THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,998) Listen — “You’d Better Run”
In 1966, Robert Plant was a young rascal, so it is entirely fitting that his first recorded performance is “a burning rendition” (Thom Jurek, https://www.allmusic.com/album/sixty-six-to-timbuktu-mw0000326489) of the Young Rascal’s “You Better Run”. Not only is it the best version I’ve heard, but 17 year old Plant sounds like, well, Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant! — “even then you could hear his soulful baritone sound characteristic of LZ’s first two albums – though his upper range was amazing as well!” (Jeff Williams, https://countercultureuk.com/2025/03/18/exploring-led-zeppelins-musical-journey-a-documentary-review-by-jeff-williams/)
Plant doesn’t remember his effort with great affection:
[I] realised that tough, manly approach to singing I’d begun on . . . ‘You Better Run’ wasn’t really what it was all about at all. Songs like . . . ‘Babe I’m Going to Leave You’… I find my vocals on there horrific now. I really should have shut the f*** up!
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/why-robert-plant-hates-led-zeppelin-stairway-to-heaven/
Plant’s band was Listen. The other members were Geoff Thompson (drums), Roger Beamer (bass), and John Crutchley (guitar). (7226power, https://www.45cat.com/record/202456 (info from Midland Beat, July 1966, number 34))
Plant tells Jude Rogers how it went down:
“I’m 17, full of myself, in a youth club with Noddy Holder. . . . We’d borrow Noddy’s dad’s window-cleaning van for our gear, buckets clanking through the Black Country streets, so to have a record that was going to be pressed, have a dust sleeve – it was showing-off time.[ ] ‘Well, we’ve got this deal with CBS, Noddy.’ And Noddy goes: ‘That’s all right, we’ve got one with Columbia.’ And then I found out it was the same bloody song!” The track . . . was the first commercial release for both the N’Betweens (who became Holder’s band Slade [see #1,165, 1,247]) and Listen . . . although the label asked him to record their first single on his own. It was his first studio experience. “I still remember the pride and the thrill and the smell of fear; to walk in a studio and see session guys booked for me to sing. I was very, very nervous.” . . . “And here I was in the middle of it all, trying to create a style, looking at black soul singers and my heroes like Steve Marriott [see #969, 1,024].”* He still hears that nascent howl on Led Zeppelin’s debut three years later, too. “That nasal boy. It’s kind of cute now.”
Apparently, “[d]uring the recording the band was replaced by session musicians leaving Plant as the only Listen member to appear on the record.” (Stuart Penney, https://andnowitsallthis.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-ones-that-got-away-near-misses-with.html)
* As to Steve Marriott, check out the Small Faces’ “You Need Loving” [see #969]. Decristo1021 says, “even the most diehard Plant fan has to admit that Robbie aped Steve’s delivery to a ‘t’…it’s uncanny….” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpnF62TNYoM) “You Need Loving” was on the Small Faces’ first LP, released in May 1966. Listen’s single was released in November 1966.
Here are the Young Rascals:
Here are the N’Betweens:
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