The Blues Brothers - Everybody Needs Some Body To Love 7" (French Version)

Carrere (1992)

I managed to track down one of the very few picture sleeve Blues Brothers 7"s that wasn't already in my collection.  This one came out in France in 1992.  I'm not entirely sure why 7" of this would be released as late as the 90s, but based on the year and the artwork, it's obviously in conjunction with the 1992 Atlantic records collection album, The Definitive Collection.

I remember when that CD came out when I was in high school.  I bought it right away even though I had all of the songs on it already.  I think one of the main reasons I got it was so I could write a review of it in my high school newspaper, which I did.  I remember it vividly as one of the editors suggested using the word "amongst" in it.  I loved it and added that word to my writing toolbox immediately.

The B side on this 7" is "Gimme Some Lovin'" and like "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love" it's from the Blues Brothers movie soundtrack.  There's not going to be much that this record does other than sit in my 7" collection.  But I am now one 7" away from having every Blues Brothers picture sleeve variant.  I need a version of Soul Man from the Netherlands, but once I have that it'll just be a matter of upgrading a couple of sleeves that have condition issues.

The Blues Brothers - "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love": 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEkvuxjccLA

The Blues Brothers - "Gimme Some Lovin'": 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_r37wVxrbA

The Blues Brothers - Everybody Needs Somebody To Love 7" (UK)

Atlantic (1980)

Up next in my bi-weekly Blues Brothers 7" review we have the UK version of the Everybody Needs Somebody To Love 7".  This time out the B side is "Jailhouse Rock," which makes sense to me and is a solid B side choice since it's actually a song that The Blues Brothers sing.

This 7" is sporting some of my favorite picture sleeve artwork featured on any Blues Brothers 7".  It appears to be a picture from the same photo session that yielded the movie one sheet poster, but it's a different picture.  Plus, the Bluesmobile is in the shot.  That's a big bonus for me as I think that the car is one of the most important characters in the movie.  I also like the way they used the logo at the top, sort of like a heading or way to file the 7" at the record store.  Good design choices.

Unfortunately, as you can see from the picture, my copy is pretty beat up.  I'm kind of going with the mentality that this is just a place holder for now until I can find a better condition copy.  But as this seems to be one of the scarcer Blues Brothers 7"s out there, it made sense to me to pick one up now.  Hopefully I'll come across another one at some point.

The Blues Brothers - "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEkvuxjccLA

The Blues Brothers - "Jailhouse Rock":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plaDFJpOfMs

The Blues Brothers - Everybody Needs Somebody To Love 7" (Belgium)

Atlantic (1980)

This Blues Brothers 7" is from Belgium and it's one of the more interesting picture sleeve 7"s that was released.  It contains two songs from the Blues Brothers movie soundtrack, "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love" and Jailhouse Rock."  Both of which are great, of course.

Where things get interesting is the artwork.  At first glance, it seems like brand new, unique artwork (a rarity for Blues Brothers 7"s).  But in actuality, the two images are from the same picture used as the cover for the Made In America full length.  It seems odd to me that a picture from a record that came out after the soundtrack would be used as the image for a single that is from the actual soundtrack.  All I can think of is this single just came out after Made In America was released for some reason.

Regardless of the reason, I still think it's pretty cool as I always tend to favor the Blues Brothers singles that at least make an attempt at having interesting artwork.

The Blues Brothers - "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEkvuxjccLA

The Blues Brothers - "Jailhouse Rock":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plaDFJpOfMs

The Blues Brothers - Everybody Needs Somebody To Love 7" (Europe)

Atlantic (1980)

This version of the Everybody Needs Somebody To Love 7" also comes from Europe, though this time there's a different B side.  Like with the last version I reviewed that had "Think" by Aretha Franklin as the B side, this one also has someone other than the Blues Brothers on the flip.  "Minnie The Moocher" by Cab Calloway makes an appearance here and while I do love the song, it still seems weird to me not to treat this more like a split 7".

Sure, the Blues Brothers band is Cab's backing band on this excellent version of "Minnie," but I think Cab deserve his name on the marquee a bit more prominently.  It's impossible for me to listen to "Minnie The Moocher" and not picture the movie scene where Jake & Elwood are sneaking around outside of the Palace Hotel Ballroom in time with the horn section.  It's just a classic moment in my very favorite movie.

As I've said before, the soundtrack version of "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love" has never been my favorite version of the song because of the backing vocals mixed in that aren't in the actual movie.  Oh another interesting thing, this vinyl itself on my copy has been dinked.  Dinking is the process where someone makes a big hole in a 7" that was pressed with a small hole.  Typically done so it can be used in a jukebox.  If I ever am able to get my jukebox out of the garage and into somewhere that's usable, I'll probably be doing a bit of dinking here and there.  Plus it's just fun to say.  Dink.

The Blues Brothers - "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEkvuxjccLA

Cab Calloway - "Minnie The Moocher":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7ogK_unbqM

The Blues Brothers - Everybody Needs Somebody To Love 7" (Europe)

Atlantic (1980)

This version of the Everybody Needs Some Body To Love 7", according to Discogs, is the European version of the single.  I'm not really sure how that differs from the version of this single I posted two weeks ago which was released in Germany (I had mistakenly listed that one as having been from France initially, but have corrected that review).  The last time I checked, Germany was in Europe, so I just don't know why these two different versions exist.  Probably some 80s distribution model that doesn't make sense anymore.

The songs are the same, as the B side for this 7" is Think by Aretha Franklin again.  The only real difference is the font of the song titles on the front of the sleeve, a completely redesigned back of the sleeve and the red/green split design of the label itself.  There's just something about that red and green Atlantic label that I just love.  

The Blues Brothers - "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEkvuxjccLA

Aretha Franklin - "Think":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQJtTUefG2o 

The Blues Brothers - Everybody Needs Somebody To Love 7" (Germany)

Atlantic (1980)

We're moving on to the "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love" single and there are a few different versions out there.  We'll start off with one of the most basic, the Atlantic single from Germany.  Like a lot of single released off of the Blues Brothers soundtrack, this one repurposes the soundtrack's cover art as the single's cover.  Nothing fancy and nothing particularly exciting.  Although it's one of my favorite iconic images of the Blues Brothers, it does tend to get recycled a lot.

I find the choice of B side a bit odd as well since it's not really a Blues Brothers song. Aretha Franklin's "Think" is on the flip side and while it's certainly a great song and obviously appears in the movie, it strikes me as a weird choice for the b side of a single that's credited to The Blues Brothers.  If anything, it seems more like a split single to me.

This isn't a one off occurrence, as we go through the soundtrack singles you'll see a few other interesting pairings like this.  Luckily, they're all pretty great songs.  Though in a perfect world, I'd lose the extra backing vocals in "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love" and just use the version that appears in the movie.

The Blues Brothers - "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEkvuxjccLA

Aretha Franklin - "Think":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQJtTUefG2o