Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

Composer and arranger Horace Ott came up with the melody and chorus lyric line after a temporary falling out with his girlfriend (and wife-to-be), Gloria Caldwell.[2] He then brought it to writing partners Bennie Benjamin and Sol Marcus to complete. However, when it came time for songwriting credits, rules of the time prevented BMI writers (Ott) from officially collaborating with ASCAP members (the other two), so Ott listed Caldwell's name instead of his own on the credits.[2][3]

"Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" was one of five songs involving the writing of Benjamin and Marcus presented for Nina Simone's 1964 album Broadway-Blues-Ballads. There, it is taken at a very slow tempo and arranged around harp and other orchestral elements; a backing choir appears at several points. Simone sings it in her typically difficult-to-categorize style.[4]

To some writers, this version of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" carried the subtext of the Civil Rights Movement that concerned much of Simone's work of the time;[3] while to others this was more personal, and was the song, and phrase, that best exemplified Simone's career and life.[5]

The Animals' lead singer Eric Burdon would later say of the song, "It was never considered pop material, but it somehow got passed on to us and we fell in love with it immediately."[6]

The song was recorded in November 1964.[7] The group gained a trans-Atlantic hit in early 1965 from their rendition, rising to number 3 on the UK Singles Chart, number 15 on the U.S. pop singles chart, and number 4 in Canada.[8]

This single was ranked by Rolling Stone at No. 322 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[9]

In Animals concerts at the time, the group maintained the recorded arrangement, but Burdon sometimes slowed the vocal line down to an almost spoken part, recapturing a bit of the Simone flavor.[10]

At the South by Southwest conference in 2012, Bruce Springsteen credited the song as the inspiration and the riff for his song "Badlands".[11]

A disco version of the song by the disco group Santa Esmeralda, which took The Animals' arrangement and added some disco, flamenco and other Latin rhythm and ornamentation elements to it, also became a hit in the late 1970s. First released in summer 1977 as a 16-minute epic that took up an entire side of their Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood album, it was picked up for more worldwide distribution by the label of the time, Casablanca Records.[12] A 12-inch club remix was extremely popular, hitting number one on the U.S. Billboard Club Play Singles chart and in some European countries as well. The single peaked at number four on the Hot Dance/Disco-Club Play chart.[13]

British new wave musician Elvis Costello, under the label "The Costello Show", covered "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" for his 1986 album, King of America. The song was a late addition to the album; Costello had originally intended to record "I Hope You're Happy Now", but throat problems during the final sessions prevented him from doing so.[18] Costello recalled,

Rather than scrap the session we cut a slow, violent version of the Animals/Nina Simone song: "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood". The next day we borrowed Michael Blair from Tom Waits' band to add a marimba part, and the record was complete. This may seem ironic as I attacked the song with a vocal capacity that Tom might have rejected as being too hoarse.[18]

Against Costello's wishes, his American record company, Columbia, insisted on releasing the song as the first single from King of America. The single reached number 33 in the UK and 22 in Ireland, but did not chart in the US. He explained, "My US record company, Columbia, showed their customary imagination in releasing the safe 'cover' song as a single ahead of any of the more unusual and heartfelt balladry I had composed. 'Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood' made little impression, and my mounting debt to the company seemed to make them unwilling to risk any further effort on my behalf".[18]

Martin Chilton of The Telegraph ranked the song as Costello's 26th best song, stating that Costello "sings it really well".[19]

Stereogum reviewed cover versions of the song in 2015; these included renditions by Joe Cocker, Yusuf Islam, and Lana Del Rey.[37] A version by Cocker for his With a Little Help from My Friends album is "a thoroughly '60s rock reading, [...] even if it dispenses with the organ intro the Animals introduced into the equation, it does have a big organ solo section and that crying blues guitar intro".[37] Cat Stevens converted to Islam and changed his name to Yusuf Islam; when he returned to popular music, he recorded an allusion to controversies in his life by way of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", as featured on his 2006 album An Other Cup.[37] Del Rey created a "burnt-out Pop Art take on Americana" version for her album Honeymoon.[37]

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics