You could say Bruce Springsteen owed Sam Moore a favor.
In 1992, the great soul singer lent his pipes to Bruce’s Human Touch album, providing backing vocals on “Soul Driver,” “Real World,” and “Man’s Job.” Fourteen years later, he asked Bruce to do the same.
Moore was working on his debut(!) solo album, Overnight Sensational, and he’d picked out the perfect song for two legendary frontmen to team up on.
“It’s Better to Have (and Don’t Need)” was rock and soul singer-songwriter Don Covay’s last charting hit, peaking at #63 in the U.S. and #29 in the U.K.
The song was originally built on a call-and-response chassis, so it didn’t take a whole lot engineering to adapt it to a duet. Although “engineering” may be overly generous–Sam and Bruce’s version of “Better to Have and Not Need” (the title inexplicably corrected for grammar despite the unchanged lyrics) is as loose as can be.
Bruce gets one verse to himself, but other than that his vocal contribution (he also plays guitar on the track) comes in the form of backing vocals, some terrific coda interplay, and some serious soul testifying (“Say it, Sam!”).
“Better to Have and Not Need” went largely under the radar when it was released in 2006, but it’s a fun track featuring Bruce’s only true team-up on record where Moore provides lead vocals.
Fun fact: there’s another Human Touch connection here, too: Overnight Sensational was produced by Randy Jackson, who also played bass on the three Human Touch tracks Moore appeared on.
Better to Have and Not Need
Recorded: February 2006
Released: Overnight Sensational (2006)
Never performed
