Song #442: "If I Can't Have You" by Yvonne Elliman

Date: May 13, 1978
Weeks: 1

It's hard for me to approach this one. I first heard this song covered in the 90s (by Eve's Plum), and I really like how that cover has a throwback 70s sound at its core but fills out the sound with 90s post-grunge guitars. That's probably just my bias toward 90s rock. I'll have to try to overcome that for this review.

So maybe I should start with the lyrics. They're pretty much your typical "I'm in love with someone who doesn't love me back and it's driving me nuts" lyrics. Specifically the line "And it doesn't matter how I cry, my tears of love are a waste of time" is good at indicating the singer is torn up, but aware enough to understand herself. Overall, I suppose the lyrics are decent, but they're not especially noteworthy.

I see the lyrics were actually written by the Bee Gees, for the movie Saturday Night Fever. After the last Bee Gees song I reviewed, I'm starting to think one of those guys really got his heart broken badly. And here I had always associated them with fluffy, happy disco tunes.

Having never seen Saturday Night Fever, I'm left to wonder how this song gets used in that movie. It doesn't seem quite danceable enough to come from a dance scene, but it's also not slow enough to come from a romantic scene. The Internet seems to have failed me here, so I suppose I'm left to wonder. I'm not sure I'm ready to watch all of Saturday Night Fever to find out, but since I know it's well-represented on this list, I may have to before all is done here.

Yvonne Elliman does a good job with the vocals here. She gives the song an authentic pain that I'm not sure the Bee Gees could pull off. She seems to be genuinely talented. I checked around for some other samples of her singing, and my impression of her talent was unchanged. Some of her song choices don't necessarily connect with me, and she's not totally blowing my mind with raw talent, but she sounds like she could be good at a lot of types of music.

So I guess I can't put off the music any more. Like a lot of disco that I've heard, the music relies on strings and horns a lot. There's a woefully underused guitar that is very good whenever it comes up, but... well... it's woefully underused. The strings just doesn't satisfy me, not when I've heard that Eve's Plum cover that does it all on guitars. The whole song feels like it needs more.

My verdict: Don't like it. The good stuff isn't nearly good enough to overcome the overall bad backing music. I'll go enjoy that cover version instead.