"Love's Been A Little Bit Hard On Me" is a song written by

Gary Burr Gary Burr, born in Meriden, Connecticut, is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer, primarily in the country music genre. Many of the songs he has written have become Top-10 hits, the first of which was " Love's Been A Little B ...

and recorded by the American country-pop singer

Juice Newton Judith Kay "Juice" Newton (born February 18, 1952) is an American pop and country singer, songwriter, and musician. Newton has received five Grammy Award nominations in the Pop and Country Best Female Vocalist categorieswinning once in 1983as well ...

for her album '' Quiet Lies''. The recording garnered Newton a Grammy nomination for Best Female Vocalist in the Pop category.

Music video

The music video for this song comically plays off the ''emotional'' hurt of love by showing Juice Newton being ''physically'' injured by her lover in a series of accidents. The final shot is of Newton singing in the hospital in a full-body cast with her broken leg in the air. The video was awarded Video of the Year by the American Video Association in 1982.

Personnel

*Philip Aaberg – keyboards *

Michael Boddicker Michael Lehmann Boddicker (born January 19, 1953) is an American film composer and session musician, specializing in electronic music. He is a three times National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (N.A.R.A.S.) Most Valuable Player "Synthesi ...

– synthesizer *George Doering – guitar *Steve Forman – percussion *

Andrew Gold Andrew Maurice Gold (August 2, 1951 – June 3, 2011) was an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and record producer who influenced much of the Los Angeles-dominated pop/soft rock sound in the 1970s. Gold played on scores of reco ...

– electric guitar and solo, backing vocals *Chris – backing vocals *Juice Newton – guitar (uncredited on LP), lead vocals *

Rick Shlosser Rick Shlosser is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music. He has been a member of Van Morrison's band and The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. He's also been a varied sessions drummer. Discography 1970s * Andy Pratt - ''Records Are Like Life'' (1 ...

– drums *

Harry Stinson Harry Stinson (born June 3, 1953 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian real estate developer from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He is president of Stinson Properties, Inc. He has been called Toronto's "condo king". Biography Stinson's most significant ...

– backing vocals * Neil Stubenhaus – bass *

Fred Tackett Fred Tackett (born August 30, 1945) is an American songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Originally a session player on guitar, mandolin, and trumpet, he is best known as a member of the band Little Feat. In addition to his work with Little F ...

– acoustic guitar *

Otha Young Otha Young (a.k.a. Robert Otha Young) (May 10, 1943 – August 6, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, producer and the longtime musical partner of country-pop artist Juice Newton. Otha was born on May 10, 1943 in Tulare, Cal ...

– electric guitar, backing vocals

Musical analysis

Newton's version is in A major, and uses primarily A, D, and E chords with an occasional F# minor. But in the introduction, outro, and interludes between verses, a rarely heard (in popular music)

pedal point In music, a pedal point (also pedal note, organ point, pedal tone, or pedal) is a sustained tone, typically in the bass, during which at least one foreign (i.e. dissonant) harmony is sounded in the other parts. A pedal point sometimes function ...

is used in the bass and rhythm guitars, under changing chords in the upper instruments (A, D, E, A). Also of interest is the use of a descending parallel pattern of the chords D, C# minor, B minor, and A in the Bridge, which is also atypical of popular music from that era. The second Bridge also includes a moment of ''

a capella ''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...

'' singing, similar to another Newton favorite,

Queen of Hearts The queen of hearts is a playing card in the standard 52-card deck. Queen of Hearts or The Queen of Hearts may refer to: Books * "The Queen of Hearts" (poem), anonymous nursery rhyme published 1782 * ''The Queen of Hearts'', an 1859 novel by ...

Chart performance

"Love's Been A Little Bit Hard On Me" was released as the album's first single in May 1982 and reached #7 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 that summer. Whitburn, Joel (2004). ''The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits'', 8th Edition (Billboard Publications) It also charted at #4 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart and #30 on the Billboard Country chart.

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

1982 songs 1982 singles Juice Newton songs Songs written by Gary Burr Song recordings produced by Richard Landis Capitol Records singles {{1982-country-song-stub