Without You
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| “Without You” | ||
|---|---|---|
| Song by Badfinger | ||
| Album | No Dice | |
| Released | November 9, 1970 (U.S.) | |
| Genre | Rock/Power pop | |
| Length | 4:43 | |
| Label | Apple | |
| Composer | Peter Ham, Tom Evans | |
| Producer | Geoff Emerick | |
"Without You" is a song originally recorded by Badfinger for their album No Dice (1970), and written by Pete Ham and Tom Evans and produced by Geoff Emerick. Its verse was composed by Ham, originally titled "If It's Love", but had lacked a strong chorus. Evans had written a chorus without a strong verse, so the duo fused the two sections together. The protagonist of this ballad lets a lover know that they "can't live if living is without you". Badfinger's recording of the song, which is more brusque than its successors' versions, languished as an obscure album track until it was noticed a year later by Harry Nilsson.
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[edit] Harry Nilsson version
Harry Nilsson, at the time best known for his hit "Everybody's Talkin'" and for composing such hits as Three Dog Night's "One", heard Badfinger's recording of "Without You" at a party, and took it to be a Beatles song.[1] After realizing it was not, he decided to cover the song for his album Nilsson Schmilsson in 1971; it stayed at number-one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks, from February 13 to March 11, 1972. In the U. K., the song spent five weeks at number one, beginning on March 11, and sold almost 800,000 copies. [2] The single was produced by Richard Perry, who later explained, "It was a different record for its time. It was a big ballad with a heavy backbeat, and although many artists have cut songs like it since, no one was doing it then." [3] Gary Wright, then known as a member of the British group Spooky Tooth, and later a successful solo artist in his own right, played piano on the recording. [3]
While Nilsson rarely performed live, he did perform the song with Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas in September of 1992 [4], and also performed the song with the house band, Liverpool, at various Beatlefest fan conventions.
[edit] Mariah Carey version
| “Without You” | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Single by Mariah Carey from the album Music Box |
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| B-side | "Never Forget You" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Released | December 1993 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Format | CD single, CD maxi single, Cassette single, Cassette maxi single, 7" single, 12" maxi single | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Genre | Piano pop | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Length | 3:33 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Label | Columbia Records | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Producer | Walter Afanasieff, Mariah Carey | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Certification | Gold (RIAA) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mariah Carey singles chronology | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Mariah Carey's version was released as the third single off Music Box in the first quarter of 1994 (see 1994 in music), and in the United States it was released on January 24, 1994, just over a week after Nilsson had died of heart attack. In the U.S. it was promoted as a double A-side with "Never Forget You" and reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100, remaining in the top forty for twenty-one weeks and on the chart for twenty-three. It reached number 2 on the Hot 100 Airplay and number 3 on the Hot Singles Sales. Both radio airplay and sales were strong, and it was certified gold by the RIAA. It was ranked sixteenth on the Hot 100 1994 year-end charts.
"Without You" remains as Carey's biggest hit outside the U.S. having been largely successful across Europe. It became her first UK number-one single, and still remains her only number one there as a solo artist. It debuted at number one on the chart and stayed at number one for four weeks[5]. It became her third number-one single in Brazil. It was also her first chart-topper in Italy, but was most successful in Switzerland (with ten non-consecutive weeks at number one) and the Netherlands (twelve weeks). It also topped the singles chart in Germany for four weeks and Austria for eight weeks, where Carey's success had previously been limited. It was able to make the top three in Canada, France, Norway and Australia. "Without You" was later included on some non-U.S. pressings of her compilation album #1's (1998).
The single's video, directed by Larry Jordan, is derived from Carey's 1993 concert at Proctor Theatre. In addition to "Never Forget You", the UK CD single for "Without You" included a live recording of "Dreamlover" (1993).
[edit] Charts
| Country | Chart | Peak position |
Certification | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| USA | Billboard Hot100 | 3 | Gold | 500,000[6] |
| UK | BPI | 1 | Gold | 400,000[7] |
| Australia | ARIA | 2 | Platinum | 70,000[8] |
| Austria | IFPI Austria | 1 | Platinum | 40,000[9] |
| Chart (1994) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 1 | 3 |
| U.S. Billboard Top 40 Mainstream | 2 |
| U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary | 4 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks | 7 |
| U.S. ARC Weekly Top 40 | 1 |
| United World Chart | 1 |
| Indonesia Singles Chart | 1 |
| Argentina Singles Chart | 1 (4 weeks) |
| Dutch Singles Chart | 1 (6 weeks) |
| Denmark Singles Chart | 1 |
| Euro 200 | 1 |
| Japanese Oricon Singles Chart | 1 |
| New Zealand Singles Chart[10] | 1 (1 weeks) |
| Swiss Singles Chart | 1 (10 weeks) |
| Irish Singles Chart | 1(5 weeks) |
| Brazil Hot 100 | 1 (7 weeks) |
| Belgium Singles Chart | 1 (12 weeks) |
| Israeli Singles Chart | 1 (16 weeks) |
| UK Singles Chart | 1 (4 weeks) |
| Sweden Singles Chart | 1 (8 weeks) |
| German Singles Chart | 1 (4 weeks) |
| Poland Singles Chart | 1 |
| Singapore Singles Chart | 1 |
| Italian Singles Chart | 1 |
| Canadian Singles Chart | 2 |
| French SNEP Singles Chart | 2 (5 weeks) |
| Australian ARIA Singles Chart | 2 |
| Norwegian VG-lista Singles Chart | 3 |
| United World Chart | 1 |
[edit] Other cover versions
The song has been covered by several other artists, including:
- Rihanna, probably only on youtube, sounds like it could be at least two years old.
