Lou Rawls, who learned of gospel music through his grandmother in Chicago, became a successful singer, primarily from the 1950s through the 1980s. He was a high school classmate of music giant Sam Cooke, and they sang together in the Teenage Kings of Harmony, a '50s gospel group.
After graduating from Chicago's Dunbar Vocational High School, he sang briefly with Cooke in the Teenage Kings of Harmony, a local gospel group, and then with the Holy Wonders. In 1951, Rawls replaced Cooke in the Highway QC's after Cooke departed to join The Soul Stirrers in Los Angeles. Rawls was soon recruited by the Chosen Gospel Singers and himself moved to Los Angeles, where he subsequently joined the Pilgrim Travelers
After graduating from Chicago's Dunbar Vocational Career Academy, Rawls enlisted in the U.S. Army as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division. He left the "All-Americans" three years later as a sergeant, and hooked up with The Pilgrim Travelers as he traveled to Los Angeles. In 1958, while touring the South with the Travelers and Sam Cooke, Rawls was in a serious car crash. Rawls was pronounced dead before arriving at the hospital, where he stayed in a coma for five and a half days. It took him months to regain his memory, and a year to fully recuperate. Rawls considered the event to be life-changing.
Alongside Dick Clark as master of ceremonies, Rawls was recovered enough by 1959 to be able to perform at the Hollywood Bowl. He was signed to Capitol Records in 1962, the same year he sang the soulful background vocals on the Sam Cooke recording of "Bring it on Home to Me." Rawls himself charted with a cover of the song in 1970 (with the title shortened to "Bring It On Home").
Rawls' first Capitol solo release was Stormy Monday (a.k.a. I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water), a jazz album. On August 21, 1966, he opened for The Beatles at Crosley Field in Cincinnati.
Though his 1966 album Live! went gold, Rawls would not have a star-making hit until he made a proper soul album, appropriately named Soulin', later that same year. The album contained his first R&B #1 single, "Love Is a Hurtin' Thing". In 1967 Rawls won his first Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance, for the single "Dead End Street."
In 1969, the singer was co-host of NBC's summer replacement series for the Dean Martin Show along with Martin's daughter, singer Gail Martin.
After leaving Capitol in 1971, Rawls joined MGM, at which juncture he released his Grammy-winning single "Natural Man." He had a brief stint with Bell Records in 1974, where he recorded a cover of Hall & Oates' "She's Gone." In 1976, Rawls signed with Philadelphia International Records, where he had his greatest album success with the million-selling All Things in Time. The album produced his most successful single, "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine", which topped the R&B and Adult Contemporary charts and went to number two on the pop side, becoming Rawls' only certified million-selling single in the process.
Subsequent albums, such as 1977's When You've Heard Lou, You've Heard It All yielded such hit singles as "Lady Love". Other releases in the 1970s included the classic album Sit Down And Talk To Me.
In 1982, Rawls received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
On the night of September 29, 1977, Rawls performed the national anthem of the United States prior to the Earnie Shavers-Muhammad Ali title fight at Madison Square Garden. He would be requested to sing the anthem many times over the next 28 years, and his final performance of it came on October 23, 2005. The crowd at that performance may not have known that Rawls was extremely ill with cancer, but he reportedly delivered an electrifying performance to kick off Game Two of the 2005 World Series between the Chicago White Sox and Houston Astros.
In 1980, Rawls began the "Lou Rawls Parade of Stars Telethon" which benefits the United Negro College Fund. The annual event, known since 1998 as "An Evening of Stars: A Celebration of Educational Excellence", consists of stories of successful African-American students who have benefited from and/or graduated from one of the many historically black colleges and universities who receive support from the UNCF, along with musical performances from various recording artists in support of the UNCF's and Rawls' efforts. The event has raised over US$200 million in 27 shows for the fund through 2006.
In January 2004, Rawls was honored by the United Negro College Fund for his more than 25 years of charity work with the organization. Instead of hosting and performing as he usually did, Rawls was given the seat of honor and celebrated by his performing colleagues, including Stevie Wonder, The O'Jays, Gerald Levert, Ashanti, and many others. His final television performance occurred during the 2005-2006 edition of the telethon, honoring Stevie Wonder in September 2005, just months before entering the hospital and after having been diagnosed with cancer earlier in the year. This program, aired in January, 2006, contains his final public television performance, where he performed two classics, "You Are the Sunshine of My Life," and a final ode to Frank Sinatra with, "It Was A Very Good Year."
