You’re No Good is the first track on Van Halen II.
The band used to play a completely different version of this song during their club days. On the cassette version of the album, this song was incorrectly credited to Holland-Dozier-Holland (the trio responsible for writing many of the Supremes hits).
“You’re No Good” was originally recorded by Betty Everett for Vee Jay in 1963 and was covered shortly thereafter by the Swingin’ Blue Jeans. In 1974 Andrew Gold added strings to the arrangement and Linda Ronstadt had her first #1 single with the song in 1975.
The bass intro for this song was originally meant to be a complete bass solo. Later it was determined that it would be better as an intro. Eddie’s intro was originally a part of an unreleased original song, “Down in Flames”. It was Ted Templeman’s idea to record this tune. Since Eddie wasn’t that familiar with the song, Templeman hummed him the main riff and then Eddie came up with what we hear on the album.
Eddie Van Halen recollects, “To me doesn’t sound at all like the original. I’ve never actually heard the original; Linda Ronstadt didn’t write the song. It’s a great song, I think.
“Ted [Templeman, producer] suggested it or he asked us about how we felt doing another cover song. We said if the song is right and fits our style, and if we can arrange it to fit our style then we’ll do it. We were all thinking of what to do and if something pops up we’ll do it, but if not we have plenty of songs to pick from. but it would be nice to have a cover song. So Ted says, “Hey, how about ‘You’re No Good,” and that was a trip because we used to play that song when we were at Gazzarri’s, only we did it like the record, we didn’t do it our own way. And then Ted says to play it and I go, “God, I don’t know how it goes.” And I just started noodling around, and that’s how it came about. We never even listened to the record. It was just that I kind of remembered the changes, and because I didn’t listen to the record it didn’t sound the same.
“The song came out real basic. We don’t do a lot of overdubs because if I do something that’s like the main part of a song as an overdub and I can’t do it live people are going to miss it, They’re going to go, “Hey, it doesn’t sound the same.” It’s true. so when we do overdubs they’re real subtle, which just enhances the sound, as opposed to being a real melodic main thing. We just depend on the rhythm section, the guitar for solos, and the singing for melody.”
Official Music Video:
Lyrics:
Well, I’m feelin’ better now that we’re through.
Feelin’ better, baby, I’m over you.
I learned my lesson, baby.
And it left a scar.
But now I see how you really are.
You’re no good, no good.
Baby, you’re no good.
No good, no good, no good.
Baby, you’re no good.
I broke a heart, simple and true.
Broke a heart for someone like you.
We’ll be coming back. Don’t come running to me.
I wanna love you, maybe set you free.
You’re no good, no good, no good.
Baby, you’re no good.
You’re no good, no good, no good.
Baby, you’re no good.
(Used to be, I couldn’t sleep at night, baby
Now, you go on. Do what you want to.)