Games People Play (1969 song)
Encyclopedia
"Games People Play" is a song written, composed and performed by singer/songwriter Joe South
, released at the end of 1968.
's work on transactional analysis of the same name
. The book, which was released in 1964, deals with the "games" human beings play in interacting with one another. The lyrics seem to exhibit their author (South) playing a game of sorts with pronouns, converging in stages on the listener ("you") as perpetrator, roughly from "they" to "we", to "you" (object) and "me", to "you" (subject) and "I".
The song closely resembles an older song, the traditional Cajun
"'Tit Galop Pour Mamou
", which was played by the Balfa Brothers among others, and is on the Balfas' Play Traditional Cajun Music. After South's hit got around, Nathan Abshire
(accordionist with the Balfas and others), recorded a version in French
, with singing by Don Guillory, on his album A Cajun Legend. A new Cajun version, introduced by a partial recounting of the genealogy of the versions, is at http://npmusic.org/artists.html under the heading Robert Jardell.
Typical of a number of hits in early 1969, the recording includes a lush string sound, an organ, and brass.
speak against various forms of hate, hypocrisy, inhumanity, and intolerance, both interpersonal and social. The song was released on South's debut album Introspect and as a single, reaching #12 on the Hot 100. It was also featured as the title of his second album, Games People Play in 1969. It won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Song
and the Grammy Award for Song of the Year
. The distinctive guitar at the opening is played on a Danelectro
Guitar Sitar, which South also can be heard playing in the opening bars of the mega-hit Chain of Fools
by Aretha Franklin
. Concurrent with South's version of the song on the pop charts, Freddy Weller
, guitarist for Paul Revere and the Raiders, released a country version of the song in 1969 as his debut single on the country charts and reached #2 with it.
, Winston Francis
, Freddy Weller
, Della Reese
, Petula Clark
, Waylon Jennings
, Jerry Lee Lewis
, Earl Grant
, Tesla
, Mel Torme
(a Capitol single, this record made the Record World Non-Rock chart), King Curtis
(featuring Duane Allman
), The Georgia Satellites, Big Tom and The Mainliners
, Dolly Parton
(on her 1969 album My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy
), The Tremeloes
, Johnny Johnson & the Bandwagon, Ike and Tina Turner, Dreadzone
, Ed Ames
(on the album "Love of the Common People"), Hank Williams Jr., YOYO
, Inner Circle, DJ Bobo
, John Denver
(in concert only), Norwegian singer Henning Kvitnes, Liverpool Express
, Inner Circle, Jools Holland
(with guest vocalist Marc Almond
), Dick Gaughan
, James Taylor
, Johnnie Taylor
and David Knopfler
.
It was also mentioned in the Brian Wilson
song "Games Two Can Play" from his unreleased album Adult Child.
The song was also covered in two different French versions, by Claude François
(as "Jeux Dangereux") and Renée Martel (as "Nos Jeux d'Enfants").
In Singapore
circa 1969, an instrumental version showed-up on a single by The White Crane Orchestra.
Joe South
Joe South is a multi-talented American singer-songwriter and guitarist.-Career:...
, released at the end of 1968.
Origins & inspirations
The lyrics and title are thought to be a direct reference to Dr. Eric BerneEric Berne
Eric Berne was a Canadian-born psychiatrist best known as the creator of transactional analysis and the author of Games People Play.-Background and education:...
's work on transactional analysis of the same name
Games People Play (book)
Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships is a 1964 bestselling book by psychiatrist Eric Berne. Since its publication it has sold more than five million copies. The book describes both functional and dysfunctional social interactions....
. The book, which was released in 1964, deals with the "games" human beings play in interacting with one another. The lyrics seem to exhibit their author (South) playing a game of sorts with pronouns, converging in stages on the listener ("you") as perpetrator, roughly from "they" to "we", to "you" (object) and "me", to "you" (subject) and "I".
The song closely resembles an older song, the traditional Cajun
Cajun
Cajuns are an ethnic group mainly living in the U.S. state of Louisiana, consisting of the descendants of Acadian exiles...
"'Tit Galop Pour Mamou
Tit Galop Pour Mamou
Tit Galop Pour Mamou is a Cajun folk song with words and music by Dewey Balfa. The tune behind Joe South's "Games People Play" resembles the tune of "Tit Galop Pour Mamou" to some extent....
