(The Hit Hammer is where I'm reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Starting from when the chart started in 1958 and eventually working my way to the present. To see my inspiration and more information about this blog, please CLICK HERE)
Linda Ronstadt - "You're No Good"
Hit Number 1: February 15, 1975
Stay at Number 1: 1 Week
Peter Asher's name hasn't shown up in this blog for a long time. He just so happened to be the brother of Paul McCartney's girlfriend in 1964, Jane, and for a time, Paul was staying with the Ashers. He shared a bedroom with Asher, and since Asher wanted to break it into the music business, Paul and him would sometimes talk music. Well, Asher's luck would reach record heights when Paul gave him a Beatles' reject, "A World Without Love," and it became a #1 hit in 1964 for Asher and his singing buddy Gordon Waller. Though Peter & Gordon turned out to only be what they call a "flash in the pan," Asher would become one of the biggest names in music producing for several years. One of his first big productions was Linda Ronstadt's "You're No Good," which would later become the fourth cover song to hit #1 in 1975.
Asher would later say that "You're No Good" was always one of his favorite songs, and the original version of it goes back to 1963 when an obscure singer by the name of Dee Dee Warwick recorded the song. (At least part of the reason she could be labeled as "obscure" is because she was always in the shadow of her sister, Dionne) But the decision for Ronstadt to cover the song dates back to 1973, when one of her bandmates suggested the song as one for her to close out her live shows with. She performed the song on TV for the first time on The Midnight Special in December of that year, and this was really when Ronstadt began to get a lot more attention. I'm sure people knew her name, but to this point, the biggest taste of true stardom she got was being a backing vocalist on Neil Young's "Heart of Gold," which hit #1 in 1972. But then there was Heart Like a Wheel, the album where Ronstadt worked with Asher for the second time, and the album that would end up including "You're No Good." Ronstadt would become a household name after that.
Believe it or not, "You're No Good" was a last second decision to be recorded for Heart Like a Wheel, and the idea for it to be recorded on the album was Ronstadt's herself. Asher was on board with the idea, but he admitted that he first fell in love with the song when a band called the Swinging Blue Jeans released their version of it. He probably thought it would be hard to top that, but this was a rare time when Asher was wrong about his musical predictions. When Ronstadt performed the song live, she would do it in a faster, more R&B style, and at first that was how she was going to do the recorded version too. However, she wasn't feeling that style for the recorded version, and she wanted to slow it down. It's worth noting that the previous versions of "You're No Good" sound almost sadder, like the narrator is trying to convince themselves that they're better off without their ex-lover, but can't manage to do that. In Ronstadt's version, she sounds like she's completely had it with this loser, and she's "feeling better now that they're through." She's over this guy, and she lets us know it.
There's a lot of impressive things going on in "You're No Good." Ronstadt's fiery lead vocal along with Asher's production works, but the song also features Andrew Gold on drums, who would later release his own hit single, "Lonely Boy," which made it to #7 in 1977. (It's a 7) Needless to say, there was no lack of talent. Even though part of the R&B feel was eliminated, I still like they left a little bit of that in here. The backing singers sound like a '90s R&B girl group, which has always been a cool sound to me for some reason, and Ronstadt's lead vocal along with these singers in her final notes, "You're no gooooooood," works as an extraordinary climax. All the instruments are only there to support the vocal performance, which is what they needed to do. Ronstadt's version of "You're No Good" is powered on emotion, and that emotion is pissed off. I love songs where the narrator is clearly angry about something. Even the final moments of the song's playtime, which is an instrumental break, sound cool. It's a great ending to what's a great song.
Surprisingly, though Ronstadt's popularity would skyrocket, she never hit #1 again, though she would come damn close a few times. The other main single from Heart Like a Wheel, "When Will I Be Loved," (another cover) did well on the charts though too, and it made it to #2 on the Hot 100 in 1975. (It's a 7) One of her best songs, "Blue Bayou," made it to #3 in 1977, and that one, I think, is peak Ronstadt. (That one is a 9) Unfortunately, she has Parkinson's disease now which prevents her from singing anymore, but there's a pretty impressive catalogue of music of hers that's worth checking out. "You're No Good" can work as the tip of that iceberg.
GRADE: 9/10
IN POP CULTURE:
Carrie Underwood, Sheryl Crow, Emmylou Harris and Bonnie Raitt performed a cool live version of "You're No Good" in 2014 in honor of Ronstadt's induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Here's that video:
(This is usually where I put these artists' chart history, but considering there are four artists here, I'm not going to do that much googling. I'll just say that of these four singers, Carrie Underwood is the only one that will eventually appear in this blog)
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