Some Kind of Wonderful

It would seem that the rate at which I blog has slowed significantly. Don’t worry; I have a ton of excuses for why. This week my excuse is that my old back injury from when I was 21 is acting up again, and I've been in constant pain for the last few days, despite taking about 1000 milligrams of pain killers every four hours.

Today's song is Some Kind of Wonderful. It's written by John Ellison who recorded it with his group Soul Brothers Six in 1967. Their version reached number 91 on the Billboard Top 100.

Grand Funk Railroad recorded it in 1974. Their version is probably more well known. It did better on the charts, reaching number 3.

There also happens to be another song of the same name recorded by the Drifters in 1961, but that's a totally different song.

Soul Brothers Six:

Grand Funk Railroad:

This one wasn't as much of a landslide victory as I expected, but the Soul Brothers Six version is still better. I like John Ellison's vocal way better. And the part where he tells the listeners he doesn't believe they know what he's talking about, that's like the best part of the song.  Or when he says she makes him want to scream and then he does. It's those little things that make all the difference. It keeps the song fresh and reduces the repetition. I feel like Grand Funk Railroad's version is too long and gets too repetitive. I kind like their harmonies and how they have different guys singing different parts at the same time. But it's not enough. I don't know how they took their version to number 3 when the Soul Brother's version only made it to 91. But then again Huey Lewis and the News took their version to number 7 in 1994, so chart ranking might not be the best way to gauge the song.