Baby I Need Your Loving

Baby I Need Your Loving was released in 1964 by the Four Tops. It was their first Motown single, and climbed to number 11 on the Billboard top 100. Johnny Rivers, who is apparently pretty famous, covered the song in 1967. If you don't know who he is: remember that song Secret Agent Man? Yeah it's that guy. For his version they dropped the G in the tile, renaming the song Baby I Need Your Lovin'. Clearly dropping the G was a good idea because Rivers’s version made it all the way to the number 3 spot.

Four Tops:

Johnny Rivers:

Well, after listening to both I certainly hope it was dropping that G that got him to the number 3 spot, because it surely couldn't be because he recorded a better version. Now, I don't want to be some kind of jerkface, Rivers's version isn't notably terrible or anything. Maybe there are even some people who really like it, I don’t know. But. When you listen to them back to back, or if you've ever heard the Four Tops version, it's pretty obvious that it's way better. If there are people out there who are like, “Nah, Johnny's got this one bra,” those people are lying to themselves. Don't be silly hypothetical group of people I just made up. Clearly the Four Tops own this one. Even Rolling Stone listed it at the 390^th greatest song of all time on their list of 500. I don't think Rivers's version is on the list.

Okay, now I'm going to keep going. I know I said that Rivers's version wasn't notably terrible, and it really isn't, but that’s because it’s a bulletproof song. Anybody and his dog could probably take a shake at it, and come out on the other end with something half decent, as long as nobody listening had ever heard the Four Tops do it. But once you've heard the Four Tops version, the Rivers version is just a boring cover. Personally, I think that if I were to say that it's half as good, that would be generous. I could spend all evening picking apart the differences and trying to explain why the Four Tops is better, but I hate doing that (which is why I very rarely do it). So I'm just going to mention one point of comparison. I think that's all I really need to do anyway. Pay attention at 1:32 in the Tops version; compare that to what happens at 1:00 in the Rivers version. Who needs more convincing than that? Nobody that's who. Oh, and for just for good measure, check out the medium shot in the Rivers video from 0:18 to 0:40. Isn't that awkward as heck? It looks like a goose just got run over by a car and is trying to climb up on the curb with two broken legs. You just feel so bad for the poor thing. It's as sad as anything.

So, uh yeah, the Four Tops win this one. But you already knew that.