Sunday, March 01, 2009

Double Take - Love Won't Let Me Wait

Love Won't Let Me Wait

Written By
Bobby Eli & Vinnie Barret

Original recording performed by Major Harris (1975)


Covered by Luther Vandross (1988)


Verdict:

This is probably the only time when Luther didn't completely outdo an original. Sorry Luther. But I have to give this one to Major Harris. I've always preferred the Harris version. But this by no means suggests that Luther's cover version is lacking in any way. Both recordings are great. But Harris still owns this one... although Luther made it much more famous...(and perhaps Harris thanks Luther for the notoriety).

Luther's cover is noticeably slower... which is his style...and the smooth voice makes for easy listening. But Harris' voice is more prominent.... it just slices right through you...it draws the listener in.

3 comments:

zinjanthropus said...

As far as I'm concerned,with the exception of "A house is not a home" Luther has NEVER improved upon an original.

Creep? better than Stevie? having a party ? better than Sam and Dave?
The list goes on and on. Endless love? Love the one you're with? how deep is your love? Always and forever?

Cmon UBM, not even close. Luther had a very smooth voice and he was actually a really good writer. I believe his career would've been even more outstanding if he had done LESS covers.

zinjanthropus said...

Sorry, I said UBM when clearly that was A.I.
Figures.
I usually agree with anything AI writes about except music.

Brian said...

Oh Come on!!!

Luther never improved on an original???

Are you saying he didn't improve "A House is Not a Home"... he didn't improve "If This World Were Mine"..."If Only For One Night", "Since I Lost My Baby"??? His cover work not only matched these originals...but he reset the bar for them.

We'll just have to agree to disagree. I think he managed to improve most of the songs he covered. In fact, he established the new standard for many of those recordings.

I do wish we would have gotten a chance to hear more of his own work though. Toward the end he seemed to be going in that direction...