"Better By You, Better Than Me" by Spooky Tooth

Many of the obituaries following Gary Wright's recent death focused primarily upon his solo career, particularly his hit single "Dream Weaver." What these obituaries overlooked was his work with Spooky Tooth many years earlier. The songs Gary Wright wrote or co-wrote for Spooky Tooth feature the same poeticism found in his later solo work. Possibly my favourite Spooky Tooth song is "Better By You, Better Than Me." The song appears on Spooky Tooth's second album, Spooky Two, released in March 1969.

"Better By Me, Better Than You" would later be covered by Judas Priest in 1978. It was released as a single and appeared on their album Stained Class. It was in 1985, during the moral panic over backmasking that Judas Priest's cover of the song was at the centre of a lawsuit alleging that two teenagers killed themselves due to subliminal messages on the song. The case was eventually dismissed the case, with the judge stating that the "...plaintiffs lost this case because they failed to prove that defendants intentionally placed subliminal messages on the album and that those messages were a cause of the suicide."

In addition to Judas Priest, "Better By Me, Better Than You" was also covered by Armageddon in 1970, Gunhill in 19975 and Blues Karloff in 2014.