", which was played by the Balfa Brothers among others, and is on the Balfas' Play Traditional Cajun Music. After South's hit got around, Nathan Abshire
Nathan Abshire
Nathan Abshire was an American Cajun accordion player who, along with Iry LeJeune, was responsible for the renaissance of the accordion in Cajun music in the 1940s....
(accordionist with the Balfas and others), recorded a version in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, with singing by Don Guillory, on his album A Cajun Legend. A new Cajun version, introduced by a partial recounting of the genealogy of the versions, is at http://npmusic.org/artists.html under the heading Robert Jardell.
Typical of a number of hits in early 1969, the recording includes a lush string sound, an organ, and brass.
History
"Games People Play" is a protest song whose lyricsLyrics
Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
speak against various forms of hate, hypocrisy, inhumanity, and intolerance, both interpersonal and social. The song was released on South's debut album Introspect and as a single, reaching #12 on the Hot 100. It was also featured as the title of his second album, Games People Play in 1969. It won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Song
Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Song
The Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Song was awarded between 1960 and 1971. The award had several minor name changes:*In 1960 the award was known as Best Performance by a "Top 40" Artist...
and the Grammy Award for Song of the Year
Grammy Award for Song of the Year
The Song of the Year is one of the four most prestigious awards in the Grammy Awards ceremony, if not in all of the American music industry. It has been awarded since 1959 and unlike the Record of the Year award, which goes to the performer and production team of a single song, Song of the Year...
. The distinctive guitar at the opening is played on a Danelectro
Danelectro
Danelectro is an American manufacturer of musical instruments and accessories, specializing in rock instruments such as guitars, bass guitars, amplifiers and effects units.-History:...
Guitar Sitar, which South also can be heard playing in the opening bars of the mega-hit Chain of Fools
Chain of Fools
Chain of Fools is a 2000 heist comedy/romance film about a hapless barber named Kresk .-Plot:...
by Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
. Concurrent with South's version of the song on the pop charts, Freddy Weller
Freddy Weller
Freddy Weller is a United States country music singer-songwriter from Atlanta, Georgia. His recording career started in 1969, while he was playing guitar in the band Paul Revere & The Raiders....
, guitarist for Paul Revere and the Raiders, released a country version of the song in 1969 as his debut single on the country charts and reached #2 with it.
Cover versions
The song has been covered by various artists, including Bob AndyBob Andy
Bob Andy is a Jamaican reggae vocalist and songwriter. He is widely regarded as one of reggae's most influential songwriters.-Career:...
, Winston Francis
Winston Francis
Winston Francis aka King Cool is a Jamaican singer whose career began in the 1960s.-Biography:Born in Kingston in 1948, Francis served an apprentice as a printer before relocating to Miami at the age of 16. He attended music school, and his teacher Chuck Bird arranged for him to perform with the...
, Freddy Weller
Freddy Weller
Freddy Weller is a United States country music singer-songwriter from Atlanta, Georgia. His recording career started in 1969, while he was playing guitar in the band Paul Revere & The Raiders....
, Della Reese
Della Reese
Delloreese Patricia Early, known professionally as Della Reese , is an American actress, singer, game show panelist of the 1970s, one-time talk-show hostess and ordained minister. She started her career in the 1950s as a gospel, pop and jazz singer, scoring a hit with her 1959 single "Don't You...
, Petula Clark
Petula Clark
Petula Clark, CBE is an English singer, actress, and composer whose career has spanned seven decades.Clark's professional career began as an entertainer on BBC Radio during World War II...
, Waylon Jennings
Waylon Jennings
Waylon Arnold Jennings was an American country music singer, songwriter, and musician. Jennings began playing at eight. He began performing at twelve, on KVOW radio. Jennings formed a band The Texas Longhorns. Jennings worked as a D.J on KVOW, KDAV and KLLL...
, Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis is an American rock and roll and country music singer-songwriter and pianist. An early pioneer of rock and roll music, Lewis's career faltered after he married his young cousin, and he afterwards made a career extension to country and western music. He is known by the nickname 'The...
, Earl Grant
Earl Grant
Earl Grant was an American easy listening pianist, Hammond organist, and vocalist popular in the 1950s and 1960s.-Career:...
, Tesla
Tesla (band)
Tesla is an American hard rock band formed in Sacramento, California in 1984. They have sold 14 million albums in the United States.-Formation and Mechanical Resonance :...
, Mel Torme
Mel Tormé
Melvin Howard Tormé , nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books...
