Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
Encyclopedia
"Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" is a song written by Bennie Benjamin
, Gloria Caldwell and Sol Marcus for the singer/pianist Nina Simone
, who first recorded it in 1964. "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" has been recorded or performed by many artists, and is widely known by the 1965 blues rock hit recording from The Animals
. A 1977 disco
/Latin rendition by Santa Esmeralda
was also a hit.
, who came up with the melody and chorus lyric line after a temporary falling out with his girlfriend (and wife-to-be), Gloria Caldwell. 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 instead listed Caldwell's name on the credits.
"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 usual hard-to-categorize style. Horace Ott's involvement did not end with his initial songwriting; he was the arranger and orchestral conductor for the entire album. Backed with "A Monster", "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" was released as a single in 1964, but failed to chart.
To some writers, this "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" carried the subtext of the American Civil Rights Movement
that concerned much of Simone's work of the time; while to others, this was more personal, and was the song, and phrase, that best exemplified Simone's career and life.
Decades later, a commercial for Christian Dior
's perfume J'Adore
, starring Charlize Theron
, featured Simone's version of the song, as did the final scene of the 2009 Polish film drama Rewers
.
In 2010, Simone's version was used for the end credits of season one's 6th and final episode of BBC
's crime drama Luther
. In 2011, it was used again for the trailer for the show's second season.
' 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." The Animals gave it one of their trademark R&B-unto-rock workups, speeding up the tempo and starting off with a memorable electric guitar
-and-organ
doubled riff from Hilton Valentine
and Alan Price
, that was picked out and expanded from an element that originally appeared in the Simone recording's outro. This riff immediately led into Burdon's trademark deep, impassioned vocal line:
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.
This single was ranked by Rolling Stone
at #315 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
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.
version of the song by Santa Esmeralda
featuring Leroy Gomez, which took The Animals' arrangement and added some disco, flamenco
, salsa
, and other Latin rhythm and ornamentation elements to it, also became a hit in the 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
. 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. Released as a pop single late in the year, it did well as well, reaching number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100
by early 1978. NBC Sports
would use the song frequently in the years following its release, especially during their coverage of the World Series
.
Santa Esmeralda's "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" was used as the opening theme of the 1980 pilot
for the U.S. game show Bullseye
, after which a sound-alike was used in regular episodes. Santa Esmeralda's rendition is featured in the 1992 film American Me
. It became widely popular with a later generation after its inclusion in the 2003 film Kill Bill Vol. 1, where its instrumental passage plays over the duel between The Bride
and O-Ren Ishii, and the accompanying Kill Bill Vol. 1 Original Soundtrack
, where it is incorporated in a full vocal form that runs over 10 minutes. A rendition appears in the trailer for the 2005
film Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
, as well as the 2008 Korean "western" film The Good, the Bad, the Weird
, played in the chasing sequence in Manchuria
n desert.
In television, this version of the song was used on German soccer show ARD-Sportschau from the late '70s to the mid-'80s, in the introduction for the goal of the month segment.
' Eric Burdon has re-recorded the song throughout the years, notably an eight-minute version on his 1974 album Sun Secrets and a heavy metal
performance in 1976 later released on his Live at the Roxy
album. Burdon has performed it since the early 1980s in a reggae
style. In a different version, it was performed during The Animals' 1983 reunion, as documented on the following year's Greatest Hits Live (Rip It to Shreds)
release.
A version by Joe Cocker
(from his 1969 debut album
) played over the ending credits of the 2004 film Layer Cake
. Other artists who have recorded the song include The Moody Blues
, Elvis Costello
, Cyndi Lauper
, Place of Skulls, Uthanda, Julie Driscoll with Brian Auger, Mike Batt
, Trevor Rabin
, Dwight Adams, No Mercy
, Alabina (retitled "Lolole"), John Legend
, Lou Rawls
, Julian Thome, Gary Moore
, Robben Ford
, OffBeat, New Buffalo
, Farhad Mehrad
, The Killers, the Doug Anthony All Stars
, Lyambiko, The Lucky Devils, Di'Anno
, and Savage Circus
.
