“Got the All Overs For You (All Over Me)”
Freddie Hart and the Heartbeats
Written by Freddie Hart
Billboard
#1 (3 weeks)
December 9 – December 23, 1972
I’ve had just about enough of these jittery vocals from Freddie Hart.
His heart is in the right place, but his phrasing is all over the place. The less said about the wail in the chorus, the better.
This doesn’t meet the basic level of vocal performance and record production that I expect from a major label country release, which is a reminder of how far much of Nashville had fallen behind the rest of the music industry by the early seventies, including some of their own peers in town.
It’s hard to believe that the Charley Pride record that preceded this was released in the same year. Hart was a talented artist, but you’d think he wasn’t up to snuff judging by the final product here.
“Got the All Overs For You (All Over Me)” gets a C-.
Every No. 1 Single of the Seventies
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I’ll give this a B-, though I don’t doubt it’s something of a carbon copy of “Easy Lovin'”, and sort of typified the countrypolitan sound of Nashville in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. I do know that it got plenty of recurrent “oldies” country airplay well into the 1980’s, so somebody out there loved it.
No accounting for taste, I suppose, thought I know I’d take this over the macho bro-country junk any day of the week, and twice on Sundays (LOL).
It’s not bad but how many times can you keep trying to recapture “Easy Lovin'”? “B-” if I dind’t know Easy Lovin’ existed.
After his long (16 years) trek to the top I was openly rooting for Freddie’s singles to succeed. While I think that his Kapp singles were very good, until “Easy Loving” hit on Capitol, his success was minimal (other than as a songwriter). This song is a bit derivative and while his quavering vocals were sometimes distracting, at least you never had to guess at the identity of the singer – you KNEW that it was Freddie Hart. I would give this a B-
I had heard of “Easy Loving” but I didn’t know the name “Freddie Hart” or anything else that he did, before coming across him on Youtube a few years ago. Reviewing his top material, I find it remarkable that a guy in his mid-40s could come out of nowhere create a string of massive #1 hits–almost all multiple-weeks at #1–with songs that he wrote himself and sang in a completely unique vocal style. He creates a mood and moves people. And super quickly–the records are all under 2-and-a-half minutes and one is under 2 minutes. I also find it funny that the guy writing the reviews has such contempt for these records. I mean, they’re over so quickly that they would barely have time to annoy me. As to them all sounding alike–That’s always been the rap on country music. If you like the songs, you hear their differences.
I am still defiantly in Hart’s corner, increasingly appreciative of his sense of self and personal style.
Hart’s trembling warble and the song’s dated arrangement work for me. Sometimes a time-stamped song fully of its era is just as interesting as a timeless song that transcends eras. Maybe it’s a matter of focus?
I appreciate the warmth of softness of this hit.