(a Capitol single, this record made the Record World Non-Rock chart), King Curtis
King Curtis
Curtis Ousley , who performed under the stage name King Curtis, was an American saxophone virtuoso known for rhythm and blues, rock and roll, soul, funk and soul jazz. Variously a bandleader, band member, and session musician, he was also a musical director and record producer...
(featuring Duane Allman
Duane Allman
Howard Duane Allman was an American guitarist, session musician and the primary co-founder of the southern rock group The Allman Brothers Band...
), The Georgia Satellites, Big Tom and The Mainliners
Big Tom and The Mainliners
Big Tom and The Mainliners are a Country and Irish Showband from the Castleblayney area of County Monaghan, Ireland.-1966-1975:Originally named as "The Mighty Mainliners Showband", the band achieved fame after appearing on RTÉ Television's Showband Show broadcast on 21 May 1966 performing Gentle...
, Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton
Dolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...
(on her 1969 album My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy
My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy
My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy is Dolly Parton's fourth solo studio album, originally released in September 1969.-Album information:The album contains some of Parton's most morose compositions...
), The Tremeloes
The Tremeloes
The Tremeloes are an English beat group founded in 1958 in Dagenham, Essex, and still active today.-Career:They formed as Brian Poole and the Tremoloes influenced by Buddy Holly and The Crickets...
, Johnny Johnson & the Bandwagon, Ike and Tina Turner, Dreadzone
Dreadzone
Dreadzone are a British band whose music is an eclectic fusion of dub, reggae, techno, folk and rock. They have so far produced six studio albums and two live albums.-Career:...
, Ed Ames
Ed Ames
Ed Ames is an American popular singer and actor. He is best known for his pop and adult contemporary hits of the 1960s like "When the Snow is on the Roses" and the perennial "My Cup Runneth Over." He was part of a popular 1950s singing group called The Ames Brothers.-Early life:Born in Malden,...
(on the album "Love of the Common People"), Hank Williams Jr., YOYO
Andrew Edge
Andrew Edge is a musician from Leeds, England who has played pop music, dance, synth pop and ballads. After playing in local Leeds jazz-rock bands and Working Men's Club bands, he moved to London in the late 1970s, and joined the Thompson Twins...
, Inner Circle, DJ Bobo
DJ Bobo
Peter René Cipiriano Baumann , better known as DJ BoBo, is a Swiss singer, songwriter, dancer and music producer. He has sold 14 million records worldwide and has released 10 studio albums as well as a few compilation albums which have included his previous hits in a reworked format...
, John Denver
John Denver
Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr. , known professionally as John Denver, was an American singer/songwriter, activist, and humanitarian. After growing up in numerous locations with his military family, Denver began his music career in folk music groups in the late 1960s. His greatest commercial success...
(in concert only), Norwegian singer Henning Kvitnes, Liverpool Express
Liverpool Express
Liverpool Express was a 1970s British rock band. They are best known for songs such as "You Are My Love" and "Every Man Must Have A Dream", and charting several hits...
, Inner Circle, Jools Holland
Jools Holland
Julian Miles "Jools" Holland OBE, DL is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, composer, and television presenter. He was a founder of the band Squeeze and his work has involved him with many artists including Sting, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, The Who, David Gilmour and Bono.Holland is a...
(with guest vocalist Marc Almond
Marc Almond
Marc Almond is an English singer-songwriter and musician, who originally found fame as half of the seminal synthpop/New Wave duo Soft Cell...
), Dick Gaughan
Dick Gaughan
Richard Peter Gaughan usually known as Dick Gaughan is a Scottish musician, singer, and songwriter, particularly of folk and social protest songs.-Early years:...
, James Taylor
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....
, Johnnie Taylor
Johnnie Taylor
Johnnie Harrison Taylor was an American vocalist in a wide variety of genres, from rhythm and blues, soul, blues and gospel to pop, doo-wop and disco.-Early years:...
and David Knopfler
David Knopfler
David Knopfler is a British singer-songwriter, rhythm guitarist, pianist and cofounder of the critically acclaimed rock band Dire Straits....
.
It was also mentioned in the Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...
song "Games Two Can Play" from his unreleased album Adult Child.
The song was also covered in two different French versions, by Claude François
Claude François
Claude François was a French pop singer, songwriter and dancer. He wrote "Comme d'habitude," the original version of "My Way."-Early life:...
(as "Jeux Dangereux") and Renée Martel (as "Nos Jeux d'Enfants").
In Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
circa 1969, an instrumental version showed-up on a single by The White Crane Orchestra.