It Was 50 Years Ago Today: “Somebody Help Me” by the Spencer Davis Group
April 26, 1966
“Somebody Help Me” by the Spencer Davis Group
#1 on the Record Retailer Singles Chart (UK), April 14-27, 1966
Although the Spencer Davis Group only thrived in the public eye for two years and a handful of singles, the band’s short lifespan proved fruitful. The group rose to prominence as one of the figureheads of the British R&B scene, earned two UK #1 hits, and launched the career of classic rock stalwart Steve Winwood. Yet the Spencer Davis Group also had a fascinating, but lesser known, side as one of the first UK bands to incorporate Jamaican music into their sound.
The Spencer Davis Group’s journey into the roots of reggae begins with the 1959 founding of its record label, Island Records. When Island moved from Jamaica to the UK in 1962, it brought with it the first international ska hit, Millie Small’s “My Boy Lollipop.” While Island is often credited with introducing Jamaican music to the wider world, by the mid-’60s, label co-founder Chris Blackwell had also become fascinated by the British rock scene of the era. Blackwell’s attentions in particular centered on a Birmingham-based band called the Rhythm and Blues Quartette, comprising guitarist Spencer Davis, drummer Pete York, and Winwood brothers Steve (vocals, keyboards) and Muff (bass).
In its early days, the newly christened Spencer Davis Group relied on cover versions for most of its material. After versions of John Lee Hooker’s “Dimples” and Brenda Holloway’s “Every Little Bit Hurts” failed to gain traction, however, Blackwell turned the group onto a song by labelmate Jackie Edwards. The so-called Nat King Cole of Jamaica had already forged a popular career in his homeland, migrating to the UK in the early ’60s with the Island crew as a singer and songwriter for the label. The Spencer Davis Group’s fuzzed-out remake of Edwards’ peppy, pulsing “Keep On Running” not only granted the band its first hit in 1965; it sent it all the way to the top of the UK charts.
Naturally, both band and label recognized Edwards’ role in turning the Spencer Davis Group into an overnight sensation and commissioned a new song for the follow-up single. “Somebody Help Me” sticks to Edwards’ simultaneously breezy and surging pop, but its focus on repetition and the hints of “Day Tripper” around the edges mark it as a more straightforward attempt at a rock song. (The line “when I was just a little boy of 17” also winks at Stevie Winwood’s actual age at the time of recording.) Even if “Somebody Help Me” was less of a revelation than “Keep On Running,” however, its faint tinge of ska still stood out from the crop of British R&B bands indebted to Motown and Chicago blues.
“Somebody Help Me” gave the Spencer Davis Group its second UK #1 hit, while follow-up “When I Come Home,” an Edwards-Winwood collaboration, just missed the Top 10. Despite Edwards’ heavy hand in the band’s success, however, Steve Winwood’s songwriting was starting to come into its own. In the fall of 1966, the Spencer Davis Group released its first self-penned single, “Gimme Some Lovin’,” which climbed to #2 in the UK and gave the band its first US Top 10 hit. After one more hit, 1967’s “I’m a Man,” the Winwoods left the group: Steve to launch Traffic and Blind Faith (and, later, a mega-successful solo career); Muff to become an A&R rep/producer for Island Records.
The Spencer Davis Group trudged on for two more years without the Winwoods, dissolving and briefly reuniting in the ‘70s, but never matching the degree of success that it had with its onetime frontman. Likewise, Edwards never wrote another mainstream hit, but he remained a beloved artist in his native land, releasing his own records until shortly before his death in 1992. In the ’70s, the influence of Jamaican music seeped into a range of styles across the spectrum of British rock, from Eric Clapton covering “I Shot the Sheriff,” to the birth of 2-Tone ska bands like the Specials and Madness, to the impact of dub on punk and new wave. Yet few realized that a decade earlier, a rock ‘n’ roll band from the Midlands had already smuggled Jamaican sounds to the top of the charts.
It Was 50 Years Ago Today examines a song, album, movie, or book that was #1 on the charts exactly half a century ago.
