"Can't Seem to Make You Mine" is a song by

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

group

the Seeds The Seeds are an American psychedelic garage rock band that formed in Los Angeles, California in 1965, best known for their highest-charting single " Pushin' Too Hard". The band's classic lineup featured frontman Sky Saxon, guitarist Jan Sava ...

, written by vocalist

Sky Saxon Sky "Sunlight" Saxon (born Richard Elvern Marsh; August 20, 1937 – June 25, 2009) was an American rock and roll musician best known as the leader and singer of the 1960s Los Angeles Psychedelic rock, psychedelic garage rock band The Seeds. ...

and produced by Marcus Tybalt. It was released as a single in 1965 and re-issued in 1967, when it peaked at number 41 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, and number 33 in Canada. The song appears on the 1998 box set '' Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965–1968'', and has been

covered Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of ...

by such artists as the

Ramones The Ramones were an American punk rock band formed in the New York City neighborhood Forest Hills, Queens in 1974. Known for helping establish the punk movement in the United States and elsewhere, the Ramones are often recognized as one of th ...

Alex Chilton William Alexander Chilton (December 28, 1950March 17, 2010) was an American musician, best known as the lead singer of the rock bands the Box Tops and Big Star. Chilton's early commercial success in the 1960s as a teen vocalist for the Box Tops ...

Johnny Thunders John Anthony Genzale (July 15, 1952 – April 23, 1991), known professionally as Johnny Thunders, was an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He came to prominence in the early 1970s as a member of New York Dolls. He later formed the He ...

Yo La Tengo Yo La Tengo (Spanish language, Spanish for "I've got it"; also abbreviated as YLT) is an American indie rock band formed in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1984. Since 1992, the lineup has consisted of Ira Kaplan (guitars, piano, vocals), Georgia Hubley ...

Garbage Garbage, trash (American English), rubbish (British English), or refuse is waste material that is discarded by humans, usually due to a perceived lack of utility. The term generally does not encompass bodily waste products, purely liquid or ...

, and

Rumspringa Rumspringa (), also spelled or ( , from Pennsylvania German ; compare Standard German ), is a rite of passage during adolescence, used in some Amish communities. The Amish, a subsect of the Anabaptist Christian movement, intentionally segr ...

Recording and release

"Can't Seem to Make You Mine" was the first song recorded by the Seeds, according to keyboardist Daryl Hooper. "Sky started peddling it around to different record labels... and got the typical 'we'll call you' routine, and

Crescendo In music, the dynamics of a piece are the variation in loudness between notes or phrases. Dynamics are indicated by specific musical notation, often in some detail. However, dynamics markings require interpretation by the performer depending ...

, for some reason, liked it and said they'd like to take us into a recording studio. When Sky got into the recording studio, he really put his all into his vocals." The recording session took place on April 21, 1965 at

United Western Recorders United Western Recorders was a two-building recording studio complex in Hollywood that was one of the most successful independent recording studios of the 1960s. The complex merged neighboring studios United Recording Corp. on 6050 Sunset Boule ...

, together with engineer

Chuck Britz Charles Dean Britz (November 7, 1927 – August 21, 2000) was a recording engineer who worked with Jan and Dean, Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys, P.F. Sloan and The Grass Roots on numerous albums between 1962 and 1967. Biography Britz was b ...

.
Singles As & Bs 1965-1970
' (liner notes pg. 2). Palao, Alec.

The Seeds The Seeds are an American psychedelic garage rock band that formed in Los Angeles, California in 1965, best known for their highest-charting single " Pushin' Too Hard". The band's classic lineup featured frontman Sky Saxon, guitarist Jan Sava ...

. Big Beat Records. 2014. Catalogue number CDWIKD 322 Saxon produced and take #4 was the master. The song was released as a single in July 1965,
Singles As & Bs 1965-1970
' (liner notes pg. 21). Palao, Alec.

. Big Beat Records. 2014. Catalogue number CDWIKD 322 and first received radio airplay on

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

KBLA KBLA (1580 AM) is a broadcast radio station in the United States. Licensed to Santa Monica, California, KBLA serves the Greater Los Angeles area. The station is owned by Multicultural Broadcasting, through licensee Multicultural Radio Broad ...

. Sky Saxon recalled in a 2006 interview: "they used to play 'Can't Seem to Make You Mine' as late as two in the morning.

KRLA KRLA (870 AM) "AM 870 The Answer" is a commercial radio station broadcasting a conservative talk radio format. Licensed to Glendale, California, it serves Greater Los Angeles and Southern California. The station is owned by Salem Media Group, ...

and all the rest of the stations jumped on it later, but KBLA broke it and people would stay up to hear it." A regional hit in California, the single did not chart nationally until its April 1967 re-release, after the band's " Pushin' Too Hard" had reached the U.S.

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently most popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "To ...

. "Can't Seem to Make You Mine" peaked at number 33 in Canada and number 41 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. The song features an instrumental by keyboardist Daryl Hooper, with guitar accompaniment. There was also a radio edit version of this song, which omitted the repeat of the bridge section as well as a repeat of one of the verses. The song features a spoken duologue by Saxon before he repeats the final verse ("Come back, baby, I'm all alone").

