"Somebody to Love" (originally titled "Someone to Love") is a rock song that was written by Darby Slick. It was originally recorded by The Great Society, and later by Jefferson Airplane. ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'' magazine ranked Jefferson Airplane's version No. 274 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Background

Written by The Great Society guitarist Darby Slick after realizing his girlfriend had left him, and first performed by that band, which included his then-sister-in-law

Grace Slick Grace Slick (born Grace Barnett Wing; October 30, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter, artist, and painter. Slick was a key figure in San Francisco's early psychedelic music scene in the mid-1960s. With a music career spanning four decades, ...

on vocals, the song made little impact outside of the club circuit in the Bay Area. The song was recorded on December 4, 1965, and released in February 1966 as a single with the B-side another Darby Slick composition titled "Free Advice" on the Northbeach label (Northbeach 1001) and received minimal circulation outside of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. San Francisco in the mid-1960s was the center of

free love Free love is a social movement that accepts all forms of love. The movement's initial goal was to separate the state from sexual and romantic matters such as marriage, birth control, and adultery. It stated that such issues were the concern ...

, but Darby Slick saw a downside to this ethos, as it could lead to jealousy and disconnect. This song champions loyalty and monogamy, as the singer implores us to find that one true love that will nurture us and get us through the tough times. However, the lyrics do not treat love as something that randomly happens to a person, but rather as an action that a person, male or female, may choose to take. This subtle but profound difference in philosophy places this song in opposition to songs that speak of "falling in love" as if love is something that happens to a person outside of their conscious intention.

Re-recording

When

departed to join Jefferson Airplane, she took this song with her, bringing it to the '' Surrealistic Pillow'' sessions, along with her own composition "

White Rabbit The White Rabbit is a fictional and anthropomorphic character in Lewis Carroll's 1865 book ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''. He appears at the very beginning of the book, in chapter one, wearing a waistcoat, and muttering "Oh dear! Oh dear! ...

". Subsequently, the Airplane's more ferocious rock and roll version became the band's first and biggest success, reaching No. 5 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. The group's first hit song, "Somebody To Love" was also one of the first big hits to come out of the US West Coast and

Bay area counterculture scene, to which numerous artists and musicians would be drawn over the following few years. Slick's original performance of the song with The Great Society is more subdued, with the Jefferson Airplane version sounding far more accusatory and menacing on lines such as "Your mind is so full of red" and "Your friends, baby, they treat you like a guest." The lyrics are in the second person, with each two-line verse setting a scene of alienation and despair, and the chorus repeating the title of the song, with slight variations such as: "... / Don't you need somebody to love? / Wouldn't you love somebody to love? / ..." Like the album on which it appeared, this song was instrumental in publicizing the existence of the

Haight-Ashbury Haight-Ashbury () is a district of San Francisco, California, named for the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets. It is also called The Haight and The Upper Haight. The neighborhood is known as one of the main centers of the counterculture ...

counterculture to the rest of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Reception

'' Billboard'' described the song as a "wild dance number loaded with vocal excitement," calling it a "hard driver, featuring powerful female vocal in the lead

hich Ij ( fa, ايج, also Romanized as Īj; also known as Hich and Īch) is a village in Golabar Rural District, in the Central District of Ijrud County, Zanjan Province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also ...

never stops from start to finish." '' Cash Box'' called the single a "bright, pulsating, rhythmic, sometimes-frenetic, funky rock outing." Brett Milano of udiscovermusic.com rated

Jorma Kaukonen Jorma Ludwik Kaukonen, Jr. (; ; born December 23, 1940) is an American blues, folk, and rock guitarist. Kaukonen performed with Jefferson Airplane and still performs regularly on tour with Hot Tuna, which started as a side project with bass ...

's psychedelic guitar solo at the end of the song as one of the 100 all-time greatest, stating that it opens "with those three sustained wailing notes and loseswith those sign-off chords that leave the song forever unresolved."

Personnel

– lead vocals *

Marty Balin Martyn Jerel Buchwald (January 30, 1942 – September 27, 2018), known as Marty Balin (), was an American singer, songwriter, and musician best known as the founder/leader and one of the lead singers and songwriters of Jefferson Airplane and J ...

– tambourine, backup singing *

– lead guitar ( Guild Thunderbird, per biography) *

Paul Kantner Paul Lorin Kantner (March 17, 1941 – January 28, 2016) was an American rock musician. He is best known as the co-founder, rhythm guitarist, and vocalist of Jefferson Airplane, a leading psychedelic rock band of the counterculture era. He con ...

– rhythm guitar (

Rickenbacker 360/12 The Rickenbacker 360/12 is the Rickenbacker company's 12-string variant of their 360 electric guitar model. Mainly known for producing " jangly" sounds, it was among the first electric 12-string guitars. The 360/12 was given worldwide attention ...

) *

Jack Casady John William "Jack" Casady (born April 13, 1944) is an American bass guitarist, best known as a member of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna. Jefferson Airplane became the first successful exponent of the San Francisco Sound. Singles including " S ...

– bass ( Fender Jazz Bass) *

Spencer Dryden Spencer Charles Dryden (April 7, 1938 – January 11, 2005) was an American musician best known as the drummer for Jefferson Airplane and New Riders of the Purple Sage. He also played with Dinosaurs, and the Ashes (later known as the Peanut B ...

