Song – Blues Brothers ‘Everybody Needs Somebody to Love/Sweet Home Chicago’ (1980)

These songs were covered by the “Blues Brothers” in the eponymous 1980 film.

“Everybody Needs Somebody to Love” was written in about 1964 by Bert Berns, Solomon Burke and Jerry Wexler and originally then recorded by Burke.

“Sweet Home Chicago” is an earlier US piece, but with a contest as to the song writer.

The singers in the film, of course, are the film stars John Belushi (1949-1982) and Dan Aykroyd (born 1952).

The film was released 45 years ago – the year I was admitted to the Bar – and was one of the films of my generation.  While very much a “Yankee Doodle” movie, the cast comprised accomplished comedic and other actors (Belushi, Aykroyd and Carrie Fisher), together with leading funk, rhythm and blues performers of the post-war generation (James Brown, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin).

The film was developed from a recurring musical sketch performed on the NBC variety series “Saturday Night Live”.  The film was directed by John Landis.