“He Got You”
Ronnie Milsap
Written by Ralph Murphy and Bobby Wood
Radio & Records
#1 (2 weeks)
October 8 – October 15, 1982
Billboard
#1 (1 week)
October 23, 1982
The problem with Ronnie Milsap’s “He Got You” is the same problem that Brooks & Dunn’s “He’s Got You” had fifteen years later: Patsy Cline’s “She’s Got You.”
Some titles are generic enough to work even after a song’s become a classic. Witness the dozen or so brilliant versions of “Stay,” for example.
Perhaps if “She’s Got You” wasn’t one of the best records of all time, “He Got You” wouldn’t invite comparisons to it. But because the concept is identical and the songwriters couldn’t figure out how to make it distinctive enough from the Cline classic, it doesn’t stand on its own as a record. It just feels like a cheap knockoff of the original, like an Alfani shirt or a box of Toasted O’s.
Milsap sings it fine, but as he’s one of the few singers who could tackle a Patsy Cline melody without embarrassing himself, it’s that much more of a waste to have him singing an inferior composition.
“He’s Got You” gets a B-.
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I always felt that “He’s Got You” was the weakest single released from the “Inside” album. I don’t get why this was picked either when you had “Carolina Dreams”, “Wrong End of The Rainbow”, “Who’s Counting” (Great pop song) and finally “You Took Her Off My Hands”. 80’s Ronnie has been super solid