The Isley Brothes: Nobody But Me

One of the great rock songs of 1968 was The Human Beinz’ “Nobody but Me.” The song was covered by every garage band of the era and rightfully so – it is a classic rock tune of the era complete with feedback and driving bass and drums. What most folks don’t’ realize that the song was a cover of an earlier single released by the original lineup of The Isley Brothers in 1962. Well, here is the first recording of “Nobody but Me.”

The Human Beinz Hit Version

Peaking the charts at #8 in January 1968, The Human Beinz’s rendition of the Isley Brothers original is forever etched in the minds of anyone who lived in that era. In Dave Marsh and Dave Bernard’s “The New Book of Rock Lists” (p. 120), the authors claim that “Nobody but Me” is the most negative song of all time with The Human Beinz using the word “no” at least 100 times and the word “nobody” 46 times in a song of 2:16.

Frankly, it is nearly impossible to count the number of times “no” is used in the song. My best estimate was roughly 75 – a little lower than Marsh and Bernard’s count. Still amazing when you consider that there is an intro of 8 seconds and an instrumental break of about 23 seconds in the middle of the song – cutting down the vocal time to about 1:45.

Marsh and Bernard also note that the band uses “Yeah” once during the song. The following is the best recording on YouTube. A nice stereo mix would be nice, but I am too lazy to dig out my original promo copy of the LP and upload it.