At the time of Rawls' death, news and UNCF figures noted the significance of Rawls' final performance, "It Was a Very Good Year." The song is a retrospective of one's life and its lyrics include, "When I was seventeen, it was a very good year. It was a very good year for small town girls and soft summer nights...And now those days grow short, it is the autumn of years, and now I think about life as vintage wine from fine old kegs, from the brim to the dregs, it pours sweet and clear, it was a very good year."
Rawls appeared in a segment of the first season of Sesame Street, to sing the alphabet. He dismissed the concept of using cue cards for the performance, but reversed such decision when he forgot the order of the letters.
Throughout Rawls' singing career, he had the opportunity to appear in many films, television shows, and commercials. He can be seen in such films as Leaving Las Vegas, Blues Brothers 2000, and Angel, Angel, Down We Go. He had a supporting role in the Baywatch spin-off, Baywatch Nights. He also appeared in the western television series, Big Valley, (starring legend Barbara Stanwyck, along with Lee Majors and Linda Evans) where he played a hired hand. Here, he delivered the memorial line: "Ain't a horse that can't be rode; ain't a man that can't be throwed".
Rawls lent his rich baritone voice to many cartoons, including Hey Arnold! as the voice of Harvey The Mailman, Garfield, and The Proud Family. For many of the Film Roman Garfield specials, Rawls would often compose songs for them, which he would then sing usually doing a duet with Desiree Goyette. He also was famously in American sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.
For many years, he was a spokesperson for the Colonial Penn Life Insurance Company. He was also a spokesman for Budweiser, helping promote the brand on radio and TV to African-American markets much as Ed McMahon did for the white audience. Budweiser was a key sponsor for the Rawls telethon and UNCF.
Rawls was also a regular guest host on "Jazz Central", a program aired on the BET Jazz cable channel.
He appears as "Dr. Rawls" in a dream on an episode My Wife and Kids, where he breaks into a parody version of "You'll Never Find", which a frightened Damon Wayans is afraid of having a colonoscopy the following day. Rawls uses the scope as a microphone in the scene. Rawls appears as a commentator in the second half of the unrated commentary of Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.
Rawls was also a guest star during the second season of The Muppet Show. He also made a brief appearance on the series finale of Martin. (The show's character Tommy is excited to see Lou Rawls at Nipsey's and mentioned that his favorite song is "Natural Man." Lou replied that he received a letter from a female claiming that she and her boyfriend broke up because of the song. This eludes to the episode where Tommy and Pam decide to move in together, but winded up fighting and ultimately breaking up because Tommy played the song "Natural Man" so much that it drove Pam crazy.)
The following is a list of Lou Rawls singles that made the top 50 on the Billboard Hot 100. His first Hot 100 entry was "Three O'Clock in the Morning" in 1965, and his final was "Wind Beneath My Wings" in 1983. In addition to those two, nine other singles peaked at positions below the top 50 on the Hot 100, and additional singles reached the R&B, Adult Contemporary and Bubbling Under charts.
* "Love Is a Hurtin' Thing" - 1966, #13 (also #1 R&B)
* "Dead End Street" - 1967, #29
* "Show Business" - 1967, #45
* "Your Good Thing (Is About to End)" - 1969, #18
* "A Natural Man" - 1971, #17
* "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine" - 1976, #2 (also #1 R&B and #1 Adult Contemporary); certified Gold for sales of one million copies
* "Lady Love" - 1978, #24
You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine
Lou Rawls Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Someone who loves you, tender like I do
You'll never find, no matter where you search
Someone who cares about you the way I do
Whoa, I'm not braggin' on myself, baby
But I'm the one who loves you
And there's no one else! No one else
You'll never find, it'll take the end of all time
Someone to understand you like I do
You'll never find the rhythm, the rhyme
All the magic we shared, just us two
Whoa, I'm not tryin' to make you stay, baby
But I know some how, some day, some way
You are (you're gonna miss my lovin')
You're gonna miss my lovin' (you're gonna miss my lovin')
You're gonna miss my lovin' (you're gonna miss my lovin')
You're gonna miss, you're gonna miss my love
Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh (you're gonna miss my lovin')
Late in the midnight hour, baby (you're gonna miss my lovin')
When it's cold outside (you're gonna miss my lovin')
You're gonna miss, you're gonna miss my lo-o-ove
You'll never find another love like mine
Someone who needs you like I do
You'll never see what you've found in me
You'll keep searching and searching your whole life through
Whoa, I don't wish you no bad luck, baby
But there's no ifs and buts or maybes
(You're gonna) You're gonna miss (miss my lovin')
You're gonna miss my lovin' (you're gonna miss my lovin')
I know you're gonna my lovin' (you're gonna miss my lovin')
You're gonna miss, you're gonna miss my love
Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh (you're gonna miss my lovin')
Late in the midnight hour, baby (you're gonna miss my lovin')
When it gets real cold outside (you're gonna miss my lovin')
I know, I know that you are gonna miss my lo-o-ove
Let me tell you that you're gonna miss my lovin'
Yes you will, baby (you're gonna miss my lovin')
When I'm long gone
I know, I know, I know that you are gonna miss
Lou Rawls's "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine" is a soulful, upbeat track that speaks to the strength and depth of the singer's love for his partner. In the opening verses, Rawls sings about how no one will ever love his partner as tenderly and deeply as he does. He goes on to say that he isn't trying to brag, but he knows that he is the one who truly loves her.
