Wow. What a great find. I never knew Nina Simone wrote this. I like both versions. Simone’s is much more “mature” — I mean that in a good way. An adult perspective on how life works. In the Animals version, Eric Burdon sounds like he’s emitting an adolescent wail. Both are, I think, equally valid.
Wow. What a great find. I never knew Nina Simone wrote this. I like both versions. Simone’s is much more “mature” — I mean that in a good way. An adult perspective on how life works. In the Animals version, Eric Burdon sounds like he’s emitting an adolescent wail. Both are, I think, equally valid.
Apologies for not being clear, John: Bennie Benjamin, Horace Ott, and Sol Marcus wrote the song specifically for Nina Simone.
I agree with you that both takes are good.
Interesting! I’d only ever heard the Nina Simone version. I gave The Animals version a listen and I definitely prefer Simone’s version.
The song actually predates both the Animals and Simone, going back to the 1930s.
Do you have a source for that, David? I used Wiki's information: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Don%27t_Let_Me_Be_Misunderstood&oldid=1208861545
I stand corrected- it was written in 1964 and Simone was the first artist to record it.