In their 1980s concerts, Dire Straits
played the central theme of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" during an instrumental introduction to their "Tunnel of Love", as Mark Knopfler
talked about The Animals' hometown of Newcastle upon Tyne
, in whose Spanish City
that song is set. The song has been played in the style of The Animals by Cutting Crew
on their 2008 tour as a tribute to lead singer Nick Van Eede
's first manager, Chas Chandler
of The Animals.
Twinsburg (OH) High School's show choir "Great Expectations" featured this song in their 2011 competition set.
Rapper Common
's "Misunderstood" sampled Nina Simone's original version for his 2007 album Finding Forever. The song was also sampled for the 2008 Lil Wayne
album Tha Carter III
, in the song "DontGetIt" and it was performed by Leona Lewis
on the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards
during a Lil Wayne performance. It has also been remixed by Granite & Sugarman for Nicola Fasano.
Cat Stevens
was pleased as a young musician to be compared to the song's first performer, Nina Simone, by an interviewer from Melody Maker
. After converting to Islam
and changing his name to Yusuf Islam, several incidents where he has felt misunderstood — including a recitation from the Qur'an
that he maintains was either a misquote or taken out of context which was alleged to be supportive of the fatwa
against Salman Rushdie, and allegations that he provided funds to terrorist organizations resulted in his deportation from both Israel and the U.S. — sparked his recording of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" with some lyrical alterations, featured on his 2006 album An Other Cup
.
Bennie Benjamin
Claude A. Benjamin was a songwriter, often teaming with George David Weiss. He was born on November 4, 1907 in Christiansted on the island of St. Croix . At the age of twenty, he moved to New York City. There, he studied the banjo and guitar with Hy Smith...
, Gloria Caldwell and Sol Marcus for the singer/pianist Nina Simone
Nina Simone
Eunice Kathleen Waymon , better known by her stage name Nina Simone , was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist widely associated with jazz music...
, who first recorded it in 1964. "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" has been recorded or performed by many artists, and is widely known by the 1965 blues rock hit recording from The Animals
The Animals
The Animals were an English music group of the 1960s formed in Newcastle upon Tyne during the early part of the decade, and later relocated to London...
. A 1977 disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
/Latin rendition by Santa Esmeralda
Santa Esmeralda
Santa Esmeralda is a U.S./French Disco group formed in the 1970s, which earned a #1 club hit in 1977 with a cover version of the song "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood".-Mr. "Misunderstood":Leroy Gómez was born in Wareham, Massachusetts of Cape Verdean descent...
was also a hit.
Nina Simone original
The beginnings of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" came with composer and arranger Horace OttHorace Ott
Horace Ott is a noted composer, record producer, conductor and pianist. Although not formally credited he was one of the writers of Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood and arranged the Village Peoples hit Y.M.C.A.. He also led of the Horace Ott Orchestra....
, who came up with the melody and chorus lyric line after a temporary falling out with his girlfriend (and wife-to-be), Gloria Caldwell. He then brought it to writing partners Bennie Benjamin
Bennie Benjamin
Claude A. Benjamin was a songwriter, often teaming with George David Weiss. He was born on November 4, 1907 in Christiansted on the island of St. Croix . At the age of twenty, he moved to New York City. There, he studied the banjo and guitar with Hy Smith...
and Sol Marcus to complete. However, when it came time for songwriting credits, rules of the time prevented BMI
Broadcast Music Incorporated
Broadcast Music, Inc. is one of three United States performing rights organizations, along with ASCAP and SESAC. It collects license fees on behalf of songwriters, composers, and music publishers and distributes them as royalties to those members whose works have been performed...
writers (Ott) from officially collaborating with ASCAP members (the other two), so Ott instead listed Caldwell's name on the credits.
"Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" was one of five songs involving the writing of Benjamin and Marcus, presented for Nina Simone
Nina Simone
Eunice Kathleen Waymon , better known by her stage name Nina Simone , was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist widely associated with jazz music...
's 1964 album Broadway-Blues-Ballads
Broadway-Blues-Ballads
Broadway-Blues-Ballads is an album by singer/pianist/songwriter Nina Simone . It was her second album for Philips. In contrast to her first Philips album, the live In Concert, which was politically laden with civil rights motifs, this studio album is more playful...
. There, it is taken at a very slow tempo and arranged around harp
Harp
The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...
and other orchestral elements; a backing choir appears at several points. Simone sings it in her usual hard-to-categorize style. Horace Ott's involvement did not end with his initial songwriting; he was the arranger and orchestral conductor for the entire album. Backed with "A Monster", "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" was released as a single in 1964, but failed to chart.
