Covers Of "higher & Higher"?

[Andreas B]

Lets see how many soul artist covers we can compile of the Jackie Wilson classic

[Robbk]

There were no "covers" of Jackie Wilson's "(You're Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher".  I suppose, one might term Wilson's version a "cover" of The Dells' version.  There were some re-makes of it.  I remember a female single artist having a hit with it in 1974 or 1975.  I can't remember her name.  I didn't pay any attention to music made after 1970, other than what we did at Airwave Records (and I didn't pay nearly enough attention to THAT).

[boba]

i disagree. the jackie wilson song rips off the dells song but it's not exactly the same. and even if it were exactly the same, there still could be "covers" of wilson's interpretation of the song.

[Godzilla]

Otis Redding's version is surely a cover. Jimmy Cliff's too, although admittedly not a soul cut.

[Robbk]

A "cover" of a song is a release that comes out during the original run of a released record, to take advantage of its recognition by the public, and get more sales from that recognition (e.g. "steal sales").  That was done much in the early to mid 1950s by producers of Caucasian artists to sell songs performed by Black artists to the Pop market (White audiences).  It was also done by artists of other music genres using a song from a different genre. 

 

I don't remember any covers of "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" (e.g. no other versions out at the same time).  The same song sung by another artist after the original has finished its run is NOT a "cover" (except in the sense that "I COULD care less" now means "I COULDN'T care less").  I'm not against languages changing over time, EXCEPT in the case of a change in meaning being totally illogical AND also erasing the meaning of a word and leaving the language with no replacement word for that word.  If "cover" now means what we used to call "remake", then there is no longer a word to represent the original meaning of that particular meaning of "cover". 

[Roburt]

i disagree. the jackie wilson song rips off the dells song but it's not exactly the same. and even if it were exactly the same, there still could be "covers" of wilson's interpretation of the song.

The Jackie Wilson version of "Higher & Higher" was developed from the Chess / Dells recorded 'original song'.

Carl Smith was pissed off that even though he had given Chess Records good service for some time, they wouldn't help him out with his medical bills when he fell ill in 67. So he 'jumped ship' and went across to Brunswick taking the 'almost finished' song with him. The Dells cut their version of the original song for Chess and it went onto the group's next LP.

Across at Brunswick, the team there took the song Carl Smith had fetched with him, developed it to suit JW and cut Jackie on it. It was released on 45 & became an instant big hit. Coz the JW version was in the charts, the Dells take on the song just remained an album track.

Seems litigation was soon instigated & (I believe) the credited writers of the song (on JW's version) had to be amended. Carl Smith wasn't too well liked afterwards and soon headed off to Memphis to get a (short-lived) position at Stax.

AT LEAST THAT'S THE VERSION OF THE STORY I GOT FROM CARL back in the 80's when he was running his own Anita Record label out of Memphis.

Other versions of the story exist, one being that a copy of the part finished song was found written on waste paper picked from a Chess Records dustbin & it being 'lifted' and taken to the guys at Brunswick. But all the versions acknowledge that the song was initially developed over at Chess Records.

Edited August 14, 2013 by Roburt

[Cover-up]

It maybe doesn't really count, but there's Erma Franklin's version (same backing track) which was unreleased till it came out on a Kent comp LP...

But you'd expect there to be hundreds of covers, yet my mind's blank!

[Robbk]

Otis Redding's version is surely a cover. Jimmy Cliff's too, although admittedly not a soul cut.

Were those versions out at the same time as Jackie's?  If so, then they were covers.  If not, they weren't.

[boba]

The Jackie Wilson version of "Higher & Higher" was developed from the Chess / Dells recorded 'original song'.

Carl Smith was pissed off that even though he had given Chess Records good service for some time, they wouldn't help him out with his medical bills when he fell ill in 67. So he 'jumped ship' and went across to Brunswick taking the 'almost finished' song with him. The Dells cut their version of the original song for Chess and it went onto the group's next LP.

