Robert Gordon: Someday, Someway

I feel like a little rockabilly today, so for my Friday First recording I am in a quandary as it becomes the age old question, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” It may also like the old riddle, “The man who made it doesn't want it. The man who buys it doesn't need it. The man who needs it doesn't know it.”

The problem with my song of choice in this regard is that the Marshall Crenshaw composition, “Someday, Someway” which was a mid charting hit for the songwriter in 1982, was actually recorded first by someone else. That someone else is notably rockabilly vocalist Robert Gordon who released the song in 1981 and charted at #76 in the USA. While the scenario has occurred before and since, typically a singer-songwriter releases his or her own song before others.

Marshall Crenshaw’s Hit Version

The very next year, Marshall Crenshaw, who got his start playing John Lennon in "Beatlemania" and Buddy Holly in "LaBamba," released his own song as a single. It was Crenshaw’s only hit in America – charting at #36 on Billboard’s Hot 100. Crenshaw would continue to get a modicum amount of airplay on album radio, but neither he nor Gordon ever received the level of popularity that both deserved.