To some writers, this "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" carried the subtext of the American Civil Rights Movement
African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)
The African-American Civil Rights Movement refers to the movements in the United States aimed at outlawing racial discrimination against African Americans and restoring voting rights to them. This article covers the phase of the movement between 1955 and 1968, particularly in the South...
that concerned much of Simone's work of the time; while to others, this was more personal, and was the song, and phrase, that best exemplified Simone's career and life.
Decades later, a commercial for Christian Dior
Christian Dior
Christian Dior , was a French fashion designer, best known as the founder of one of the world's top fashion houses, also called Christian Dior.-Life:...
's perfume J'Adore
J'Adore
j'Adore is Malaysian Chinese Mandopop artist Fish Leong's tenth Mandarin studio album. It was released by Rock Records on 9 November 2007...
, starring Charlize Theron
Charlize Theron
Charlize Theron is a South African actress, film producer and former fashion model.She rose to fame in the late 1990s following her roles in 2 Days in the Valley, Mighty Joe Young, The Devil's Advocate and The Cider House Rules...
, featured Simone's version of the song, as did the final scene of the 2009 Polish film drama Rewers
Rewers
Rewers is a 2009 Polish drama film with a fair portion of black humor, directed by Borys Lankosz.- Plot :The film is set in Warsaw in the 1950s, with a few flash-forwards to present-day Warsaw. The main character is Sabina, a quiet, shy woman who has just turned thirty, and lives together with her...
.
In 2010, Simone's version was used for the end credits of season one's 6th and final episode of BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's crime drama Luther
Luther (TV series)
Luther is a British psychological crime drama television series starring Idris Elba as the title character Detective Chief Inspector John Luther. A first series of six episodes was broadcast on BBC One from 4 May to 8 June 2010. The second series of four episodes was shown on BBC One in summer 2011...
. In 2011, it was used again for the trailer for the show's second season.
The Animals version
The AnimalsThe Animals
The Animals were an English music group of the 1960s formed in Newcastle upon Tyne during the early part of the decade, and later relocated to London...
' lead singer Eric Burdon
Eric Burdon
Eric Victor Burdon is an English singer-songwriter best known as a founding member and vocalist of rock band The Animals, and the funk rock band War and for his aggressive stage performance...
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." The Animals gave it one of their trademark R&B-unto-rock workups, speeding up the tempo and starting off with a memorable electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
-and-organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
doubled riff from Hilton Valentine
Hilton Valentine
Hilton Valentine is an English musician, who was the original guitarist in the The Animals.-Biography:Valentine was influenced by the 1950s skiffle craze...
and Alan Price
Alan Price
Alan Price is an English musician, best known as the original keyboardist for the English band The Animals, and for his subsequent solo work....
, that was picked out and expanded from an element that originally appeared in the Simone recording's outro. This riff immediately led into Burdon's trademark deep, impassioned vocal line:
- Baby, do you understand me now?
- If sometimes, you see that I'm mad ...
- Don't you know no one alive can always be an angel,
- When everything goes wrong, you see some bad. But I'm just a soul whose intentions are good: Oh Lord! Please don't let me be misunderstood ...
The group gained a trans-Atlantic hit in early 1965 from their rendition, rising to number 3 on the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
, number 15 on the U.S. pop singles chart
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
, and number 4 in Canada.
This single was ranked by Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
at #315 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
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.
Santa Esmeralda version
A discoDisco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
version of the song by Santa Esmeralda
Santa Esmeralda
Santa Esmeralda is a U.S./French Disco group formed in the 1970s, which earned a #1 club hit in 1977 with a cover version of the song "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood".-Mr. "Misunderstood":Leroy Gómez was born in Wareham, Massachusetts of Cape Verdean descent...
featuring Leroy Gomez, which took The Animals' arrangement and added some disco, flamenco
Flamenco
Flamenco is a genre of music and dance which has its foundation in Andalusian music and dance and in whose evolution Andalusian Gypsies played an important part....
, salsa
Salsa music
Salsa music is a genre of music, generally defined as a modern style of playing Cuban Son, Son Montuno, and Guaracha with touches from other genres of music...
