"I Don't Know" is a

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

song written by

Brook Benton Benjamin Franklin Peay (September 19, 1931 – April 9, 1988), better known as Brook Benton, was an American singer and songwriter who was popular with rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and pop music audiences during the late 1950s and early 1960 ...

and Bobby Stevenson, and first recorded by

Ruth Brown Ruth Alston Brown (; January 12, 1928 – November 17, 2006) was an American singer-songwriter and actress, sometimes referred to as the " Queen of R&B". She was noted for bringing a pop music style to R&B music in a series of hit songs for Atl ...

in 1959. Ruth Brown's recording, made in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

on March 7, 1959, and issued on

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

45–2035, reached number 5 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

R&B chart The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...

in late 1959, and number 64 on the

pop chart A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide charts, often in combination. These include rec ...

. It was Brown's penultimate chart hit. The musicians on the session were

Jimmy Cleveland James Milton Cleveland (May 3, 1926 – August 23, 2008) was an American jazz trombonist born in Wartrace, Tennessee.

(trombone);

King Curtis Curtis Ousley (born Curtis Montgomery; February 7, 1934 – August 13, 1971), known professionally as King Curtis, was an American saxophonist who played rhythm and blues, jazz, and rock and roll. A bandleader, band member, and session musicia ...

Budd Johnson Albert J. "Budd" Johnson III (December 14, 1910 – October 20, 1984) was an American jazz saxophonist and clarinetist who worked extensively with, among others, Ben Webster, Benny Goodman, Big Joe Turner, Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke ...

(tenor saxes);

Mike Stoller Lyricist Jerome Leiber (April 25, 1933 – August 22, 2011) and composer Michael Stoller (born March 13, 1933) were American songwriting and record producing partners. They found success as the writers of such crossover hit songs as " Hound Dog" ( ...

(piano);

Al Caiola Alexander Emil Caiola (September 7, 1920 – November 9, 2016) was an American guitarist, composer and arranger, who spanned a variety of music genres including jazz, country, rock, and pop. He recorded over fifty albums and worked with some of ...

(guitar);

Abie Baker Abie "Available" Baker Leslie Robert Baker; 28 September 1913, in South Bend, Indiana – 14 February 1993, in Harlem) was an American session musician, arranger, and bandleader who played double bass on jazz, R&B, and pop recordings in New Yor ...

(bass); and

Joe Marshall Joseph Hanley Marshall (February 19, 1876 – September 11, 1931), nicknamed "Home Run Joe",

(drums). Atlantic Records Discography: 1959, ''JazzDisco.org''
Retrieved 5 March 2019 Other recordings of the song have been issued by Lorne Lesley (1959),

Little Milton James Milton Campbell Jr. (September 7, 1934 – August 4, 2005), better known as Little Milton, was an American blues singer and guitarist, best known for his number-one R&B single " We're Gonna Make It". His other hits include "Baby, I Love ...

(1970),

Janiva Magness Janiva Magness (born January 30, 1957) is an American Grammy Award nominated blues, soul music, soul, and Americana (music), Americana singer, songwriter, and author. To date she has released 16 albums. The Blues Foundation named Magness the B.B ...

(2001),

Lucy Woodward Lucy Woodward is an English-American singer-songwriter. She has recorded for Atlantic Records, Atlantic, Verve Records, Verve, and GroundUP Music, GroundUP and has sung background vocals for Rod Stewart, Barbra Streisand, Snarky Puppy, Celine Di ...

(2016), and Holly Golightly (2018), among others. "I Don't Know", ''SecondhandSongs''
Retrieved 5 March 2019

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:I Don't Know 1959 songs American rhythm and blues songs Ruth Brown songs Songs written by Brook Benton