In 2017, Barry Gibb was asked what was his favorite of all of the songs he had written. He reached back to a song that was released as a single fifty years earlier in 1967 to his wonderful track, “To Love Somebody.”
I’m not sure if anyone asked him about the number of great covers of the song, but certainly one of my favorite versions is the one by Nina Simone, who was born in North Carolina on February 21, 1933 as Eunice Kathleen Waymon.
Reportedly, Gibb wrote “To Love Somebody” with Otis Redding in mind. But unfortunately, Redding died before he had the chance to record “To Love Somebody.”
Nina Simone released a cover of “To Love Somebody” in 1971 on her album of the same name. But she was performing the song live long before that release. Simone does something different than Redding probably would have done. She definitely takes a different approach than the hit recording by Gibb’s Bee Gees.
Below, alone at the piano, she performs “To Love Somebody” at the Jazz à Juan jazz festival in Juan-les-Pins, Antibes, France in 1969. Unlike the Bee Gees version, her version never reaches the frenzy of passion that their original did.
Similarly, here she avoids the groove and rhythm of her own full-band 1971 release that also featured backing vocals. Here, instead, she brings a longing sadness to the tune. Check it out.
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