Every recorded version of the Linda Ronstadt song ‘You’re No Good’
Sometimes, a song is so good that it warrants being played over and over, and in turn, that will often mean that artists will wish to pay their respects to the song by recording a cover in tribute to the brilliance of the original. The Beatles are well-documented as having written some of the greatest songs of all time, so it’s no surprise that hits of theirs get the cover treatment applied to them time and time again.
‘Yesterday’ and ‘Eleanor Rigby’ both rank among the top five most covered songs of all time, while The Rolling Stones’ ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ has also had numerous versions over the years, with examples such as Devo’s 1978 reimagining possibly being even better than the original. But how many covers is enough, and can a song be re-recorded so many times that it feels overdone to the point that it becomes harder to enjoy?
It might be a good thing for the original songwriter in terms of the amount of royalties they receive from their song being brought into the limelight repeatedly, but it must also be devastating to hear your song being butchered by artists who have catastrophically failed to do the original justice. There’s also the fact that sometimes, a cover of a song can eclipse the popularity of the first recorded version, leading to many mistakenly believing that it was never a cover in the first place.
In the case of ‘You’re No Good’, several versions have existed over time, but the original version was penned by songwriter Clint Ballard Jr and performed by Dee Dee Warwick, the younger sister of famed soul singer Dionne Warwick. However, it’s far from the most well-known version, and it failed to chart upon its release in 1963, although Betty Everett would record a version in the same year that reached number 51 in the US.
Many more would turn their hand to attempt to have a hit with the song in subsequent years, with British group The Swinging Blue Jeans also charting with their rendition on both sides of the Atlantic in 1964, and it would be this version that would go on to inspire perhaps the best-known incarnation of the pop standard.
Ten years later, Linda Ronstadt would cover ‘You’re No Good’ and see herself propelled to the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. The success she would have with the song was remarkable, and even more so when you consider how the original version was barely taken note of when released 11 years prior.
The overall acclaim that Ronstadt would achieve with the song – which is among her most well-known hits – begs the question of what makes the song so ripe for revisiting and why it was that her version struck a chord with listeners more than any other version before or after. It could well be a case of being in the right place at the right time, or it could be that people considered the song to have had many imperfections on previous versions, with Ronstadt being the first artist to really nail their take on the track.
But which version of ‘You’re No Good’ sold the most?
After scouring every last page of the history books, we were able to find a total of 17 versions of ‘You’re No Good’ that have been recorded by artists of note, and this is almost certainly not an exhaustive list of every artist to have covered it at any point. Sitting comfortably at the top of those in terms of selling the most copies is Linda Ronstadt’s version.
Having reached number one with the song, a feat that was never achieved by anyone else, the track would go on to be the 50th highest-selling single of 1975 in the US, and the album from which it was taken, Heart Like a Wheel, would eventually be certified double-platinum and receive a nomination for ‘Album of the Year’ at the Grammy Awards.
However, the song wasn’t an instant success for Ronstadt either, having initially released it as a single in November 1974 before it finally reached number one in February 1975. With the other charting versions of the song having failed to reach the top half of the US chart and the Swinging Blue Jeans version reaching number three in the UK, a far smaller country with fewer record sales than in the US, Linda Ronstadt can comfortably claim that hers was the best selling version.
That isn’t to say that other versions of note haven’t existed since, as there have been some unusual occurrences of artists choosing to cover the song throughout its history. Heavy metal stars Van Halen would release a tribute to the song on their second album in 1979, and the song continues to keep producing new versions as American singer-songwriter Weyes Blood recorded the song in a bizarre turn of events for the soundtrack to children’s film, Minions: The Rise of Gru in 2022.
Listen below to our playlist of versions of the song that we were able to find.
