Today’s classic song where the cover was a bigger hit than the original of the day is “You’re No Good.” This tune was a moderate hit for Betty Everett in the U.S. in 1963, a slightly bigger hit for the Swinging Blue Jeans the next year in England, and a much bigger hit for Linda Ronstadt worldwide a decade later.
“You’re No Good” was written by Clint Ballard Jr., the songwriter responsible for “Game of Love” by Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders and “Good Timin'” by Jimmy Jones. The first recording of the song was by singer Dee Dee Warwick (sister of Dionne Warwick, niece of Cissy Houston, and cousin of Whitney Houston) in 1963. That slightly Latinesque version was produced by the legendary team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller but didn’t chart.
Later that year, an A&R man for Vee-Jay Records named Calvin Carter heard Ms. Warwick’s version and thought it might be a good tune for Vee-Jay artist Dee Clark. On second thought, Mr. Carter decided that the lyrics might be a little too “negative about girls” for a guy to sing, so he decided to pass on that and give the song to fellow Vee-Jay artist Betty Everett. They cut the track on September 12, 1963, and the single was released two months later. Ms. Everett’s version of “You’re No Good” did just okay, stalling out at #51 on the Billboard Hot 100. (Ms. Everett recovered, releasing the top ten hit “The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss)” the following year.)
Over in England, a group called the Swinging Blue Jeans (their big hit was 1963’s “Hippy Hippy Shake”) heard Ms. Everett’s record and recorded their own Merseybeatified version of “You’re No Good.” Their single, released in May of 1964, rose all the way to #3 on the UK charts and even cracked the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 at #97.
Fast-forward a decade and shift your focus to Southern California. Songstress Linda Ronstadt was recording songs for her upcoming album, Heart Like a Wheel, and needed a tune to open side one. She’d been performing “You’re No Good” live for some time and decided that it would fit just fine on her new album. She took her band into the studio on July 1, 1974, to lay down the backing tracks but didn’t like the way it turned out. Here’s how her guitarist Bob Warford remembers it:
“They were trying to do an R&B version of the song, which was actually closer to the way we did it live than to the released version. We played it at a faster tempo live, which we did on that [first] recording.”
Ms. Ronstadt nixed that first recording, saying “It was just the wrong groove for me. I don’t think I knew how to phrase around [the players], certainly no fault of theirs.”
So she took the gang back into the studio on July 5 and tried it a different way. Here’s what she recalls about that session:
“Ed Black, who played six-string guitar and pedal steel, started to play a rhythm riff on his Les Paul. Kenny Edwards…the bass player…echoed the riff in octaves. Andrew Gold added a sparse drum track, giving me a basic track to sing over. We did a few takes, picked one we liked, and then Andrew, who always played guitars and keyboards, went to work with Peter [Asher, the producer] and began to work up layers of guitar, piano, and percussion tracks.”
That, combined with Ms. Ronstadt’s impassioned vocals and a string track laid down in August at London’s AIR Studios, did the trick. The resulting single, released on November 19, 1974, hit #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box Top 100 and was the highlight of an album full of highlights (including another top ten single, a cover of the Everly Brothers’ “When Will I Be Loved”).
So that’s the story of “You’re No Good.” It was good enough when released by Betty Everett, got better when covered by the Swinging Blue Jeans, but became fantastic in the more than capable hands of Linda Ronstadt. Which version do you like best?
You know which one I like best, especially when performed live. So here’s an added treat, Linda Ronstadt and band performing “You’re No Good” live on The Midnight Special on December 21, 1973—seven months before she recorded it for Heart Like a Wheel. Man, could she sing!