, and other Latin rhythm and ornamentation elements to it, also became a hit in the 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
Casablanca Records
Casablanca Records was an American record label started by Neil Bogart, who partnered with Cecil Holmes, Larry Harris, and Buck Reingold in 1973, and based in Los Angeles. The label was formed after all of them had left Buddah Records and secured financing by Warner Bros. Records to start the venture...
. 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. Released as a pop single late in the year, it did well as well, reaching number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
by early 1978. NBC Sports
NBC Sports
NBC Sports is the sports division of the NBC television network. Formerly "a service of NBC News," it broadcasts a diverse array of programs, including the Olympic Games, the NFL, the NHL, MLS, Notre Dame football, the PGA Tour, the Triple Crown, and the French Open, among others...
would use the song frequently in the years following its release, especially during their coverage of the World Series
World Series
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball, played between the American League and National League champions since 1903. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a best-of-seven playoff and awarded the Commissioner's Trophy...
.
Santa Esmeralda's "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" was used as the opening theme of the 1980 pilot
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...
for the U.S. game show Bullseye
Bullseye (US game show)
Bullseye is an American game show that aired in syndication from September 29, 1980 to September 24, 1982. Jim Lange was the host, and the program was produced by Jack Barry and Dan Enright. Jay Stewart was the announcer for the first season, and Charlie O'Donnell announced for the second season...
, after which a sound-alike was used in regular episodes. Santa Esmeralda's rendition is featured in the 1992 film American Me
American Me
American Me is a 1992 biographical crime drama film produced and directed by Edward James Olmos, his first film as a director, and written by Floyd Mutrux and Desmond Nakano. Olmos also stars as the film's protagonist, Montoya Santana...
. It became widely popular with a later generation after its inclusion in the 2003 film Kill Bill Vol. 1, where its instrumental passage plays over the duel between The Bride
Beatrix Kiddo
Beatrix Kiddo, primarily known as "The Bride", is a fictional character and the protagonist in the movie Kill Bill by American director Quentin Tarantino...
and O-Ren Ishii, and the accompanying Kill Bill Vol. 1 Original Soundtrack
Kill Bill Volume 1 (soundtrack)
Kill Bill Vol. 1 Original Soundtrack is the soundtrack to the first volume of the two-part Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill. Released on September 23, 2003, it reached #45 on the Billboard 200 album chart and #1 on the soundtracks chart...
, where it is incorporated in a full vocal form that runs over 10 minutes. A rendition appears in the trailer for the 2005
2005 in film
- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2005...
film Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a 2005 crime/dark comedy film, which engages many conventions of the classic film noir genre in a tongue-in-cheek fashion. It is based, in part, on the novel Bodies Are Where You Find Them by Brett Halliday. The cast includes Robert Downey, Jr., Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan...
, as well as the 2008 Korean "western" film The Good, the Bad, the Weird
The Good, the Bad, the Weird
The Good, the Bad, the Weird is a 2008 South Korean western film directed by Kim Ji-woon, starring Song Kang-ho, Lee Byung-hun, and Jung Woo-sung...
, played in the chasing sequence in Manchuria
Manchuria
Manchuria is a historical name given to a large geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria usually falls entirely within the People's Republic of China, or is sometimes divided between China and Russia. The region is commonly referred to as Northeast...
n desert.
In television, this version of the song was used on German soccer show ARD-Sportschau from the late '70s to the mid-'80s, in the introduction for the goal of the month segment.
Other versions
The AnimalsThe Animals
The Animals were an English music group of the 1960s formed in Newcastle upon Tyne during the early part of the decade, and later relocated to London...
' Eric Burdon has re-recorded the song throughout the years, notably an eight-minute version on his 1974 album Sun Secrets and a heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
performance in 1976 later released on his Live at the Roxy
Live at the Roxy (Eric Burdon album)
Live at the Roxy is an album by Eric Burdon recorded in May 1975. It features songs from the "Mirage project". It was released in 1998 and is known for the aggressive screaming of Burdon.-Track listing:# "First Sight"...
album. Burdon has performed it since the early 1980s in a reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
style. In a different version, it was performed during The Animals' 1983 reunion, as documented on the following year's Greatest Hits Live (Rip It to Shreds)
Greatest Hits Live (Rip It to Shreds)
Greatest Hits Live is a live album released in 1984 by the original members of The Animals. It documents the 1983 concert tour that accompanied the second, and last, reunion attempt of the original group....
release.