- Shirley Bassey, for the album And I Love You So released in August 1972 (see 1972 in music);
- Cilla Black for her January 1973 record, Day By Day With Cilla;
- the rock band Heart, for the album Magazine released in April 1978 (see 1978 in music);
- the band Air Supply, for the album The Earth Is... released in 1991 (see 1991 in music);
- Melissa Manchester, on the album, For The Working Girl, originally released in 1980;
- Mina, with Johnny Dorelli at the radio in the Italian translation: "Per chi" (1978);
- Donny Osmond, for the album Somewhere in Time, released in November 2002;
- Jade Kwan, for the album Jade-2 Special Edition released in January 2003 (see 2003 in music);
- Clay Aiken, for the album A Thousand Different Ways released in September 2006 (see 2006 in music);
- Pandora, in 2000. This Spanish-language version, under the title of "Desde el dia que te fuiste" (From the day you went way), was covered by the operatic pop band Il Divo, for the album Siempre released in November 2006 (see 2006 in music).
- Tito Nieves : salsa version (another salsa version is done by Orquesta Corinto);
- Klasse Aparte (Sin ti, merengue 1996);
- Natalia, for the album This Time released in 2003;
- Bonnie 'Prince' Billy (Will Oldham), with Bob Marley's Babylon System in the 2004 EP Pebbles and Ripples.
- Kelly Clarkson sang the song in season 1 of American Idol during the week that the judges picked the songs for the finalists. Her reprise of the performance during the results show was followed by a long applaud from the audience and very positive reviews from the three judges with Simon Cowell calling it the single best performance he's ever seen on television.
- Katie Melua sang the song to win a British talent contest show, by which she was "discovered", and launched her singing career.
- Leona Lewis winner of X Factor 3
- Beverly Trotman from X Factor 4 sang this song with an on-stage piano accompaniment for the "love songs" themed week. She was eliminated later on that night, with the lowest number of votes (with girl band "Hope" surviving this elimination)
- Wing, for the album One Voice released in 2007.
- In 2008, Valentina Hasan, a season two contestant of Music Idol Bulgaria, sang her own version of "Without You" in extremely broken English. Soon dubbed "Ken Lee," the video of Valentina Hasan's performance quickly became a YouTube hit, and was parodied and remixed by many fans.[4]
- Carly Smithson from American Idol performed the song as part of "Mariah Carey Week" on April 15, 2008.
1 "Without You"/"Never Forget You".
| Preceded by "Let's Stay Together" by Al Green |
Billboard Hot 100 number-one single (Nilsson version) February 19, 1972 |
Succeeded by "Heart of Gold" by Neil Young |
| Preceded by "Son of my Father" by Chicory Tip |
UK number one single (Nilsson version) March 7, 1972 |
Succeeded by "Amazing Grace" by The Pipes & Drums of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards |
| Preceded by "Things Can Only Get Better" by D:Ream |
UK number one single (Mariah Carey version) February 13, 1994 (4 weeks) |
Succeeded by "Doop" by Doop |
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[edit] Rivers Cuomo version
- In 2004, Weezer front man Rivers Cuomo posted his cover of "Without You" on his MySpace page.[5] The song was removed due to copyright issues though mp3s of the song are still floating around the web.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ [1], Howie Edelson, "Flashback: Harry Nilsson's 'Without You' Tops the Chart"
- ^ Dafydd Rees and Luke Crampton, Rock Stars Encyclopedia (New York: DK Publishing, 1999), 714.
- ^ a b [2], superseventies.com
- ^ Chip Madinger and Mark Easter, Eight Arms To Hold You: The Solo Beatles Compendium (Chesterfield, MO: 44.1 Productions, 2000), 543.
- ^ Without You on ChartStats
- ^ [3]
- ^ The Bpi
- ^ MariahJournal.com | Infozone
- ^ MariahJournal.com | Infozone
- ^ charts.org.nz - Mariah Carey - Without You
- Without You: The Tragic Story of Badfinger. ISBN 0-9657122-1-4. (Origination of the song lyrics.)
