I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know
Blood Sweat and Tears
Child is Father to the Man, 1968
I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know
Donny Hathaway
Extensions of a Man, 1973
When did Blood Sweat and Tears get such a bad rap? Even “You Make Me So Very Happy” and “Spinning Wheel” are good and very original songs, if overplayed. Ok, I just read part of their bio on allmusic and it seems like they had a flair for dramatic conflict and constant personnel shifts and that they never replicated work as good as this…so I guess that could be part of it.
I revisited the Al Kooper-penned “I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know” last week and decided it would be a good song to put up because Donny Hathaway’s version is a revered and oft-covered soul classic but I’m not sure how many people know that its actually a cover itself.
The Blood Sweat and Tears original is very different from Hathaway’s cover and I would expect most people who only know Donny’s version to have a negative first reaction but don’t sleep(!), the original is a thing of beauty.
The horns, strings organ and guitar are stellar throughout but to me, they really shine in the verse that starts at 4:20.
Other differences of note: Donny made a few revisions to the lyrics including changing “I could be president of General Motors!” to “I could be king of everything.” What’s up Donny, you only drive foreign cars?
>> songs are available for two weeks [8.3 MB]
>> songs are available for two weeks [7.7 MB]
