Spencer Davis Group – "Gimme Some Lovin' " (1966)

Better take it easy

’Cause the place is on fire

The Spencer Davis Group – guitarist Spencer Davis, vocalist and keyboard player Steve Winwood, Steve’s older brother Muff (who played the bass), and drummer Pete York – originally called themselves the Rhythm and Blues Quartette, which is a truly horrible name for a rock band.

The Spencer Davis Group

Steve Winwood, not Spencer Davis, was the group’s star member.  So why was the band named the Spencer Davis Group?  According to Muff Winwood, 

[Record producer Chris] Blackwell wanted to call us the Vipers or the Crawling Snakes or some outlandish thing.  Spencer was the only one who enjoyed doing interviews, so I pointed out that if we called it the Spencer Davis Group, the rest of us could stay in bed and let him do them. 

Steve Winwood was only 14 when the band formed.  He left the Spencer Davis Group went he was 18 to form Traffic.  

But before Steve left, the group recorded two truly great rock singles: “I’m a Man” (not to be confused with the Bo Diddley song of the same name, which was covered by the Yardbirds in 1965) and today’s featured song, “Gimme Some Lovin’.”

From the February 25, 1967 issue of Billboard

“Gimme Some Lovin’,” which climbed all the way to #7 on the Billboard “Hot 100,” is propelled by Steve Winwood’s Hammond B-3 organ part.  It was released in October 1966, when Winwood was only 18.

Here’s “Gimme Some Lovin’,” which 2 or 3 lines has chosen as the best song of February 1967.  It may be 50 years old, but it’s still a stick of dynamite:



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