| "Hard to Handle" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Otis Redding | |
| Released | June 1968 |
| Recorded | 1967 |
| Genre | Soul |
| Language | English |
| Length | 2:17 |
| Label | Atco |
| Composer | Allen Jones, Al Bell, and Otis Redding |
| Producer | Steve Cropper |
"Hard to Handle" is a 1968 song originally recorded by Otis Redding and written by Redding, Al Bell and Allen Jones. It was released posthumously after Redding's death in 1967 on the album The Immortal Otis Redding. Redding's version reached #38 on the Billboard R&B charts and #51 on the pop charts.
| "Hard to Handle" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by The Black Crowes | ||||
| from the album Shake Your Money Maker | ||||
| Recorded | 1989 | |||
| Genre | Southern rock, blues-rock | |||
| Length | 3:08 | |||
| Label | Def American | |||
| Writer(s) | Allen Jones, Al Bell, and Otis Redding | |||
| Producer | George Drakoulias | |||
| The Black Crowes singles chronology | ||||
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It has been covered several times, including by Patti Drew with likely the earliest cover in 1968, King Floyd, The Grateful Dead, Between Fate, UFO, The Black Crowes, Stefan Roland, Tom Jones, DJ Andy Smith, Toots & the Maytals, Rustix, Band from TV, Harpers Bizarre, Gov't Mule, and Tony Joe White, New Riders of the Purple Sage 1976, as well as by Mae West in the film Myra Breckinridge.
"Hard to Handle" was also a mainstay of the Grateful Dead's live set from 1969 to 1971, as sung by Ron "Pigpen" McKernan. The song has been brought back recently by Furthur, Bob Weir and Phil Lesh's band.
The Stanford Band performs a cover as part of their standard repertoire. A recording is on their album The Wind of Freedom Blow (Greatest Hits 1970-1998).
Gov't Mule with Toots Hibbert covered the song on Gov't Mule's 2006 album, Mighty High.
In August 2007 soul singer Guy Sebastian recorded a tribute version of Hard to Handle at Ardent Studios in Memphis, Tennessee for his album of soul classics The Memphis Album with many of the original Stax music band members including Steve Cropper, Donald Duck Dunn, Lester Snell, Steve Potts.
The song also featured prominently in the movie The Commitments.
Perhaps the most notable cover is that by The Black Crowes, for whom it was their breakout hit single from their 1990 debut album Shake Your Money Maker. The melody of the Crowes' version is taken from Buddy Guy's song 'A Man of Many Words' from the 1972 album Buddy Guy and Junior Wells Plays The Blues. Two versions of the song exist, the original album version and the hit single remixed with an overdubbed brass section. The Crowes' version reached number one on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart and number 26 on the Billboard Hot 100. This version is notorious for having a difficult to comprehend rendition of the hook often leading to humorous misinterpretations of the lyrics.
A version in the style of the Black Crowes cover is available as a downloadable track for the music video game series Rock Band. Another covered version by Steve Ouimette is in the video game Guitar Hero: Aerosmith.
The Lemon Jelly song "Rock" features sampled elements of "Hard to Handle".
Masta Ace samples this song's bass line for "Four Minus Three", a song from his debut album, Take a Look Around.
The hip-hop producer Marley Marl sampled the five-note ascension and descension intro for his song "The Symphony" from his 1988 album In Control, Volume 1. This was re-sampled for the 1992 Wreckx-N-Effect song "Hard" and the 1999 Snoop Dogg song "Ghetto Symphony" from his 1999 album No Limit Top Dogg. Rapper Frankie Cutlass also uses the five ascending notes on his song "The Cypher Pt III" from his 1997 album Politics & Bullshit.
The song has been used in a 2011 advert for Anchor butter, celebrating 125 years of Anchor.
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