What an amazing career Randy Newman has had. Beloved, though for exceedingly different reasons for generations of listeners, this singer, songwriter, film and theater composer has reinvented himself at least a half dozen times over the past seven decades. Before he was an acclaimed artist who went from being the critical establishment’s favorite cynic to America’s favorite uncle (after providing “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” for Toy Story), this L.A. mainstay spent the mid-’60s as a journeyman songwriter cranking out tunes in hopes of a hit — for others, that is. He was good at his job. “I Don’t Want to Hear it Anymore” (Jerry Butler and Dusty Springfield — each terrific), “Just One Smile” (Gene Pitney and Springfield, as well as the Al Kooper iteration of Blood, Sweat & Tears), and “I Think It’s Going to Rain Today” (Judy Collins and plenty of others) are a few of the finely crafted work cooked up before Newman made his debut recording as a solo artist in 1968.
One of his best, typically morose early songs is “I’ve Been Wrong Before” — the title alone stamps it as a Newman invention. “I’ve Been Wrong Before” has a very Bacharach feel to it, one of the reasons that it may have appealed to Cilla Black, an early superstar of the British Invasion, whose fame, like that of her sister-in-pop Sandie Shaw, didn't cross the pond. By 1965, Black had already had U.K. hits with Bacharach and David’s “Alfie” and “It’s for You,” the most Bacharachesque tune ever composed by Lennon and McCartney. Black does quite a nice job with Newman’s downer of a love ballad, keeping things suitably low-key until the bridge. Out of nowhere Black becomes possessed by the malevolent spirit of Shirley Bassey. With a thud everything shifts from the backstreets of Soho (London, that is) to Las Vegas, and the spell is broken.
Cilla Black was nonetheless a perfect star for an evolving moment; a powerhouse singer who had one foot in a showbiz tradition that was rapidly aging, and a new pop universe that was rapidly aborning. Newman himself supposedly loved Black’s version. Makes you wonder though if he ever heard a cover of the song made later that year.
The subtext of “I’ve Been Wrong Before” by the majestic Dusty Springfield is unmistakable: This friends, is how the song is supposed to be sung. What’s fascinating is how the difference lies wholly in Dusty’s timbre and her subtle vocal choices — the arrangement, with its prominent Chopin-like piano framework — is noticeably the same as Black’s. Yet compare the bridge on the two versions. Black turns on the juice, attempting to disguise her unease with any R&B sensibility that she’s attempting to bring to the song. Springfield doesn’t have hide behind a thing — she is blue-eyed soul incarnate. Underplayed emotion, she clearly understands, is still plenty emotional. In her hands the mood stays consistent — bleak, perhaps, but true. It’s Dusty’s song now.
Just for good measure, let’s throw in what I’d like to read as Elvis’s tribute to the whole gang: Black, Springfield, and Newman. For a guy who came of age as a young rebel, E.C. sure knows how to show respect for his elders.
Great piece... but you lost me at Elvis...😜