BATTLE OF THE BANDS: “I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know”

Battle of the Bands 2 Minutes

I was a big fan of "rock with horns" when I was in high school. Chicago was my favorite band, but I liked other bands with a similar sound, most notably Blood, Sweat & Tears. I got Blood, Sweat & Tears’ Greatest Hits for Christmas 1972, and knew most of the songs on it, but two stuck out like a sore thumb: "I Can’t Quit Her" and "I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know". Not that they were bad (in fact, they were my favorite tracks on the album), just different. Most notably, this wasn’t David Clayton-Thomas singing, and I didn’t know exactly who it was.

I did some research, and learned that BS&T was started by Al Kooper, whom I had first encountered on the Supersession album he did with Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills. He had recorded on BS&T’s first album, 1968’s Child Is Father To The Man. This was a surprise: I knew all about the band’s eponymous 1969 release, with songs like "Spinning Wheel" and "You’ve Made Me So Very Happy" on it, and thought that was their initial release. The next time I was in a record store (remember those?) I found and purchased their actual first album.

Source: Discogs

Recently, this album re-emerged from the depths of my mind, and as I was playing "I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know" on YouTuve, I noticed that there were several songs by the same name. I played a few of them and discovered they were covers of BS&T’s.

That’s how I came up with today’s battle. Here are two covers of the song.

Donny Hathaway

This was on Donny’s last album, 1973’s Extension Of A Man.

Amy Winehouse

Not sure where this is from, and I’ve checked Wikipedia, Discogs, and Allmusic.

Now comes the audience participation portion of our show. If you’re a member of my audience, you show remarkably good taste, and your input would be most appreciated. For that matter, if you’re not a regular reader of this blog, but would like to participate, be my guest, and don’t be a stranger! Here’s what you do…

  1. Listen to the two songs.
  2. Decide which song you like the best.
  3. Vote for your favorite by leaving me a comment with your choice. If you feel like telling us why, feel free.
  4. Then, visit the other participants and vote in their Battles:

At noon Eastern (US) Standard Time on February 8, 2023 (that’s next Wednesday), I’ll tally the votes and announce the winner shortly thereafter.

The lines are now open. Good luck to Donny and Amy!

Published by John Holton

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

Published

17 thoughts on “BATTLE OF THE BANDS: “I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know””

  1. I like both covers, but Amy’s version gives me chills! ❤ So emotional and that voice. 🙂

    Thanks for adding my link to your BOTB list, John. I’ll be resuming once a month battles, starting on March 1, but NOT at The Doglady’s Den. Instead, I created a brand new site, exclusively for that. Please change it to: Debbie at BOTB By Debbie D and the link is
    https://botb-by-debbie-d-blogspot.com
    Much appreciated!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  2. I never really loved Chicago though I appreciated their talent. Nor did I love Steely Dan, or that other one that was like them…Doobie Brothers. Their lyrics never moved me. They were musically good, but no passion in my opinion. However, I like Blood Sweat and Tears much more. I like Amy’s better. Now SHE has passion.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  3. Pingback: The New Mini Week That Was – The Sound of One Hand Typing

  6. I didn’t discover that first BST album until relatively recently after I purchased the CD. I liked what the group was doing in those earlier days, but I always preferred Chicago’s sound.

    I’m not overly enthralled with either of these versions, but since I usually prefer hearing a male singing voice I’ll go with Donny Hathaway. Amy was a bit screechy for my taste.

    A vote for Donny.

    Lee

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  11. BROTHER JOHN ~

    Yeah, like you, I’m a fan of horny Rock artists… such as Chicago, BS&T, Van Morrison, etc.

    And also like you, I’m a fan of the Blues. This is the first time I ever heard either of these recordings, and both were pert-goot. Deeply Bluesy. But between the two, I gotta go with that masculine voice of DONNY HATHAWAY.

    ~ D-FensDogG
    STMcC Presents BATTLE OF THE BANDS

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  15. Good morning,John!

    It just dawn on me that I didn’t boogie to your 4M song picks this week. I’ll get to that in just a sec. Right now, I need to cast my vote for my favorite artist which was super easy. I know the Don Hathaway by name and no doubt have heard his stuff before but hokey smoke what smooth vocals! I love the whole sultry jazz vibe of his rendition. I’m not a fan of Winehouse. Probably one of only a few who’ll admit to that truth. I was fair about it and listened to her cover. I’m going with Don Hathaway in this battle. Great song choice for today’s round!

    Check out my BOTB when you get a chance!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

You can use Markdown in your comments. Thanks for your comment!

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s