Across at Brunswick, the team there took the song Carl Smith had fetched with him, developed it to suit JW and cut Jackie on it. It was released on 45 & became an instant big hit. Coz the JW version was in the charts, the Dells take on the song just remained an album track.

Seems litigation was soon instigated & (I believe) the credited writers of the song (on JW's version) had to be amended. Carl Smith wasn't too well liked afterwards and soon headed off to Memphis to get a (short-lived) position at Stax.

AT LEAST THAT'S THE VERSION OF THE STORY I GOT FROM CARL back in the 80's when he was running his own Anita Record label out of Memphis.

 

this doesn't contradict what i said. it's not an identical song but it rips off (or is "developed from") the original. and like i said, even if it were identical, that doesn't mean people aren't covering jackie wilson's version since it soundwise isn't identical to the dells and nobody heard the dells. similar to how ruben studdard covered luther vandross' version of "superstar", he probably never heard the carpenters and it doesn't sound at all like the carpenters.

Edited August 14, 2013 by boba

[Robbk]

this doesn't contradict what i said. it's not an identical song but it rips off (or is "developed from") the original. and like i said, even if it were identical, that doesn't mean people aren't covering jackie wilson's version since it soundwise isn't identical to the dells and nobody heard the dells. similar to how ruben studdard covered luther vandross' version of "superstar", he probably never heard the carpenters and it doesn't sound at all like the carpenters.

Then those people singing versions of the song Jackie sang, are doing remakes of his version (as opposed to "covering" that song.  The choice of the word "cover" to be used as a term for releasing another version of the same songg at the time the original is out, was to imply that that second version's release replaced the original as the big seller (effectively covering up its recognition by the public-and changing that recognition to the newer version).  Naturally, that wasn't always the intention of covering a record, but it was used first mainly as a "negative" term.  It didn't always hurt the original artist.  It often gave the Black artist recognition in the Pop market, which he or she hadn't had before.  That led to more work and bigger fees for appearances.  But, it DID often hurt sales of the original record.

[Sunnysoul]

With the greatest respect to Robb, let's take some literary licence here and respond to Andreas' original post.

 

Otis Redding's "cover" must have been released (posthumously) only about a year or two after Jackie's hit. and of all the many cover versions, Otis' cover is one of the best, if not the best:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1odvp-_bhk

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7L7EhD8x0Q

[Roburt]

Back in 1967/68, every local (& most national hit) soul acts filled there live shows with 'covers'. If a new act had a hit 45, they would be rushed into the studio to cut a 'quick album' and many songs included on the album would be covers of songs they were performing live at the time.

............. JUST ABOUT EVERY ACT that played the Wheel in 1967/ 1968 would perform "Knock On Wood" for instance.

Lots of soul singers (solo & groups) have told me what songs they used to include in their acts back in those days and the likes of "Open The Door", Motown stuff from the Temptations, 4 Tops & Miracles, JB stuff, Stax & Atlantic stuff, J & B Purify songs, "Knock On Wood" and the like get regular mentions.   

ANYWAY, many local US TV stations had black music shows & I'm guessing that around Sept / Oct / Nov 67 lots of acts on those shows would have done live versions of "Higher & Higher". Unfortunately none of those clips seem to have survived down the years. 

Edited August 14, 2013 by Roburt

[Kegsy]

Why would anyone want to cover/remake such an iconic record.

Nobody else could really do it justice and any attempt to do so

would be doomed to failure as Jackie's version is just soooo memorable.

Its like somebody trying to do Hard to Handle or such like.

 

kegsy

[Sunnysoul]

Why would anyone want to cover/remake such an iconic record.

Nobody else could really do it justice and any attempt to do so

would be doomed to failure as Jackie's version is just soooo memorable.

Its like somebody trying to do Hard to Handle or such like.

 

kegsy

 

 

For the same reason that there have been a million covers of You've Lost That Loving Feeling, Sunny, Light My Fire and so on .......

