JD Souther passed away last week, and in his honor today’s classic song of the day is his biggest hit, “You’re Only Lonely.”
JD Souther was a major force in the country-rock movement of the 1970s. Primarily known as a songwriter, he wrote or co-wrote tunes for many major artists on the Southern California rock scene at the time, including the Eagles (“Heartache Tonight,” “Best of My Love,” “New Kid in Town,” “James Dean,” “How Long”), Linda Ronstadt (“Faithless Love,” “Prisoner in Disguise,” “Simple Man, Simple Dream”), James Taylor (“Her Town Too”), and Don Henley solo (“The Heart of the Matter”).
Souther met all of these artists—and more—when they all were playing at the Troubadour nightclub in Los Angeles in the early ’70s, when they were all pretty much just starting out in their careers. A prolific songwriter, Souther provided material that helped them all make it big in the business. As Eagle Glenn Frey once noted, “one of the reasons JD didn’t have a bigger solo career is because he gave us or Linda Ronstadt most of his best songs.”
That didn’t seem to bother Mr. Souther; he was happy with his career as a songwriter—and the royalties that brought in. As he once told an interviewer:
“I don’t really want to be stopped when I’m in the grocery store and have somebody pay a bunch of attention to me. I’ll be nice if that happens, but it’s not what I want.”
As noted, “You’re Only Lonely” was Souther’s biggest hit as a performer. It sounds a little like something Roy Orbison would have done, and features backing vocals by his pals Jackson Browne, Phil Everly, Don Felder, Glenn Frey, and Don Henley.
Here’s what Mr. Souther once said about the song:
“It doesn’t have a bridge. It doesn’t really have a chorus, and it doesn’t have a third verse even. All I can say is I thought it was a catchy little tune.”
In spite of all that, “You’re Only Lonely,” released in August of 1979, hit #7 on the Billboard Hot 100. It went all the way to #1 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart.
John David Souther was born in Detroit on November 2, 1945. His father was a big band musician who later abandoned the road to open a music store in Texas. Little Johnny worked there when he was a kid and learned how to play multiple instruments. In the late ’60s he joined a band that took him to Los Angeles, which is where he started songwriting and met all his soon-to-be famous friends. He was even in a band with Glenn Frey before Frey joined the Eagles, and was invited at one time to join that group. He said no, the Eagles were pretty good without him. “I was quite happy to stay home and write,” he later noted. “I think they were relieved, as well.”
Souther scaled back his performing and songwriting in the ’80s and did a little acting. He appeared in several movies, including Postcards from the Edge and Deadline, and on a number of television shows, including Thirtysomething and Nashville. He returned to recording in 2008 and released his most recent album, Tenderness, in 2015. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2013.
JD Souther passed away on September 17, 2024. He was 78 years old.
