Yesterday morning The Black Crowes’ “Hard To Handle” popped into my head unprompted, since I wasn’t doing much of anything at the time. Later that evening, I got around to watching some movie reviews from The New York Times’ film critic A.O. Scott, backlogged via TiVo. One of them was The Commitments, and Scott’s review started with a clip from the film featuring, yep, “Hard To Handle.”

Someone I know calls such strangely colliding occurrences a “Coincidence Vortex.” I’m not sure how this sort of thing happens or what causes it, but I decided to heed the universe’s huge blinking neon sign and give this week’s Sunday Cover Story over to the song.

“Hard To Handle” was originally recorded by Otis Redding, who also co-wrote it, but the song wasn’t released until after the soul singer’s death in 1967. It reached just #51 on the Billboard Pop chart, while it did marginally better on the R&B chart, peaking at #38.

The Black Crowes chose to cover “Hard To Handle” on their 1990 debut, Shake Your Money Maker. Selected as the second single from the album, “Hard To Handle” hit #1 on the Mainstream Rock chart in November 1990, and #26 on the Hot 100 in August 1991 (after an abbreviated run on the same chart in the fall of the previous year).

The video for “Hard To Handle” was filmed in and near Chicago, prominently featuring a stop at the former World Music Theater (now the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre) in south suburban Tinley Park, IL. I’ve got not-so-fond memories of hanging banners from the rafters there as a radio intern one summer, but I digress:

There’s actually a slightly different version of The Black Crowes’ “Hard To Handle” somewhere out there, which adds a horn section like the one in Otis Redding’s original. That’s the version I heard while listening to the American Top 40 countdown back then, but I haven’t been able to track that mix down in the years since. If anyone’s got a lead, shoot me a message. Update 8/09: Found the 2-track radio promo with the elusive mix. Thanks, eBay!

Purchase The Black Crowes – “Hard To Handle” via iTunes, Amazon MP3.