"If You Could
Only Be Me" is a song written by Roger Atkins and Carl D'Errico.
Roger Atkins wrote about the song: " This Roger Atkins-Carl D'Errico song
was mistakenly used as the flip side of the lackluster "Making Every
Minute Count" single. It should have been the A side as it would have been
a much bigger hit!"
The demo was made by Jean Thomas
The song was recorded by "Spanky & Our Gang"
and "Norma Balagtas" in 1967.
In februari 1968 "The Cousins" tried their luck, but it became no
hit.
In October 1968 "The Girls from Petticoat Junction"
recorded it as b-side of their "I'm So Glad That You Found Me (1968)". The record did
not charted. But through this recording "If You Could Only Be Me" bec ame best known.
Yes, "The
Girls from Petticoat Junction" where from the well known TV serie
"Petticoat Junction" and they could sing.
Written by Roger Atkins & Carl D'Errico
First recording: Billy Carr 1965 Demo
First Published: The Animals 1965
First I want to say
that it's good that there is a site and a book like "the Originals", when I read comments like: "Bruce, who has only been making
music since 1969, originally did a song that was released in 1965?"
Take a look at: http://www.originals.be/en/ when you want to know more about the history of songs.
FROM WIKIPEDIA
"It's My Life" is a song written by Brill Building songwriters
Roger Atkins and Carl D'Errico. The song was originally performed by British
rock band The Animals, who released it as a single in October 1965 (see 1965 in
music).
The song became a hit in several different countries and has since been
recorded by multiple artists.
D'Errico, who wrote the music, and Atkins, who wrote the lyrics, were
professional songwriters associated with the greater Brill Building scene in
New York City. By 1965 they were working for Screen Gems Music, but had only
found minor success at best.
"It's My Life" was written specifically for the Animals as their
producer Mickie Most was soliciting material for the group's next recording
sessions. (Other Animals hits to come out of this Brill Building call were
"We Gotta Get Out of This Place" and "Don't Bring Me Down".
It would become D'Errico and Atkins' best-known work.
The Animals' recording was propelled by a bass guitar riff from Chas
Chandler, soon joined by an electric twelve-string guitar riff from Hilton
Valentine; in the view of musicologist Walter Everett, the doubled line gave
the song its strength. Alan Price's organ gave the record that sound that
distinguished the Animals from other "British Invasion" groups,
differing from Dave Clark Five's Dave Smith's through its darker timbre. Music
writer Dave Marsh compared the dual part to a rock version of pointillism. Then
lead singer Eric Burdon's low-pitched, gruff vocal entered with lyrics that
author James E. Perrone thought rhetorically matched Burdon's origins from Tyneside
in the working class North East England.
"It's
My Life" was visually premiered on the US television show Hullabaloo in
autumn 1965, where the group sang live vocals against canned music on a den-type
set that featured attractive young women sticking their heads through holes in
the wall, where normally animal heads would be mounted.
In Marsh's
view, "It's My Life" was one of a wave of songs in 1965, by artists
such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan, that ushered in a new
role for rock music as a vehicle for common perception and as a force for
social consciousness. Writer Craig Werner sees the song as reflecting the
desire on the part of both the Animals and their audience to define themselves
apart from the community they came from. Writer Dave Thompson includes the song
in his book 1000 Songs that Rock Your World, saying simply, "There is no
angrier declaration of independence than this."
Later versions
During the mid-1970s Bruce
Springsteen began performing "It's My Life" during his Born to Run tours.
It was preceded by the first iteration of Springsteen's spoken narratives –
characterized by music writer Robert Hilburn as "painfully intense" –
about how he and his father never got along about anything (that would later
manifest themselves in introductions to Springsteen's own songs "Independence
Day" and "The River"). The tempo of the song itself was greatly
slowed down, to the point where it bore little obvious resemblance to the
Animals' original, and renditions could easily run over ten minutes overall in
duration; lyrics were varied somewhat across almost every performance. No
recording of Springsteen's rendition has ever been officially released, but they
have appeared on bootlegs.
The song next cropped up as the
closing part of ex-New York Dolls singer David Johansen's Animals medley from
his 1982 live album Live It Up. It attracted album oriented rock airplay and
considerable MTV video play at the time. In 1986 American hard rock band
Alcatrazz recorded the song on their last studio album Dangerous Games. It
failed to chart. In 1989, the New York hardcore
band Madball released a freely inspired, one-minute-long rendition of this
song, which became one of their anthems. It can be found in their debut EP Ball
of Destruction and album Droppin' Many Suckers. In 1992, Bon Jovi performed their
own Animals medley for an MTV show later released on video as Keep the Faith:
An Evening with Bon Jovi; they led off with "It's My Life". In 1995,
they performed the medley live with Eric Burdon. (Bon Jovi's 2000 hit
"It's My Life" is a different song). In 1997, during a scene in
Central Park in Disney's Jungle 2 Jungle, Tim Allen and Sam Huntington dance to
a version sang by Dana Hutson of the group, Pele Juju. Burdon performed the song live
with Roseanne Barr on her The Roseanne Show in 2000
From comments from Roger Atkins
and Carl D'Errico In 1976 Springsteen promised the
writers to record itfor a live album,
but until now he didn'tand is it only
on bootlegs.
Other recordings The Animals October 1965 The Ad-Libs [germany]1966 The Eric Burdon Band 1974 Shaun Cassidy 1980
David Johansen1982 The Apollos 1985
Alcatrazz 1986
Madball 1992 Bon Jovi(on DVD)1992 Calvin Russell 1995
The Bollock Brothers 1996 Dana
Hutson1997 Eric Burdon Brian Auger Band 1998 The Flowerz 1998
The Woggles March
2004 Chris Field 2008
Live versions 1975/1976 Bruce Springsteen and i read on the net Iggy Pop.
