Somebody To Love

Introduction

The Queen song was playing on the system, and I remember when "A Day At The Races" came out, and two of the songs on that album had the same titles as songs by Jefferson Airplane. The other was "You're My Best Friend".

I then wondered if I could do a playlist of songs called "Somebody To Love" like I did with my "Runaway Train" one, which was a Vocal Top Story.

It turned out that I can't, but there are lots of titles that include those three words in differing orders, so "Somebody To Love" and "To Love Somebody" both make sense using the same three words.

Queen - "Somebody To Love" from "A Day At The Races"

When "A Day At The Races" was released, the feeling was that Queen might have peaked with "A Night At The Opera". While it contained their most famous song, if that album was a "10", "A Day At The Races" was a nine, full of amazing songs and is still a great album. This song is one of the many highlights of the album and the

"Find Me Somebody To Love"

Chant still gives me goosebumps.

Jefferson Airplane - "Somebody To Love" From "Surrealistic Pillow"

This was a decade before the Queen song, and whereas the Queen is from the point of view of the first person trying to find somebody, this version is asking it as a question. It is more direct than the Queen song, but an excellent slice of sixties psychedelic rock.

Bee Gees - "To Love Somebody" from "1st"

Another sixties song from the Bee Gees' first album, and this beauty has been covered probably hundreds of times since, and I may include some of them on this playlist (or I may not).

As you can see, it uses the same words as the first two songs, just rearranged.

Solomon Burke - "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love" from "Supposed To Be"

Another sixties classic adding "Everybody Needs" to the title, but predating the first three songs on this list. Solomon Burke was an amazing singer, and I had the privilege of being part of the Gospel Choir that backed him at The Sage fifteen years ago, which I recorded on my Seven Days In blog here:

There is also an amazing version of this in the film "The Blues Brothers" but I think John Belushi and Dan Akroyd had body doubles for the backflips and acrobatics.

Suzy Boggus - "Somebody To Love"

This is the first one that I found that I had not heard. I was completely unaware of Suzy Boggus. While this is country and western, it is somewhere in the realms of Shania Twain, so not bad at all.

Justin Bieber - "Somebody To Love"

The title allows this in, but it is ot in my collection and is unlikely to be.

Taylor Swift x Queen - "Lover x Somebody To Love"

This is one of the most awful mashups I have ever come across. Two great songs ruined for no reason at all. Although this ran into "Heart As Big As Liverpool" due to the strange YouTube sequencing algorhythm and you can listen to that here:

Jimmy Sommerville - "To Love Somebody"

I am going to conclude this with this excellent reggae-tinged cover of the Bee Gees' song by Jimmy Somerville. Again, I was unaware of this song even though it is in my expansive collection on a best of CD.

I love these lines:

You don't know what it's like

Baby, you don't know what it's like

To love somebody

To love somebody

The way I love you

Thank you for reading and listening, and hope you found something you enjoyed.