup with music.
~Liya