– drums

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Commercial usage

''A Serious Man''

Jefferson Aiplane's studio release was used at the beginning of the

Coen brothers Joel Daniel Coen (born November 29, 1954) and Ethan Jesse Coen (born September 21, 1957),State of Minnesota. ''Minnesota Birth Index, 1935–2002''. Minnesota Department of Health. collectively known as the Coen brothers (), are American film ...

' ''

A Serious Man ''A Serious Man'' is a 2009 American black comedy-drama film written, produced, edited and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. Set in 1967, the film stars Michael Stuhlbarg as a Minnesota Jewish man whose life crumbles both professionally and pe ...

'', just after the opening short story about the ''

dybbuk In Jewish mythology, a (; yi, דיבוק, from the Hebrew verb meaning 'adhere' or 'cling') is a malicious possessing spirit believed to be the dislocated soul of a dead person. It supposedly leaves the host body once it has accomplished ...

'' and the title graphic. The Coens invited their longtime musical scorer, Carter Burwell, to compose a musical bridge for the title graphic to help transition from a pre-WWII Ashkenazi shtetl to St. Louis Park, Minnesota in 1967, where Danny Gopnik is listening to the song on an earpiece during his

Hebrew language Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

class at school. Burwell responded by adding a dark, brooding introduction to ''Somebody To Love'' using the same model

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

and bass used in the original studio recording, and played through similar amps by selected musicians. Referring to the sound fidelity, Burwell commented, "it was difficult to reduce our overall sound quality to that of the original recording. We did our best."

Boogie Pimps version

A remix of "Somebody to Love" was the debut single of German

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroa ...

duo Boogie Pimps. It was first released in Germany in April 2003 and became a worldwide hit the following year, reaching No. 3 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

and No. 7 on the Irish Singles Chart. The song also became a top-twenty hit in Australia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, and the Netherlands. In most of these territories, this was their only hit single, as the follow-up single " Sunny" failed to chart.

Background and release

In December 2001, Mark J. Klak and Mirko Jacob of Boogie Pimps decided to cover the song after watching the 1998 film ''

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ''Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream'' is a 1971 novel in the gonzo journalism style by Hunter S. Thompson. The book is a ''roman à clef'', rooted in autobiographical incidents. The story follo ...

'', in which "Somebody to Love" is featured. The band's result initially failed to attract attention from German

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

s, but the song soon became popular via underground

white label A white label record is a vinyl record with white labels attached. There are several variations each with a different purpose. Variations include test pressings, white label promos, and plain white labels. Test pressings Test pressings, usua ...

releases. It was then picked up by German label Superstar Recordings and released as an official single on April 7, 2003. In the United Kingdom, it was released on January 5, 2004, while in Australia, it was issued as a

CD single A CD single (sometimes abbreviated to CDS) is a music single in the form of a compact disc. The standard in the Red Book for the term ''CD single'' is an 8 cm (3-inch) CD (or Mini CD). It now refers to any single recorded onto a CD of any si ...

on January 26, 2004.

Music Video

The music video for "Somebody to Love" features several infants sky diving out of an airplane towards a giant woman, implying to be their mother (Natasha Mealey), lying on a grassy hill country landscape in her underwear, singing the song.

Track listings

German maxi-CD single # "Somebody to Love" (radio edit) – 3:30 # "Somebody to Love" (radio mix (clear)) – 3:46 # "Somebody to Love" (main club mix) – 5:10 # "Somebody to Love" ( Moonbootica mix) – 6:54 # "Somebody to Love" (ClubReise (Mirko Jacob mix)) – 5:24 # "Somebody to Love" (CaterpillarClassich (Mark J Klak mix)) – 7:10 UK CD single # "Somebody to Love" (radio edit) # "Somebody to Love" (

DJ Flex Aston George Taylor Jr. (born August 5, 1968), professionally known as Funkmaster Flex, is an American DJ, rapper, record producer, and host on New York City's Hot 97 radio station. In 1992, he became host of the first hip hop radio show on Hot 9 ...

executive edit) # "Somebody to Love" (Pimps club mix) # "Somebody to Love" (DJ Flex executive remix) # "Somebody to Love" (Ian Knowles remix) # "Somebody to Love" (CD-ROM video) Australian CD single # "Somebody to Love" (radio edit) – 2:59 # "Somebody to Love" (club mix) – 6:02 # "Somebody to Love" (DJ Flex &

Sandy Wilhelm Sandy Julien Wilhelm (born 22 April 1975) better known by his stage name Sandy Vee, is a French music producer and songwriter. He gained much commercial and critical recognition for co-producing Rihanna's "Only Girl (In the World)", Katy Perry's ...

executive remix) – 7:38 # "Somebody to Love" ( Santos Somebody to Rock remix) – 6:47 # "Somebody to Love" (Santos Another Planet remix) – 7:48 # "Somebody to Love" (Raymond Barry remix) – 5:33

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

External links

Jefferson Airplane - Somebody To Love
'' American Bandstand'', 1967. (video – 2:57 minutes). (Licensed to

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

by SME (on behalf of The Store For Music Ltd).) {{Authority control 1966 songs 1966 singles 1967 singles 2003 debut singles Data Records singles Jefferson Airplane songs Marcella Detroit songs Ministry of Sound singles Ramones songs RCA Victor singles Song recordings produced by Rick Jarrard Ultra Records singles