Songs with Earlier Histories Than the Hit Version

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Tagged: David Ruffin

1970s, Soul

Rainy Night in Georgia

Written and originally recorded by Tony Joe White (1962 |1969).
Also recorded by David Ruffin (1970).
Hit version by Brook Benton (US #4/R&B #1 1970).

From the wiki: “‘Rainy Night in Georgia’ is a song written and first recorded by Tony Joe White in 1962 (and re-recorded by White in 1969) and was popularized by R&B vocalist Brook Benton in 1970.

“In 1967, White signed with Monument Records, which operated from a recording studio in the Nashville suburb of Hendersonville, TN. Over the next three years, White released four singles with no commercial success Stateside, although ‘Soul Francisco’ was a hit in France. ‘Polk Salad Annie’ had been released for nine months and written off as a failure by his record label when it finally entered the US charts in July 1969. It climbed into the Top Ten by early August, eventually reaching #8, becoming White’s biggest performance hit.

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1960s, Pop

Everlasting Love

Originally recorded by Robert Knight (US #13/UK #40 1967 |UK reissue #19 1974).
Hit versions by Love Affair (UK #1 1968), Carl Carlton (US #6/R&B #11 1974), Narvel Felts (C&W #14 1979), Rex Smith & Rachel Sweet (US #32/UK #35 1981), U2 (AUS #2/POL #3/NETH #10 1989), Gloria Estefan (US #28/UK #19 1994).
Also recorded by David Ruffin (1969).

From the wiki: “‘Everlasting Love’ is one of two songs (the other being ‘The Way You Do the Things You Do’, by The Temptations, Rita Coolidge, Hall & Oates & UB40) to become a Top 40 hit in the 1960s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. The original version of ‘Everlasting Love’ was recorded by Robert Knight, at Fred Foster Sound Studio, Nashville. His producers, Buzz Cason and Mac Gayden, aimed to record him in a Motown style with an especial reference to the Four Tops and the Temptations, intending the song to serve as B-side for another titled ‘The Weeper’.

“Cason believes he may have drawn the phrase ‘everlasting love’ from the Biblical verse Jeremiah 31.3 which begins: ‘Yea, I have loved you with an everlasting love’. According to Cason, the recording ‘had some different sounds on it that, for the time period, were kind of innovative. The string sound is actually an organ and we used a lot of echo.’ Ultimately, ‘Everlasting Love’ was released as an A-side for Knight, and it peaked at #13 in 1967 on the Billboard Hot 100.

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