"Gimme Some Lovin" is a song first recorded by

the Spencer Davis Group The Spencer Davis Group were a British blues and R&B influenced rock band formed in Birmingham in 1963 by Spencer Davis (guitar), brothers Steve Winwood (vocals, keyboards, and guitar) and Muff Winwood (bass guitar), and Pete York (drums). ...

. Released as a single in 1966, it reached the Top 10 of the record charts in several countries. Later, ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' included the song on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs. Other artists have also recorded versions of the song; group singer

Steve Winwood Stephen Lawrence Winwood (born 12 May 1948) is an English musician and songwriter whose genres include blue-eyed soul, rhythm and blues, blues rock, and pop rock. Though primarily a guitarist, keyboard player, and vocalist prominent for his dis ...

later recorded it live with

Traffic Traffic is the movement of vehicles and pedestrians along land routes. Traffic laws govern and regulate traffic, while rules of the road include traffic laws and informal rules that may have developed over time to facilitate the orderly an ...

and a rendition by

the Blues Brothers The Blues Brothers (formally, The Fabulous Blues Brothers’ Show Band and Revue) are an American blues and soul music, soul revue band founded in 1978 by comedians Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, who met and began collaborating as original cast ...

reached number 18 on the main US singles chart.

Background

As recalled by bassist Muff Winwood, the song was conceived, arranged, and rehearsed in just half an hour. At the time, the group was under pressure to come up with another hit, following the relatively poor showing of their previous single, " When I Come Home", written by Jamaican-born musician Jackie Edwards, who had also penned their earlier number one hits, "

Keep On Running "Keep On Running" is a song written and first recorded by Jackie Edwards. It became a hit in the UK for The Spencer Davis Group; their version reached number one in the charts. Recordings "Keep On Running" was written by Jamaican singer-songwri ...

" and " Somebody Help Me". The band auditioned and rejected other songs Edwards offered them, and they let the matter slide until, with a recording session looming, manager

Chris Blackwell Christopher Percy Gordon Blackwell OJ (born 22 June 1937) is a Jamaican-British former record producer and the founder of Island Records, which has been called "one of Britain's great independent labels". According to the Rock and Roll Hall ...

took them to London, put them in a rehearsal room at the

Marquee Club The Marquee Club was a music venue in London, England, that opened in 1958 with a range of jazz and skiffle acts. It was a small and relatively cheap club, in the heart of London's West End of London, West End. It was the location of the first ...

, and ordered them to come up with a new song:

Personnel

The Spencer Davis Group: *

– lead vocals, organ, piano, percussion * Spencer Davis – rhythm guitar, vocals * Muff Winwood – bass, vocals *

Pete York Peter York (born 15 August 1942 in Middlesbrough, Yorkshire, England) is an English rock drummer who has been performing since the 1960s. Biography Born in Middlesbrough but growing up in Redcar, York attended the Nottingham High School an ...

– drums

Chart performance

Lawsuit

In 2016, Willia Dean Parker and Rose Banks sued Mervyn Winwood, Steve Winwood, and Kobalt Music Publishing for copyright infringement, alleging that they plagiarized their 1965 song "

Ain't That a Lot of Love ''Ain't'' is a negative inflection for ''am'', ''is'', ''are'', ''has'', and ''have'' in informal English. In some dialects, it is also used for ''do'', ''does'', ''did'', and ''will''. The development of ''ain't'' for the various forms of ''be'' ...

". In 2019, it was ruled that the Spencer Davis Group did not plagiarize.

Legacy

In 2004, ''

'' magazine ranked "Gimme Some Lovin'" at number 247 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Winwood later recorded live versions of the song with

for '' Welcome to the Canteen'' (1971) and '' The Last Great Traffic Jam'' (2005). In an album review for ''Welcome to the Canteen'',

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

's William Ruhlmann wrote 'the et listcapper was a rearranged version of Steve Winwood's old Spencer Davis Group hit "Gimme Some Lovin'." ' "Gimme Some Lovin'" has been recorded by several rock and other artists. Pop artist

Olivia Newton-John Dame Olivia Newton-John (26 September 1948 – 8 August 2022) was a British and Australian singer and actress. With over 100 million records sold, Newton-John was one of the List of best-selling music artists#100 million to 119 million record ...

covered it for her 1978 album, '' Totally Hot'', which an album reviewer called "as close to a drunken party as one will get on a Newton-John album". A performance for the musical comedy film ''

The Blues Brothers The Blues Brothers (formally, The Fabulous Blues Brothers’ Show Band and Revue) are an American blues and soul music, soul revue band founded in 1978 by comedians Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, who met and began collaborating as original cast ...

'' (1980) "featur san arrangement notable for the horn section that replaces Steve Winwood's rumbling organ work", according to critic Bret Adams. Released as single by

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

, it reached number 18 on ''Billboard'' magazine's

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), o ...

chart, number 22 on the Canadian

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or r⋅min−1) is a unit of rotational speed (or rotational frequency) for rotating machines. One revolution per minute is equivalent to hertz. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 def ...

Top Singles chart, and number 20 on the

Dutch Single Top 100 The Dutch Single Top 100 or Single Top 100 is a Dutch chart, based on official physical single sales, legal downloads and since July 2013 streaming and composed by Dutch Charts. It is one of the three official charts, the other two being the Du ...

. In 1990, British group

Thunder Thunder is the sound caused by lightning. Depending upon the distance from and nature of the lightning, it can range from a long, low rumble to a sudden, loud crack. The sudden increase in temperature and hence pressure caused by the lightning pr ...

recorded it for their debut album '' Backstreet Symphony''. AllMusic writer Alex Henderson commented: "Another high point of this CD is an inspired cover of the Spencer Davis Group's 'Gimme Some Lovin',' which Thunder changes from blue-eyed soul/rock to straight-up hard rock." The song is heard in the films ''

Sing Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

'' (2016), ''

The Adam Project ''The Adam Project'' is a 2022 American science-fiction action comedy film directed by Shawn Levy and written by Jonathan Tropper, T. S. Nowlin, Jennifer Flackett, and Mark Levin. The movie stars Ryan Reynolds, Walker Scobell in his film deb ...

'' (2022), and '' The Life of Chuck'' (2024).

References

External links

"Gimme Some Loving" by the Spencer Davis GroupPartial list of subsequent versions
{{authority control 1966 songs 1966 singles The Spencer Davis Group songs The Blues Brothers songs Olivia Newton-John songs Thunder (band) songs RPM Top Singles number-one singles Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients Songs written by Steve Winwood Song recordings produced by Jimmy Miller Fontana Records singles United Artists Records singles Atlantic Records singles