The chorus of the song reinforces this idea, with Rawls reminding his partner that she will never find another love like his. He points out that he is the only one who truly understands her and that the magic they share can't be replicated with anyone else. However, Rawls isn't trying to make his partner feel guilty or keep her from leaving. Instead, he knows that one day she will realize what she had and miss his love.
Line by Line Meaning
You'll never find, as long as you live
You'll never find a person who loves you tenderly as much as I do, for as long as you live.
Someone who loves you, tender like I do
No one will love you as tenderly and deeply as I do.
You'll never find, no matter where you search
No matter where you search, you will not find a person who cares about you as I do.
Someone who cares about you the way I do
I care about you deeply and in a way that no one else ever will.
Whoa, I'm not braggin' on myself, baby
I'm not trying to boast, but I am confident in my love for you.
But I'm the one who loves you
I am the one who loves you deeply and truly.
And there's no one else! No one else
No one else can love you like I do; I am the only one for you.
You'll never find, it'll take the end of all time
It will take forever, until the end of time, to find someone who understands you like I do.
Someone to understand you like I do
No one else can truly understand you like I do.
You'll never find the rhythm, the rhyme
You will not find the same magic, rhythm and rhyme that we share together.
All the magic we shared, just us two
We have a special and unique bond, with a magic that only exists between us.
Whoa, I'm not tryin' to make you stay, baby
I am not forcing you to stay with me.
But I know some how, some day, some way
I know that one day you will recognize the value of my love.
You are (you're gonna miss my lovin')
You will miss the love that I have for you.
You're gonna miss my lovin' (you're gonna miss my lovin')
You will regret letting go of the love that we share.
You're gonna miss my lovin' (you're gonna miss my lovin')
You will miss my love for you.
You're gonna miss, you're gonna miss my love
You are going to miss the love that I have for you.
Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh (you're gonna miss my lovin')
You will miss the love and affection that I give to you.
Late in the midnight hour, baby (you're gonna miss my lovin')
Even in the late hours of the night, you will miss our love.
When it's cold outside (you're gonna miss my lovin')
Even when it's cold and you need warmth, you will miss my love.
You'll never find another love like mine
You will never find another person who loves you the way I do.
Someone who needs you like I do
I need you deeply and in a way that no one else ever will.
You'll never see what you've found in me
You do not realize what you have found in me.
You'll keep searching and searching your whole life through
You will continue searching for love throughout your entire life.
Whoa, I don't wish you no bad luck, baby
I do not wish for anything bad to happen to you.
But there's no ifs and buts or maybes
There is no doubt in my mind about the love that we share.
(You're gonna) You're gonna miss (miss my lovin')
You are going to regret losing the love that we had.
You're gonna miss my lovin' (you're gonna miss my lovin')
You will miss the love that I had for you.
I know you're gonna my lovin' (you're gonna miss my lovin')
I am certain that you will miss my love for you.
You're gonna miss, you're gonna miss my love
You will regret not having my love in your life.
Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh (you're gonna miss my lovin')
You will miss the passion and affection that I have for you.
Late in the midnight hour, baby (you're gonna miss my lovin')
Even in the dark hours of the night, you will miss my love.
When it gets real cold outside (you're gonna miss my lovin')
When it is cold outside and you need warmth and love, you will miss me.
I know, I know that you are gonna miss my lo-o-ove
I am certain that you will miss the love that we share.
Let me tell you that you're gonna miss my lovin'
I want you to know that you will regret losing my love.
Yes you will, baby (you're gonna miss my lovin')
You will regret not having my love in your life.
When I'm long gone
After I am no longer around.
I know, I know, I know that you are gonna miss
I am certain that you will miss the love and affection that we shared.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Songtrust Ave, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind