Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CLXII--Dwight Twilley: Somebody to Love

It's easy to forget now that MTV has become whatever it is it's become (far too old to watch it anymore) but doesn't have much to do with music, that at one time it was a place where pop music geeks could go in the wee hours of the morning and find little pop gems...just like this week's tune.

Dwight Twilley is another in a long line of musicians who could have been a contender.  While I'm only nominally familiar with his work, Twilley has been a critical favorite for many years and has a small but devoted fan base.  Starting out in the thriving metropolis of Tulsa, Oklahoma (Twilley's career has taken him all over America, but he's settled down near his home), Twilley originally formed the band Oister with Beatle movie buddy Phil Seymour before the band  went to L.A. (via  Nashville and Tupelo, Mississippi), teamed up with Leon Russell, and became the Dwight Twilley Band.  The band had a hit single in 1975 with "I'm on Fire" but couldn't mount much more and went their separate ways a few years later.  Twilley went solo at that point, and had another hit single, "Girls," in 1984 (with Tom Petty, a longtime friend, performing backing vocals).  Unfortunately, bad labels, bad timing, and plain old bad luck seemed to follow Twilley's successes and he never quite achieved the stardom some felt he had within him.  Still, he released 4 albums with the Dwight Twilley Band and 25 solo albums (the latest in 2014) and is still performing some forty some odd years down the road.  Not a bad gig if you can get it...

Alas, the story of "Somebody to Love" is not the stuff that dreams are made of.  Originally released in 1979, it was supposed to be Twilley's breakout hit--and ended up being a dud.  His label was so disappointed with its sales performance that they cancelled the album it was supposed to be released on (Blueprint), and Twilley moved on to a new label .  Twilley took some songs from that album (including "Somebody to Love") and with a few new ones released Scuba Divers in 1982 (at which time I heard "Somebody to Love" in its MTV incarnation).  The single did not become a hit the second time around, either.

It's really a shame it didn't--the song is anthemic in nature, and one with a discerning ear (well, at least me) can see it as the kind of song thousands of fans pack into an arena to hear every time Twilley tours.  It's power pop in the Todd Rundgren and Cheap Trick (among many others) mold, featuring some solid guitar work from Twilley that turns it into rock and roll overdrive.  The song is basically a call to arms--we all need somebody to love and Twilley outlines the many reasons we do (somebody to spend your money on, somebody to hold on tight to, somebody to break your heart) with "somebody to love" being crooned over and over in the background.  And when Twilley sings the chorus and finishes the last "love" with a drawn out "la-ah-ah-ah-ove" it's pure pop heaven--which, come to think of it, pretty much perfectly describes "Somebody to Love."

Lyric Sheet:  "Somebody to love/Somebody that you can depend on/One place in the sun/One feeling there's just no denying...."

Enjoy:

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