Dishonesty and Lies: Don't Play That Song For Me

Ben E. King: Don't Play That Song

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Here’s another original, one which I have not featured in my long-running series over at my place. More famously covered by Aretha Franklin eight years after Ben E. King’s 1962 original, the song states this week’s theme unequivocally: “You know that you lied, you lied, you lied, lied, lied, lied.”

Don’t Play That Song was written by Atlantic supremo Ahmet Ertegün with Betty Nelson. Before Ben E. King, former singer of The Drifters, recorded the song, legendary RCA producer S. Elmo Blum had come across a demo recording of it. Recognising the song’s hit potential, he urged his record company to buy the rights for Elvis Presley, who according to some reports even demoed it. One can almost hear Elvis singing it; alas the many esoteric Elvis studio cuttings have revealed no recording of Don’t Play That Song, so we should take that rumour with a pinch of salt.

In the event, Ertegün wisely decided that one of his artists should record the song, using a riff that is more than just a bit similar to that of King’s big hit the previous year, Stand By Me. It reached #11 in the US charts.

Me Last: Stand By Me

Ben E. King: Stand By Me

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This is a great song, and a touching one that also manages to keep a good beat and be fun to sing along with. All winning elements that helped it get into the top 10 charts, not once, but twice, decades apart.

The song was released in 1961 and hit #1 on the charts, but then in 1986 a movie by the same title was released and renewed interest in the song getting back into the top 10 once again. Admittedly, that's when the song made an impression on me. Of course, I was only 7 years old at the time, and wasn't allowed to see the movie when it came out, but the song was on the radio, and I loved it.

Despite the song being pretty much the theme song for the movie (though it doesn't appear until the credits at the end), it was released in 1961 and the movie takes place in 1959.