 

Performers want to perform the greatest songs and have often achieved even greater commercial and chart success than the original version, that's why !

Edited August 14, 2013 by sunnysoul

[Godzilla]

  I'm not against languages changing over time, EXCEPT in the case of a change in meaning being totally illogical AND also erasing the meaning of a word and leaving the language with no replacement word for that word.  If "cover" now means what we used to call "remake", then there is no longer a word to represent the original meaning of that particular meaning of "cover".

 Well it's changed now. Get over it grandad

[Kegsy]

For the same reason that there have been a million covers of You've Lost That Loving Feeling, Sunny, Light My Fire and so on .......

 

 

How many million selling covers  of the above ?

 

Kegsy

Edited August 14, 2013 by Kegsy

[Sunnysoul]

How many million selling covers  of the above ?

 

Kegsy

 

I was only making the point that covers are a staple part of the music industry.

 

As for songs being made into a big hit chart hits on more than one occasion by different artists ... off the top of my head ... in the soul context ... here's a few :

 

Grapevine - Gladys Knight  / Marvin Gaye / Creedence Clearwater

Respect -    Otis / Aretha

My Girl -     Temptations / Otis

Never Can Say Goodbye - Jacksons / Isaac Hayes / Communards (!)

 

and so on and so on ... just the Motown songbook alone has produced numerous multiple hit covers.

Edited August 14, 2013 by sunnysoul

[Roburt]

Its like somebody trying to do Hard to Handle or such like.

   kegsy

Kegsy, the only thing I can recall being 'hard to handle' is you old chap !!

Off to 'Sandbanks' with Mr. Temple in just over two weeks ....... life can be 'hard to handle' at times. 

Edited August 14, 2013 by Roburt

[Steve Foran]

Didnt Linda Ronstadt do it?

[Epic]

It was Rita Coolidge.

[Mick Holdsworth]

There's two versions by Dana Valery on her Brunswick LPs, both use the same backing track as Jackie Wilson

[Dave Pinch]

There's two versions by Dana Valery on her Brunswick LPs, both use the same backing track as Jackie Wilson

i think its on her 1972 lp on brunswick `not the flower`.....is it on another lp mick?..rita coolidge hit in 77 reaching no 2 in the usa making it a bigger hit than jackies...probably only me but does anyone else think higher  and higher is not as good as some of his other 45`s around that time

[The Yank]

Martha Reeves remade the song  for Arista around '75/ '76.

[Andreas B]

A "cover" of a song is a release that comes out during the original run of a released record, to take advantage of its recognition by the public, and get more sales from that recognition (e.g. "steal sales").  That was done much in the early to mid 1950s by producers of Caucasian artists to sell songs performed by Black artists to the Pop market (White audiences).  It was also done by artists of other music genres using a song from a different genre. 

 

I don't remember any covers of "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" (e.g. no other versions out at the same time).  The same song sung by another artist after the original has finished its run is NOT a "cover" (except in the sense that "I COULD care less" now means "I COULDN'T care less").  I'm not against languages changing over time, EXCEPT in the case of a change in meaning being totally illogical AND also erasing the meaning of a word and leaving the language with no replacement word for that word.  If "cover" now means what we used to call "remake", then there is no longer a word to represent the original meaning of that particular meaning of "cover". 

 

So then how irksome is it when someone calls a recording a "cover version"? 

[Guest]

Personally I think Otis Readings version is pants!! I think he murders it to death.

Edited August 14, 2013 by Guest

[Robbk]

What a quaint idiomatic phrase!  is the phrase "is pants" an update of "the cat's pajamas"? Or does it mean "in the toilet"?

 

 

 

Which hovercraft is full of eels?  Do you really own one? 

 

I'm Hungarian on my father's side. 

[Roburt]

A cut 'is pants' Bob means it's awful. And I go with you, a cover really is a quick copy done at the time of the original version to try to steal sales with a soundalike crap copy.

