Jimmy Hughes!

Jimmy Hughes - You Really Know How to Hurt a Guy (You Really Know How to Make Him Cry)

It's been over a year now since material from the FAME Records catalog has finally seen official CD reissue, and although at this time the CD output has been centered on Jimmy Hughes, with the US "Best Of" collection and Kent's coverage of Hughes' entire FAME output, that's not a bad place to start, to say the least! I am excited to see what else will follow! (I am aware that a Dan Penn project is in the making, but I'm pining for a great various artists comp or even a box set.)

Today's selection is one of my favorite Jimmy Hughes FAME sides. The Dan Penn-Spooner Oldham penned "You Really Know How to Hurt a Guy" is a nice mid-tempo piece with great atmosphere and strong vocals by Hughes which capture the longing yet suffering the song's subject brings about. "It don't bother you in the least," Hughes muses, "that you're breaking me up piece by piece." I've been a fan of this tune since I first heard it on a Yoni Neeman "Soul of the Net" show (I can't call it a "podcast," as such a term didn't exist then) back in the '90s, and I'm glad to present the song in cleaner form than the fairly scratchy FAME 45 from my collection.