Nuggets: Love's Gone Bad by The Underdogs

Before he became Patti Smith’s bass player, Lenny Kaye compiled the 2 album set, Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era. Released in 1972, the two-LP set covered American garage rock and psychedelia from the years from 1965-1968, and was a major influence on punk rock. Rhino Records reissued an expanded version of the set in 1998, with 118 tracks in total. I’m profiling and rating each of these 118 tracks, working backwards.

Track 113: Love’s Gone Bad by The Underdogs
Release Date: 1967
From: Grosse Pointe, Michigan
Aphoristical Rating: 6/10

The Underdogs were early adopters in the Michigan rock and roll scene, a bunch of high school students led by bassist and vocalist Dave Whitehouse. They played at the teen dance club Hideout, where the audience would include other notable Michigan musicians like Bob Seger, Suzi Quatro, Glenn Frey, and Ted Nugent.

The band only released four singles, of which ‘Love’s Gone Bad’ was the last. Their earlier singles were released on the Hideout club’s own record label, and distributed by Reprise, but ‘Love’s Gone Bad’ was released by Motown. They were reportedly the first white band to sign to Reprise, and they were given ‘Love’s Gone Bad’, a Holland-Dozier-Holland song that had previously been recorded by another white Motown act, soul vocalist Chris Clark.

The Underdogs’ version of ‘Love’s Gone Bad’ is an interesting fusion between garage rock and blue-eyed soul, but I prefer the more straightforward soul take from Chris Clark in 1966:

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• Nuggets Song by Song
• 1960s Album Reviews