Loads of UK beat bands did 'covers' in the 60's after white Yanks had done similar (to the 'black' original version) back in the 50's. 

A white version sold (as a R&R tune) coz it got played on all the US radio stns whereas the black original sold few coz no-one ever knew (back then) that it existed.

[Mick Holdsworth]

i think its on her 1972 lp on brunswick `not the flower`.....is it on another lp mick?..rita coolidge hit in 77 reaching no 2 in the usa making it a bigger hit than jackies...probably only me but does anyone else think higher  and higher is not as good as some of his other 45`s around that time

Yes Dave, it's an Italian LP version of "Not The Flower" released only in Italy on Brunswick. It has all the "Flower" tracks plus either two or four others - same backing tracks as it's US counterpart,  but all vocals recorded in Italian.

 

Cheers

Mick

[Robbk]

A cut 'is pants' Bob means it's awful. And I go with you, a cover really is a quick copy done at the time of the original version to try to steal sales with a soundalike crap copy.

Loads of UK beat bands did 'covers' in the 60's after white Yanks had done similar (to the 'black' original version) back in the 50's. 

A white version sold (as a R&R tune) coz it got played on all the US radio stns whereas the black original sold few coz no-one ever knew (back then) that it existed.

Or (very often) your lily-White parents didn't ALLOW you to bring a record made by a Black artist into the house.

[Robbk]

A cut 'is pants' Bob means it's awful. And I go with you, a cover really is a quick copy done at the time of the original version to try to steal sales with a soundalike crap copy.

Loads of UK beat bands did 'covers' in the 60's after white Yanks had done similar (to the 'black' original version) back in the 50's. 

A white version sold (as a R&R tune) coz it got played on all the US radio stns whereas the black original sold few coz no-one ever knew (back then) that it existed.

Does anyone here know the origin (derivation) of that idiom?

[Robbk]

I looked it up.  It was a schoolboy (public school?) phrase originated from "a pile of (e.g. smelly/unwashed) pants".  Interesting!

[Guest]

I looked it up.  It was a schoolboy (public school?) phrase originated from "a pile of (e.g. smelly/unwashed) pants".  Interesting!

Or "Caught with its pants down"

My hovercraft is full of eels is from Monty Pythons sketch about the "Dirty Hungarian phrasebook" Rob. 

 

Now lest get this thread back on track

[Simon T]

There were no "covers" of Jackie Wilson's "(You're Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher".  I suppose, one might term Wilson's version a "cover" of The Dells' version.  There were some re-makes of it.  I remember a female single artist having a hit with it in 1974 or 1975.  I can't remember her name.  I didn't pay any attention to music made after 1970, other than what we did at Airwave Records (and I didn't pay nearly enough attention to THAT).

   (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher       The Dells   1968         

(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher written by Gary Jackson, Carl William Smith - English

     Title                                                     Performer                             Release date

1   (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher                               Jackie Wilson            1967

2   Higher and Higher                                 Otis Redding                          June 20, 1969

3   (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher                               Gene Pitney 1972

4   Higher and Higher (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me)                               Bette Midler November 1973

5   Higher and Higher                                 Geoff Muldaur                        1975

6   (Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher                                    Esther Phillips            1976

7   (Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher                                    The Chanter Sisters   1976

8   (Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher                                    Dolly Parton February 1977

9   (Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher                                    Barbara Mandrell      December 1977

10 Higher & Higher (Your Love Has Lifted Me)                                      Rita Coolidge            1977

11 Higher and Higher                                 Bobby Darin                          1987

12 Higher and Higher                                 Beau Williams                        1991

13 Hold On                                               Big Daddy                              1991

14 (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher                               Jimmy Barnes            1991

15 Higher and Higher                                 Mint Juleps                             1994

16 Higher and Higher                                 Flash Cadillac                         1994

17 Higher & Higher                                    Jimmy Cliff                             1996

18 (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher                               Chris Ardoin and Double Clutchin'     1998

