Song Lyric Sunday: Lou Rawls, “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine”

Song Lyric Sunday, Song of the Day 3 Minutes

Jim assigned us "a song by a group or an artist that surprisingly never reached #1 on the charts," by which he means an artist who should have had a #1 record on the Billboard Hot 100 at some point in his career. My choice is a guy who should have had a bunch of #1 songs on the Hot 100, but only had one song that reached the Top Ten and never reached #1. He had five Top Ten songs on the R&B chart, and two on the Adult Contemporary chart, but never got the respect from the Top 40 crowd. WLS and WCFL, the two Top 40 stations in Chicago (his home town) played just two of his records in all the time I listened to them.

I’m talking about Chicago’s very own Lou Rawls, who Frank Sinatra once described as having “the classiest singing and silkiest chops in the singing game.” Lou had one Top Ten hit in all those years, "You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine." It reached #2 on the Hot 100 and #1 on the Adult Contemporary (Easy Listening) chart and R&B (Hot Black Singles) chart, as well as #10 in the UK, #2 in Canada, and #1 in South Africa. It was written by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff and issued on Philadelphia International Records (Gamble & Huff’s label), and he was backed by MFSB, PI’s house band. It appears to have been stuck behind Wings’s "Silly Love Songs," Diana Ross’s "Love Hangover," The Startland Vocal Band’s "Afternoon Delight," and/or Elton John and Kiki Dee’s "Don’t Go Breakin’ My Heart." RIAA did certify it as a Gold record and it sold over a million copies.

You’ll never find, as long as you live
Someone who loves you tender like I do
You’ll never find, no matter where you search
Someone who cares about you the way I do

Whoa, I’m not braggin’ on myself, baby
But I’m the one who loves you
And there’s no one else! No… one else

You’ll never find, it’ll take the end of all time
Someone to understand you like I do
You’ll never find the rhythm, the rhyme
All the magic we shared, just us two

Whoa, I’m not tryin’ to make you stay, baby
But I know some how, some day, some way
You are (you’re gonna miss my lovin’)
You’re gonna miss my lovin’ (you’re gonna miss my lovin’)
You’re gonna miss my lovin’ (you’re gonna miss my lovin’)
You’re gonna miss, you’re gonna miss my love

Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh (you’re gonna miss my lovin’)
Late in the midnight hour, baby (you’re gonna miss my lovin’)
When it’s cold outside (you’re gonna miss my lovin’)
You’re gonna miss, you’re gonna miss my love

You’ll never find another love like mine
Someone who needs you like I do
You’ll never see what you’ve found in me
You’ll keep searching and searching your whole life through

Whoa, I don’t wish you no bad luck, baby
But there’s no ifs and buts or maybes

(You’re gonna) You’re gonna miss (miss my lovin’)
You’re gonna miss my lovin’ (you’re gonna miss my lovin’)
I know you’re gonna miss my lovin’ (you’re gonna miss mylovin’)
You’re gonna miss, you’re gonna miss my love

Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh (you’re gonna miss my lovin’)
Late in the midnight hour, baby (you’re gonna miss my lovin’)
When it gets real cold outside (you’re gonna miss my lovin’)
I know, I know that you are gonna miss my loove

Let me tell you that you’re gonna miss my lovin’
Yes you will, baby (you’re gonna miss my lovin’)
When I’m long gone
I know, I know, I know that you are gonna miss my love
You gonna miss my love

 

Lyrics courtesy AZLyrics.com

 

I asked a Black friend of mine why he felt that Lou Rawls never crossed over to the Top 40 market, and he said that Lou was "too Black," that the subject matter in many of his songs would not have gone over well on Top 40 stations. If that’s true, it’s one of the great injustices of all time.

Anyway, that’s Song Lyric Sunday (and Song of the Day) for July 24, 2022.

Published by John Holton

Internet disc jockey, lover of old TV (especially the commercials), inveterate wise guy.

Published

19 thoughts on “Song Lyric Sunday: Lou Rawls, “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine””

  1. Pingback: The Seven Down, Five To Go Week That Was – The Sound of One Hand Typing

  2. Great song, and such a wonderful sounding voice. I vaguely remember seeing him perform at a small service club on Ft.Sill OK, about 1970 or 71. 🙂

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    1. He had been in the service in the ’60’s, so I can very easily see him playing a club at a military base. You never forget that voice…

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  3. I love his voice and assumed this was in the top 10. I wonder if the executroids manipulated things so he never showed his popularity. There is a bad schizom in the states when it comes to the African American just like we have a bad mark with the Indigenous people.

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    1. It’s possible that at the time his records were considered “race” records and only sent to R&B stations, or that program records at Top 40 stations listened and decided that their audience wouldn’t be interested in hearing it, or they might have tried one or two songs as singles and saw that the reaction was less than lukewarm and decided not to “waste their time” playing any others…. any of a hundred reasons. Those were also the days of payola, where the PD’s would get a kickback from the record companies to play and promote certain records, and maybe they weren’t giving enough for Lou’s records…

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  4. I agree with Frank Sinatra on this one. Lou Rawls is definitely “the classiest singing and silkiest chops in the singing game.” I just can’t believe this song was never #1. Such a great share today!!

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    1. Thanks! I always felt bad for him, especially coming from Chicago, that he got next to no attention on the Top 40 stations. The excuse that he was “too Black” for Top 40 radio and that his songs wouldn’t be accepted by the White audience was BS, particularly when you had Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, and Stevie Wonder all doing very Black-centric songs in the ’70’s. People had some strange ideas fifty years ago…

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    1. His bus was leaving as yours was arriving?

      Lou was a wonderful singer and worked hard for the United Negro College Fund every year, and he never forgot where he was from.

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  7. I could see the Elton and Kiki duet being better than this song, but none of those others come close to this classic. You are right John, this song should have gone to #1.

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    1. Not to say the others didn’t deserve the attention they got, but Lou should have gotten more notice. He had the kind of voice that made women swoon (just like Frank Sinatra).

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  8. Great choice, I was so interested reading about Lou I assumed he’d had many a hot he is/ was a great hit over here. Your right if your friends is right about the reason for his lack of number one hits it is a huge injustice. 💜💜

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