Jerry Butler - Only the strong survive

First performance: no live dates


Coverinfo

Bruce Springsteen released the song on his 2022 album Only The Strong Survive.
 
 
The album was anounced with the single Do I love you ( indeed I do ). Do I love you ( indeed I do ) is the leading single from Only The Strong Survive album. It was released on digital platforms on 29 Sep 2022, the same time the album was officially announced. A music video for the song was simultaneously released on Bruce Springsteen's YouTube channel. The video was directed and edited by Thom Zimny. Only The Strong Survive is Bruce Springsteen's twenty-first studio album. It is officially released on 11 Nov 2022 on Columbia Records. It consists of 15 tracks, all of which are covers. This marks the second time that Springsteen releases a cover album following We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions in 2006. The album is "a collection of fifteen soul music greats," as described in the press release. It "celebrates soul music gems from the legendary catalogues of Motown, Gamble and Huff, Stax and many more." Springsteen commented: "I wanted to make an album where I just sang. And what better music to work with than the great American songbook of the Sixties and Seventies? I've taken my inspiration from Levi Stubbs, David Ruffin, Jimmy Ruffin, the Iceman Jerry Butler, Diana Ross, Dobie Gray, and Scott Walker, among many others. I've tried to do justice to them all and to the fabulous writers of this glorious music. My goal is for the modern audience to experience its beauty and joy, just as I have since I first heard it. I hope you love listening to it as much as I loved making it."
The announcement was made by Springsteen himself who addressed fans in a pre-recorded video posted online.
In anticipation to the announcement, Springsteen dropped hints on his social media accounts over the course of the previous three days. On 26 and 27 September, he shared each morning a photo of a road and of a steering wheel respectively, without any caption or comment. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
On 28 September, he posted a 26-second promo clip of a vintage car FM radio dial turning to different stations and listening in for a few seconds, each station playing a different song from the upcoming album.
 
 
  
 
 
 
Only The Strong Survive track list:

Only the strong survive (Jerry Butler cover)
Soul days  (Dobie Gray cover)
Nightshift (Commodores cover)
Do I love you (Indeed I do ) (Frank Wilson cover)
The sun ain't gonna shine anymore (Frankie Valli cover)
Turn back the hands of time (Tyrone Davis cover)
When she was my girl (Four Tops cover)
Hey, Western Union Man (Jerry Butler cover)
I wish it would rain (The Temptations cover)
Don't play that song ( you lied ) (Ben E. King cover)
Any other way (Jackie Shane cover)
I forgot to be your lover (William Bell cover)
7 rooms of gloom (Four Tops cover)
What becomes of the brokenhearted (Jimmy Ruffin cover)
Someday we'll be together (Diana Ross & The Supremes cover) 
 
Media:
 

Songinfo

"Only the Strong Survive" is a song written by Jerry Butler, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff and originally sung in 1968 by Jerry Butler, released on his album The Ice Man Cometh. It was the most successful single of his career, reaching #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was #1 for two weeks on the Billboard Black Singles Chart, in March and April 1969, respectively.  Elvis Presley (1969), Skeeter Davis (1969), Billy Paul (1977), Larry Carlton (2010) also recorded "Only The Strong Survive." s CD. The club mix was produced by Maas and Van der Weyde.
 
 
  

Bruce on the artist

Lyrics

I remember my first love affair.
Somehow or another the whole darn thing went wrong.
And my momma had some great advice,
So, I thought I'd put it in the words of this song.
I can still hear her saying:
Boy, I see you sitting out there all alone.
Crying your eyes out
Cause the woman that you love is gone
Oh there's gonna be, there's gonna be
A whole lot of trouble in your life
Ah so listen to me, get up off your knees
'Cause only the strong survive
That what she said:
Only the strong survive,
Only the strong survive
Yeah, you gotta be strong
You better hold on
Don't go around with your head hung down
Well, I wouldn't let the little girl know
(Wouldn't let her know)that she made me
Feel like a clown
There's a whole lot of girls (whole lot of girls)
Looking for a good man like you
But you'll never meet 'em
If you've give up now
And say your life is through
Then she said:
Only the strong survive
Only the strong survive
You gotta be a man,
You gotta take a stand
So I'm telling you right now:
Only the strong survive
Only the strong survive
You gotta be strong
You better hold on
Don't worry about it
Don't you know that things gonna change
Oh, but you gotta be a man
You gotta take a stand
Don't ever feel that
You can't make it, baby