19 Higher and Higher                                 Eric Bibb                                2003

20 Higher and Higher                                 Butch Wax and The Hollywoods     2005

21 Your Love Keeps Lifting Me (Higher and Higher)                               Steve Brookstein       2005

22 (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher                               Michael McDonald   December 25, 2007

23 Higher and Higher                                 Tomas Nicholas                     2007

24 Higher and Higher                                 Eddie Money                         2007

25 (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher                               Rod Stewart             October 23, 2009

Edited August 14, 2013 by simon t

[Dave Pinch]

naturally otis reddings version would be recorded in 1967

[Roburt]

As well as the 'secondhandsongs' web site, there's this one that plays the Beau Williams modern version off against Jackie's 1967 version.

I really like many of the tracks that Beau cut down the years (lots with Johnny Pate & similar decent producers). His version of H&H is off one of his gospel LP's (as the backing vocals illustrate) ..............

..  https://www.whosampled.com/cover/54849/Beau-Williams-Higher-and-Higher-Jackie-Wilson-(Your-Love-Keeps-Lifting-Me)-Higher-and-Higher/

[Roburt]

Howard Huntsberry also did a version (its a bit too dramatic for me)  ......

https://www.whosampled.com/cover/54854/Howard-Huntsberry-Higher-and-Higher-Jackie-Wilson-(Your-Love-Keeps-Lifting-Me)-Higher-and-Higher/

[boba]

sorry, didn't intend to turn this thread into a discussion of semantics / splitting hairs

[Mark B]

There is also this one by the moving finger

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TbyaTkWD9tY&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DTbyaTkWD9tY

[Pomonkey]

See this come up every now and then, wimpy Mexican version

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/LOS-HITTERS-higher-higher-LATIN-SOUL-1968-MEXICO-jackie-wilson-/281151290095?pt=Music_on_Vinyl&hash=item4175ec3aef

[Soul-slider]

The Jaggerz (Gamble 4008)

[Md Records]

"Canada Goose" on "Tonsil" records - another second rate version. Seems every man and his dog had a crack at this tune!!

 

Des

[Guest penny]

Then those people singing versions of the song Jackie sang, are doing remakes of his version (as opposed to "covering" that song.  The choice of the word "cover" to be used as a term for releasing another version of the same songg at the time the original is out, was to imply that that second version's release replaced the original as the big seller (effectively covering up its recognition by the public-and changing that recognition to the newer version).  Naturally, that wasn't always the intention of covering a record, but it was used first mainly as a "negative" term.  It didn't always hurt the original artist.  It often gave the Black artist recognition in the Pop market, which he or she hadn't had before.  That led to more work and bigger fees for appearances.  But, it DID often hurt sales of the original record.

Love the pedantry, but the term 'cover version' , at least in the uk, has been used now for so long just to mean a remake that I doubt anyone even knows the original meaning you describe. Whether you like it or not, the use of the word has changed and it's now synonymous with 'remake'. Over here we have the term 'covers bands' even, for bands who play other peoples songs. Interesting info though cheers

[Guest penny]

Why would anyone want to cover/remake such an iconic record.

Nobody else could really do it justice and any attempt to do so

would be doomed to failure as Jackie's version is just soooo memorable.

Its like somebody trying to do Hard to Handle or such like.

 

kegsy

Well, otis himself did a pretty good version, as has been mentioned, and patti drew did a pretty good version of otis' s 'hard to handle'.

[Steve G]

A good list so far, but it's not over yet....... and I guess you just can predict I'll come in with a Scepter cover.

 

Bobby Boyd & The Playboys "Higher & higher" at the beginning of 1969. White R&B cover by the guy that became a country artist.

[Mick Holdsworth]

Not exactly "Higher and Higher", but there is a pop track by Bobby Vee called "Just Keep It Up", that is so close to the original tune it could easily be mistaken for "Higher and Higher"

Mick