A version by Joe Cocker
Joe Cocker
John Robert "Joe" Cocker, OBE is an English rock and blues musician, composer and actor, who came to popularity in the 1960s, and is most known for his gritty voice, his idiosyncratic arm movements while performing, and his cover versions of popular songs, particularly those of The Beatles...
(from his 1969 debut album
With a Little Help from My Friends (album)
With a Little Help from My Friends is the first album by singer Joe Cocker, released in 1969. It was certified gold in the U.S. and peaked at #35 on the Billboard 200....
) played over the ending credits of the 2004 film Layer Cake
Layer Cake (film)
Layer Cake is a 2004 British crime thriller produced and directed by Matthew Vaughn, in his directorial debut. It is based on the novel Layer Cake by J. J...
. Other artists who have recorded the song include The Moody Blues
The Moody Blues
The Moody Blues are an English rock band. Among their innovations was a fusion with classical music, most notably in their 1967 album Days of Future Passed....
, Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
, Cyndi Lauper
Cyndi Lauper
Cynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album...
, Place of Skulls, Uthanda, Julie Driscoll with Brian Auger, Mike Batt
Mike Batt
Michael Philip "Mike" Batt is a British songwriter, musician, producer and Deputy Chairman of the British Phonographic Industry...
, Trevor Rabin
Trevor Rabin
Trevor Charles Rabin is a South African born musician, best known as a guitarist, vocalist and songwriter for the British progressive rock band Yes from 1983–1994, and since then, as a film composer.- Early years :...
, Dwight Adams, No Mercy
No Mercy (band)
No Mercy is an American pop and dance music group formed by Frank Farian in Florida in 1995, consisting of Marty Cintron , and twin brothers, Ariel and Gabriel Hernández , from Miami, Florida.-Career:In 1996, No Mercy released their debut album titled No Mercy, later re-released in Europe retitled My...
, Alabina (retitled "Lolole"), John Legend
John Legend
John Roger Stephens , better known by his stage name John Legend, is an American singer, musician, and actor. He is the recipient of nine Grammy Awards, and in 2007, he received the special Starlight award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.Prior to the release of his debut album, Stephens' career...
, Lou Rawls
Lou Rawls
Louis Allen "Lou" Rawls was an American soul, jazz, and blues singer. He was known for his smooth vocal style: Frank Sinatra once said that Rawls had "the classiest singing and silkiest chops in the singing game"...
, Julian Thome, Gary Moore
Gary Moore
Robert William Gary Moore , better known simply as Gary Moore, was a Northern Irish musician from Belfast, best recognised as a blues rock guitarist and singer....
, Robben Ford
Robben Ford
Robben Ford is an American blues, jazz and rock guitarist.-Biography:Ford was born in Woodlake, California, United States, but raised in Ukiah, California, and began playing the saxophone at age 10, picking up the guitar at age 13...
, OffBeat, New Buffalo
New Buffalo (band)
Sally Seltmann is a Melbourne-based singer-songwriter. Until 2009, she performed under the alias New Buffalo.-Biography:...
, Farhad Mehrad
Farhad Mehrad
Farhad Mehrad , widely known in Iran as Farhad was an award winning Persian legendary Rock singer, songwriter, guitarist, pianist and icon. He rose to prominence among Iranian Rock and Folk musicians before the Islamic Revolution, but after the revolution he was banned from singing for several...
, The Killers, the Doug Anthony All Stars
Doug Anthony All Stars
The Doug Anthony All Stars were an Australian musical comedy group who performed together between 1984 and 1994. The band was an acoustic trio comprising Paul McDermott and Tim Ferguson on main vocals and Richard Fidler on guitar and backing vocals...
, Lyambiko, The Lucky Devils, Di'Anno
Di'anno
Di'Anno was a band featuring former Iron Maiden singer Paul Di'Anno, whom the band was named after.The band has released the albums Di'Anno and Live From London...
, and Savage Circus
Savage Circus
Savage Circus is a German/Swedish power metal band originally created as a side project by Thomen Stauch before leaving Blind Guardian.-Biography:...
.
In their 1980s concerts, Dire Straits
Dire Straits
Dire Straits were a British rock band active from 1977 to 1995, composed of Mark Knopfler , his younger brother David Knopfler , John Illsley , and Pick Withers .Dire Straits' sound drew from a variety of musical influences, including jazz, folk, blues, and came closest...
played the central theme of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" during an instrumental introduction to their "Tunnel of Love", as Mark Knopfler
Mark Knopfler
Mark Freuder Knopfler, OBE is a Scottish-born British guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer and film score composer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for the British rock band Dire Straits, which he co-founded in 1977...
talked about The Animals' hometown of Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
, in whose Spanish City
The Spanish City
Sting , who was born near Newcastle, wrote in his memoir that he whiled away afternoons and evenings in the Spanish City's amusement arcades when he should have been studying for his A levels....
that song is set. The song has been played in the style of The Animals by Cutting Crew
Cutting Crew
The Cutting Crew is a pop rock band formed in England in 1985, best known for their #1 hit, " Died in Your Arms".-Career:Vocalist Nick Van Eede founded the group along with Canadian guitarist Kevin MacMichael in 1985, and the two made demos that led to a recording contract, before bassist Colin...
on their 2008 tour as a tribute to lead singer Nick Van Eede
Nick Van Eede
Nick Van Eede is an English musician, producer and songwriter. He is best remembered for singing and writing the 1987 U.S...
's first manager, Chas Chandler
Chas Chandler
Bryan James "Chas" Chandler was an English musician, record producer and manager of several successful music acts....
of The Animals.
Twinsburg (OH) High School's show choir "Great Expectations" featured this song in their 2011 competition set.
Rapper Common
Common (rapper)
Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr. , better known by his stage name Common , is an American hip-hop artist and actor....
's "Misunderstood" sampled Nina Simone's original version for his 2007 album Finding Forever. The song was also sampled for the 2008 Lil Wayne
Lil Wayne
Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr. , better known by his stage name Lil Wayne, is an American rapper. At the age of nine, Lil Wayne joined Cash Money Records as the youngest member of the label, and half of the duo, The B.G.'z, with B.G.. In 1997, Lil Wayne joined the group Hot Boys, which also included...
album Tha Carter III
Tha Carter III
Tha Carter III is the sixth studio album by American rapper Lil Wayne, released June 10, 2008 on Cash Money Records. It follows a long string of mixtape releases and guest appearances on other hip hop and R&B artists records, helping to increase his exposure in the mainstream...
, in the song "DontGetIt" and it was performed by Leona Lewis
Leona Lewis
Leona Louise Lewis is a British singer and songwriter. Lewis first came to prominence in 2006 when she won the third series of the British television series The X Factor....
on the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards
2008 MTV Video Music Awards
The 2008 MTV Video Music Awards took place on September 7, 2008 live from Paramount Pictures Studios , honoring the best music videos from the previous year. Nominations for a majority of the categories were announced on the MTV program FNMTV after being selected through viewer online voting at...
during a Lil Wayne performance. It has also been remixed by Granite & Sugarman for Nicola Fasano.
Cat Stevens
Cat Stevens
Yusuf Islam , commonly known by his former stage name Cat Stevens, is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, educator, philanthropist, and prominent convert to Islam....
was pleased as a young musician to be compared to the song's first performer, Nina Simone, by an interviewer from Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
. After converting to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
and changing his name to Yusuf Islam, several incidents where he has felt misunderstood — including a recitation from the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
that he maintains was either a misquote or taken out of context which was alleged to be supportive of the fatwa
Fatwa
A fatwā in the Islamic faith is a juristic ruling concerning Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar. In Sunni Islam any fatwā is non-binding, whereas in Shia Islam it could be considered by an individual as binding, depending on his or her relation to the scholar. The person who issues a fatwā...
against Salman Rushdie, and allegations that he provided funds to terrorist organizations resulted in his deportation from both Israel and the U.S. — sparked his recording of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" with some lyrical alterations, featured on his 2006 album An Other Cup
An Other Cup
An Other Cup is an album by Yusuf Islam . It was released on November 10, 2006 in Germany, November 13 in the UK and in the U.S. and worldwide on November 14. An Other Cup is Islam's first Western pop album since Back to Earth, which was released in 1978 under the name Cat Stevens...
.