It’s one of his better songs, but many first heard Nicolette Larson’s cover. Who recorded the best version of Neil Young‘s “Lotta Love?”
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If you heard Larson’s cover back in the ‘70s, before the original, it was no accident. It was the lead single from her debut album, Nicolette, which came out in September 1978. Young’s version, which was from his Comes a Time album, was released nearly a month later.
Larson first heard a recording of Young performing “Lotta Love” on a cassette she found on the floor of Young’s car. She told him how much she liked the song. According to Larson, Young replied, “You want it? It’s yours.”
While “Lotta Love” has been covered by dozens of artists, the Larson and Young versions are, by far, the most popular. But are they necessarily the best? Let’s stack them up with a couple of other versions by popular artists who put their own spin on the song. Between Young, Larson, Dinosaur Jr., and Juliana Hatfield, we have four versions that reflect the sounds of three different decades. Each is unique in its own right.
[RELATED: Review: Juliana Hatfield Faces the Music With A Set of E.L.O. Covers]
4. Dinosaur Jr.
You would expect this noisy alternative rock band would produce a wildly different version than Young’s mellow original. It’s almost as if J Mascis and company knew that they were going to make something that would veer significantly from the original. So they didn’t take their own version too seriously. It features Arthur Hurwitz, who was not a member of the band, on lead vocals, and he mostly screams the lyrics. The backing vocals are out of tune, and towards the end of the song, Hurwitz tosses out some silly ad-libs. The contrast between the ad-libs and Young’s heartfelt lyrics, in which he looks to his partner for some gentleness and understanding, is pretty absurd—and hilarious. You can even hear Hurwitz giggle as he delivers the lines, Maybe there’s too much love / Too much love / I gotta lot of love but no one wants to take it.
Dinosaur Jr’s version is an immensely fun listen, but if this were an original, it’s hard to imagine it inspiring other artists to cover it. The cover was included on the 1989 album The Bridge: A Tribute to Neil Young. Some of the album’s proceeds went to the Bridge School—a school for children with speech and physical impairments that was co-founded by Young’s then-wife Pegi Young. The Youngs’ annual Bridge School benefit concerts (discontinued in 2017) were also a source of funding for the school.
3. Juliana Hatfield
Hatfield has put out four covers albums plus some singles of cover songs, and this is one of the latter. Her version of “Lotta Love” is on the A-side of a 2023 split 7-inch, with Emma Swift’s cover of Young’s “Give Me Strength” from Hitchhiker on the B-side. Hatfield is so adept at arranging and performing compelling cover songs. It’s not clear how she is able to do it so consistently, but she always manages to capture a song’s essence while leaving no doubt that you’re listening to Juliana Hatfield. Though it’s noisier than the original (though not nearly as noisy as the Dinosuar Jr. cover), its production is similarly sparse An uncomplicated beat and intermittent guitar riffs put the focus on Hatfield’s somber vocals. If we’re rating these versions on catchiness alone, Hatfield wins hands down. A portion of the single’s proceeds go to Casting for Recovery, an organization that supports women with breast cancer through fly fishing retreats.
2. Nicolette Larson
Larson’s version is the definition of late ‘70s soft rock. Hers is a bigger, lusher production than Young’s, with a string section, sax and flute helping to create the volume that Young’s original lacks. It’s the only version of the song to make it onto a Billboard chart. It went to No. 8 on the Hot 100 and topped the Adult Contemporary chart. For those who are more comfortable with an up-to-date sound, Hatfield’s version is probably more pleasing than Larson’s. The production style is dated, but the quality is top-notch, blending the arrangement’s disparate elements beautifully. There is a lot to enjoy here, especially Larson’s impassioned vocals, funky bass lines, and some great sax work by Andrew Love. (We could say this version features a lot of Love, but we won’t.)
1. Neil Young
It takes just a few seconds of listening to Young’s version to realize why Larson was so enamored with it. Even before he gets into the lyrics, Young’s initial sweet utterances (the “la”s and “ooh”s) against a backdrop of piano, acoustic guitar and drums is hair-raising stuff. His acoustic arrangement suits the vulnerable lyrics perfectly. Young gets more meaning and emotion across in his version than the other artists do in theirs. He does it with economy, too, as his 2:37 rendition is the shortest of the four. Less isn’t always more, but in this instance, Young shows the value of that adage in a variety of ways.
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
