I've been learning the terrific Ray Charles song "You Don't Know Me." This also means thinking about its structural similarity to Patsy Cline's "She's Got You," which I used to do at solo gigs (and honestly I don't know why I stopped).
I'm not alleging any sort of artistic theft, for the record. Both songs came out in 1962, and they're clearly products of the same cultural moment, using a standard compositional approach; these are two examples (of many) that are instructive to compare. Eddy Arnold and City Walker wrote "You Don't Know Me" in 1955, and Ray Charles's version was the sixth or seventh recording. Hank Cochran wrote "She's Got You" in late 1961 and reportedly sang it for Patsy Cline that same day.
There are similarities in the lyrical rhythm, phrasing, and line lengths, but I'm more interested in the interrelationship between the lyrical content and the chords. I-IV-I-V is a common progression, of course, but is there something in it that feels natural for a proposition and betrayal?
Here's what I mean. The verse in each song begins with a statement of fact, over a progression that centers on the I chord (I'm transposing each song to C for ease of comparison):
C Cmaj7 C6 C*
You give your hand to me and you say hello [Charles]
C G7 C C7
I've got your picture that you gave to me [Cline]
It continues by augmenting that fact with a progression on the IV chord:
F Fmaj7 F6 F#dim7
And I can hardly speak, my heart is beating so [Charles]
F
And it's signed with love, just like it used to be [Cline]
Then each song undercuts the first proposition by revealing the real truth on a line that ventures away from the tonic to the dominant, finally landing on the title phrase:
C A7 Dm7 G7
And anyone can tell, you think you know me well / But you don't know me
[In verse 1, this line ends with a jazz progression that takes us back to a fancier G7 chord; later verses go to the C.]
C Am C Am C G7 C
The only thing different, the only thing new / I've got your picture, she's got you [Cline]
Next, the verse structure repeats. Then each song has a bridge that operates on the IV chord and lands on the V7. Then they return to the verse. Both go back to the bridge (making it instrumental or half instrumental in some of Charles's recordings, including the duet with Diana Krall), and then there's a final repeat of verse 3. Most versions of "You Don't Know Me" have a half-step key change for that last verse. The "You Don't Know Me" bridge is twice the length of the one in "She's Got You," but apart from that, the songs are so similar that you can easily sing the "She's Got You" lyrics over a "You Don't Know Me" karaoke track.
So that's the shape. When a form becomes standardized like this, it stops being able to surprise, so other differences (lyrics, arrangement, vocal interpretation, fame, charisma) assume greater importance. I suspect Ray Charles's version is the best known because
1. he's Ray Charles
2. he jazzes up the melody in beautiful ways
3. his arrangement highlights the gorgeous descending line built into the chord voicings
In writing this, I've also learned that his version has slightly different lyrics in the bridge. Eddy Arnold sings the last line as "The chance you might have loved me too." (The saddest verb tense, according to John Greenleaf Whittier.) Charles uses a whole different tense, one that keeps a small bit of hope alive: "The chance that you might love me too." Is this desperate hope—a counter-truth to the counter-truth—part of the success of this version? It's certainly relatable.
*In typing out these lines I have just learned that the Weebly blog editor automatically converts a double space into a period. Google Docs does this too, and it cannot be turned off, and if you type music charts, it is very, very annoying. Between that and AI, tech is really chipping away at the sanity of indie musicians lately.
I'm not alleging any sort of artistic theft, for the record. Both songs came out in 1962, and they're clearly products of the same cultural moment, using a standard compositional approach; these are two examples (of many) that are instructive to compare. Eddy Arnold and City Walker wrote "You Don't Know Me" in 1955, and Ray Charles's version was the sixth or seventh recording. Hank Cochran wrote "She's Got You" in late 1961 and reportedly sang it for Patsy Cline that same day.
There are similarities in the lyrical rhythm, phrasing, and line lengths, but I'm more interested in the interrelationship between the lyrical content and the chords. I-IV-I-V is a common progression, of course, but is there something in it that feels natural for a proposition and betrayal?
Here's what I mean. The verse in each song begins with a statement of fact, over a progression that centers on the I chord (I'm transposing each song to C for ease of comparison):
C Cmaj7 C6 C*
You give your hand to me and you say hello [Charles]
C G7 C C7
I've got your picture that you gave to me [Cline]
It continues by augmenting that fact with a progression on the IV chord:
F Fmaj7 F6 F#dim7
And I can hardly speak, my heart is beating so [Charles]
F
And it's signed with love, just like it used to be [Cline]
Then each song undercuts the first proposition by revealing the real truth on a line that ventures away from the tonic to the dominant, finally landing on the title phrase:
C A7 Dm7 G7
And anyone can tell, you think you know me well / But you don't know me
[In verse 1, this line ends with a jazz progression that takes us back to a fancier G7 chord; later verses go to the C.]
C Am C Am C G7 C
The only thing different, the only thing new / I've got your picture, she's got you [Cline]
Next, the verse structure repeats. Then each song has a bridge that operates on the IV chord and lands on the V7. Then they return to the verse. Both go back to the bridge (making it instrumental or half instrumental in some of Charles's recordings, including the duet with Diana Krall), and then there's a final repeat of verse 3. Most versions of "You Don't Know Me" have a half-step key change for that last verse. The "You Don't Know Me" bridge is twice the length of the one in "She's Got You," but apart from that, the songs are so similar that you can easily sing the "She's Got You" lyrics over a "You Don't Know Me" karaoke track.
So that's the shape. When a form becomes standardized like this, it stops being able to surprise, so other differences (lyrics, arrangement, vocal interpretation, fame, charisma) assume greater importance. I suspect Ray Charles's version is the best known because
1. he's Ray Charles
2. he jazzes up the melody in beautiful ways
3. his arrangement highlights the gorgeous descending line built into the chord voicings
In writing this, I've also learned that his version has slightly different lyrics in the bridge. Eddy Arnold sings the last line as "The chance you might have loved me too." (The saddest verb tense, according to John Greenleaf Whittier.) Charles uses a whole different tense, one that keeps a small bit of hope alive: "The chance that you might love me too." Is this desperate hope—a counter-truth to the counter-truth—part of the success of this version? It's certainly relatable.
*In typing out these lines I have just learned that the Weebly blog editor automatically converts a double space into a period. Google Docs does this too, and it cannot be turned off, and if you type music charts, it is very, very annoying. Between that and AI, tech is really chipping away at the sanity of indie musicians lately.
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