Critical reception

Music writer Malcolm Russell described the song as "a slow, angry piece which highlighted Saxon's unique vocal style – an inspired nasal snarl punctuated by howls, wails and yelps". Author Michael Hicks elaborated on Saxon's vocal style on the track: "he superimposes an

Eddie Cochran Ray Edward Cochran ( ; October 3, 1938 – April 17, 1960) was an American rock and roll musician. His songs, such as " Twenty Flight Rock", " Summertime Blues", " C'mon Everybody" and " Somethin' Else", captured teenage frustration and desire in ...

-like buzz on classic

Buddy Holly Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959), known as Buddy Holly, was an American singer, songwriter, and musician who was a central and pioneering figure of rock and roll. He was born to a musical family in Lubbock, Texa ...

-style

baby talk Baby talk is a type of speech associated with an older person speaking to a child or infant. It is also called caretaker speech, infant-directed speech (IDS), child-directed speech (CDS), child-directed language (CDL), caregiver register, parente ...

ndadds a

Jagger Jagger is an English surname. Someone who owned and/or managed a team of packhorses was known as a "jagger", so this surname probably originates from that occupation. More rarely, the name is used as a given name. Notable people with the surname ...

-like pseudo-dialect, but a seemingly arbitrary one, in which vowels are colored and recolored with no particular consistency." The song has been called a "

garage rock Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock music that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The style is ...

classic" by authors

Will Hodgkinson Will Hodgkinson is a journalist and author from London (born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne), England. He is the chief rock and pop critic for ''The Times'' newspaper and contributes to ''Mojo (magazine), Mojo'' magazine. He has written for ''The Guardian ...

and

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and former senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of multiple artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance ...

, and it is featured on the 1998 box set '' Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965–1968''. The song placed fourth on ''

Paste Magazine ''Paste'' is an American monthly music and entertainment digital magazine, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with studios in Atlanta and Manhattan, and owned by Paste Media Group. The magazine began as a website in 1998. It ran as a print publi ...

s 2014 list of the "50 Best Garage Rock Songs of All Time".

Other versions and appearances

covered this song on his 1978 "Bangkok" single.

and

Patti Palladin Patti Palladin is an American singer and musician of the punk rock and post-punk / new wave genres. She is primarily known for her work with Snatch (with Judy Nylon), Johnny Thunders, and the Flying Lizards. Career Palladin was a member of the ...

recorded the song on their 1988 album, '' Copy Cats''. The

covered it on the 1993 album, ''

Acid Eaters ''Acid Eaters'' is the thirteenth studio album by the American punk rock band Ramones. Released in 1993, towards the end of the Ramones' career, the album is the band's only album entirely composed of covers. ''Acid Eaters'' forms a musical t ...

''.

included their rendition of the song on their 1995 ''Camp Yo La Tengo'' EP.

released a cover version as a

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

to the 1999 singles " When I Grow Up" and "

The Trick Is to Keep Breathing "The Trick Is to Keep Breathing" is a song by Garbage, released as the joint-fourth single from their platinum second album '' Version 2.0''. The single was released in a number of European countries including Germany, Austria, Italy, Portugal a ...

Murder City Devils The Murder City Devils is an American garage rock band formed in 1996. History The band's original lineup, consisting of Spencer Moody, Dann Gallucci, Derek Fudesco, Coady Willis, and Nate Manny, formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1996. Gabe ...

covered the song for a 1999 split 45 with

Gluecifer Gluecifer is a Norwegian hard rock band based in Oslo. Formed in 1994, the band gained fame as a part of the Scandinavian hard rock wave in the late 1990s and early 2000s alongside Turbonegro and The Hellacopters. Gluecifer released five studio ...

Diplo Thomas Wesley Pentz (born November 10, 1978), known professionally as Diplo, is an American DJ and music producer. He is a co-creator and lead member of the electronic dancehall music project Major Lazer; a member of the supergroup LSD (group), ...

sampled the track on his remix of

Spank Rock Naeem Juwan Hanks, better known by his stage name Spank Rock, is an American rapper and songwriter from Baltimore. He rose to fame with his 2006 album '' YoYoYoYoYo'', which was produced by former group member Alex Epton ( XXXChange). A harbinge ...

's 2005 single "Put That Pussy on Me".

Spirits in the Sky The Smashing Pumpkins (also simply known as Smashing Pumpkins) are an American alternative rock band formed in Chicago in 1988 by frontman and guitarist Billy Corgan, guitarist James Iha, bassist D'arcy Wretzky and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. The ...

, a supergroup led by

Billy Corgan William Patrick Corgan Jr. (born March 17, 1967) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, and professional wrestling promoter. He is best known as the co-founder, lead guitarist, primary songwriter, singer, and only constant member of alter ...

, performed the song at a Sky Saxon tribute concert on July 24, 2009 in Los Angeles. The song featured in the films ''

Cop Land ''Cop Land'' is a 1997 American crime drama film written and directed by James Mangold. It stars Sylvester Stallone, Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta and Robert De Niro, with Peter Berg, Janeane Garofalo, Robert Patrick, Michael Rapaport, Annabell ...

'' (1997) and ''

Secretary A secretary, administrative assistant, executive assistant, personal secretary, or other similar titles is an individual whose work consists of supporting management, including executives, using a variety of project management, program evalu ...

'' (2002) and was briefly featured in the first episode of Netflix's original series, ''

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'' (2016). It was also used in a 2008 television commercial for Lynx/Axe body spray.

Track listing

;7" Vinyl (August 1965) ;7" Vinyl (February 1967)

Chart performance

References

{{authority control 1967 singles 1965 debut singles Parlophone singles Songs written by Sky Saxon The Seeds songs 1965 songs