Different version of Don't Let me be Misunderstood

This afternoon I had some time to kill before an appointment and I stopped at a Dunkin Donuts next door. I don't know what they use for a music provider, but I heard a different version of "Don't Let me be Misunderstood." It wasn't the version by The Animals. And it wasn't the version by Eric Burdon. (My late father had a CD called Eric Burdon sings The Animals Greatest Hits).

In 1978, there was a version released by Santa Esmerelda.

MarcB said:

This afternoon I had some time to kill before an appointment and I stopped at a Dunkin Donuts next door. I don't know what they use for a music provider, but I heard a different version of "Don't Let me be Misunderstood." It wasn't the version by The Animals. And it wasn't the version by Eric Burdon. (My late father had a CD called Eric Burdon sings The Animals Greatest Hits).

Click to expand...

Youtube might be your friend: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=don't+let+me+be+misunderstood (but not all versions of songs are found there...Good luck!)

I was about 14 when the Santa Esmeralda version became a hit, so that is actually the one that I consider the definitive version, but of course, I don't hear it much anymore.

The original was done by jazz singer Nina Simone. It's among the listing linked in post #3, or you can hear it directly here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpYGJWk7Wrw

Her producer Horace Ott was one of the writers, although he's not credited. Her version is slower than the Animal's hit, but you can hear the elements in Simone's version.

I don't know how it got to The Animals, although their version came out later the same year as Simone's in 1964. Perhaps an ambitious publisher. Perhaps their producer Mickey Most was a Simone fan. I'd like to think the latter. Mickey was a great British record producer who was obviously in love with American jazz.