Please Send Me Someone to Love
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Specialty Records
"Please Send Me Someone to Love" is a blues ballad, written and recorded by Percy Mayfield in 1950, on Art Rupe's Specialty Records label. It was on the R&B chart for 27 weeks and reached the number one position.
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[edit] Song
It has been called a "multilayered universal lament"[1] The lyrics are stated as a prayer:
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- Heaven please send to all mankind,
- Understanding and peace of mind,
- And if it's not asking too much,
- Please send me someone to love.
This song was one of the most influential of its time, and was widely recorded by other artists. Mayfield sang it in a soft ballad style. Its appeal lay in the sensitivity of its lyrics in juxaposing an awareness of a world in conflict, with a personal expression of the need for love. [2]
Sung in Mayfield's gentle, suave vocal style, the lyrics were a combination of a romantic love ballad and a social message against discrimination.[3]
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- Show the world how to get along,
- Peace will enter when hate is gone,
- But if it's not asking too much,
- Please send me someone to love.
[edit] Covers
The song's durability is demonstrated in its many cover version including those by Luther Allison, Gene Ammons, Champion Jack Dupree, Bill Henderson, The Moonglows, Esther Phillips, Memphis Slim, Brook Benton, James Booker, Count Basie, Pat Boone, Elkie Brooks, Solomon Burke, Red Garland, Etta James, B. B. King, Freddie King, Peggy Lee, The Moonglows, Jimmy Witherspoon, Dinah Washington, The Animals, Sade, Fiona Apple, Jeff Buckley, Dinah Washington, Jimmy Scott, Johnny Diesel and The Injectors, The Grateful Dead, Joe Williams and E.G. Daily. [1]
[edit] References
- ^ West coast artists - Percy Mayfield. Retrieved on 2006-11-06.
- ^ Gillett, Charlie (1996). The Rise of Rock and Roll, (2nd Ed.), New York, N.Y.: Da Capo Press, p. 146. ISBN 0-306-80683-5.
- ^ Shaw, Arnold (1978). Honkers and Shouters. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, p. 193. ISBN 0-02-061740-2.
