Mercy, Mercy (song)
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"Mercy, Mercy" (sometimes referred to as "Have Mercy") is a soul song first recorded by American singer/songwriter
Don Covay Donald James Randolph (March 24, 1936 – January 31, 2015), better known by the stage name Don Covay, was an American R&B, rock and roll, and soul singer-songwriter most active from the 1950s to the 1970s. His most successful recordings incl ...
in 1964. It established Covay's recording career and influenced later vocal and guitar styles. The songwriting is usually credited to Covay and Ron Alonzo Miller, although other co-writers' names have also appeared on various releases. In late 1964, the song became a hit, reaching number one on the ''
Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...
'' R&B chart and number 35 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Several other artists have recorded "Mercy, Mercy", including a well-known version by the Rolling Stones for their 1965 album '' Out of Our Heads''. More recently, Covay's original version has received attention as one of
Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...
's first recordings as a sideman.


Recording and composition

In 1964, after years of writing and recording songs for several record labels, Don Covay was again in search of a record deal. A recording session was arranged for May 13, 1964, at the A1 Recording Studio in New York City, operated by
Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...
co-founder
Herb Abramson Herbert C. Abramson (November 16, 1916 – November 9, 1999) was an American record executive, record producer, and co-founder of Atlantic Records. Life and career Abramson was born in 1916 to a Jewish family in Brooklyn. He studied to be a den ...
. New York radio station
WWRL WWRL (1600 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to New York City. WWRL airs an all-news radio format as an affiliate of the Black Information Network (BIN). The station is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. By day, WWRL broadcasts at 25,000 wat ...
disc jockey Nathaniel "Magnificent" Montague provided financing for the session. Covay has given differing accounts about the recording. In one, "Mercy, Mercy" was recorded the day following a well-received performance by Covay and his band the Goodtimers the previous night. For the session, various members of the Goodtimers have been mentioned, including guitarist Ronald Alonzo Miller (also suggested as the bassist), backup singer George "King" Clemons, bassist Horace "Ace" Hall, drummer
Bernard Purdie Bernard Lee "Pretty" Purdie (born June 11, 1939) is an American drummer, and an influential R&B, soul and funk musician. He is known for his precise musical time keeping and his signature use of triplets against a half-time backbeat: the "Purdie ...
, guitarist Bob Bushnell, guitarist Jimmy Johnson, and a young Jimi Hendrix. Music critic Richie Unterberger describes "Mercy, Mercy" as a "soul tune with a gospel overlay in the pleading tone of the lyrics". It opens with the refrain, sung by Covay with a higher-register harmony: Covay's vocal is described as "impassioned" and "assured". Music historian Peter Guralnick notes that the guitar part "established a new guitar dominated soul sound". It plays a prominent role, beginning with the chorded lead-in, which music writer Keith Shadwick describes as "rhythmic patterns that are tasteful modifications of the motifs favored by Curtis Mayfield and Jimmy Johnsonand there have been suggestions that it is Johnson himself on the record". Covay recalled that the song was recorded in one or two takes and additional single-note fills at the fade-out suggest a second guitarist or an overdub.


Releases and charts

Rosemart Records released "Mercy, Mercy", with the artist name "Don Covay and the Goodtimers", as a single by in August 1964. Producer Abramson's former label Atlantic picked up the distribution and it entered the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 on September 5, 1964. The single reached number 35 during a stay of ten weeks on the chart. It was also a best seller in the R&B market, reaching number one on the ''Cash Box'' R&B chart (''Billboard's'' R&B chart was suspended at the time). An original pressing of the Rosemart single lists the composers as "Covay-Miller". The performing rights organization BMI shows the writers as "Donald Covay" and "Ronald Alonzo Miller". However, different releases list "Covay-Ott", including Covay's ''Mercy!'' album (Atlantic SD–8104) and the Atlantic UK single (AT.4006) (Horace Ott played keyboards on and is credited with several songs on ''Mercy!''). Additionally, Miller is sometimes identified as " Ronald Norman Miller", a
Motown Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''moto ...
composer, and "Ronald Dean Miller", a later R&B songwriter. BMI does not list "Mercy, Mercy" among Ott's or the other Miller's songwriting credits.


Hendrix involvement

Beginning in 2002, it has become generally accepted that
Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...
contributed a guitar part to "Mercy, Mercy". According to backup singer Clemons: Covay has sometimes identified Hendrix as a participant and at other times does not mention him. According to Hendrix biographer Steven Roby, Hendrix "arrived at A1 Studio ndwas asked to play a simple Curtis Mayfield-like R&B riff and not overstep his boundaries at the song's dramatic pause". However, Shadwick feels the song's guitarist "certainly enjoys a prominent roleand perhaps this does suggest a regular band-member performing a well-learned routine rather than a last minute substitution". Music writer David Malvinni describes Hendrix's performance: "Hendrix deftly combines chords with a melodic line in a style that later will come to full development in his classic '
Little Wing "Little Wing" is a song written by Jimi Hendrix and recorded by the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1967. It is a slower tempo, rhythm and blues-inspired ballad featuring Hendrix's vocal and guitar with recording studio effects accompanied by bass, d ...
'". According to Clemons, Hendrix performed "Mercy, Mercy" at several small clubs before Covay's single was released. Booker T. & the M.G.'s guitarist
Steve Cropper Steven Lee Cropper (born October 21, 1941), sometimes known as "The Colonel", is an American guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He is the guitarist of the Stax Records house band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, which backed artists such as Ot ...
recalled meeting Hendrix at the Stax Records studio in Memphis in 1964, when Hendrix mentioned that he had played on Covay's "Mercy, Mercy": Cropper's recollection is supported by a 1968 '' Rolling Stone'' interview with Hendrix: "He
ropper Allan H. Ropper is an American neurologist and professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachus ...
showed me how to play lots of things and I showed him how I played 'Have Mercy' or something like that". Cropper later recorded an instrumental version of the song with Booker T. & the M.G.'s for their 1965 ''
Soul Dressing ''Soul Dressing'' is the second album by the Southern soul band Booker T. & the M.G.'s, released in 1965. It was their final album with bassist Lewie Steinberg, who was replaced by Donald "Duck" Dunn. The title track peaked at No. 95 on the ''B ...
'' album. Hendrix performed "Mercy, Mercy" with Curtis Knight and the Squires in 1965. A live version with Knight on vocals, was recorded at George's Club 20 in Hackensack, New Jersey; it later appeared on the German bootleg album ''Mr. Pitiful'' (Astan 201019), released about 1981 with Curtis Knight manager
Ed Chalpin Ed Chalpin (January 16, 1935 in NYC – October 1, 2019 in Boca Raton, FL) was a record executive and producer. He is probably remembered for his association with Curtis Knight and the Squires which caused problems for Jimi Hendrix throughout his ...
listed as the producer. Hendrix also performed the song in 1966 with his band Jimmy James and the Blue Flames at the Cafe Wha? in Greenwich Village. In England later that year, Noel Redding recalled that it was one of the first songs that he played at his audition for the Jimi Hendrix Experience; it was also the first song performed during Mitch Mitchell's audition (Redding had initially auditioned with drummer
Aynsley Dunbar Aynsley Thomas Dunbar (born 10 January 1946) is an English drummer. He has worked with John Mayall, Frank Zappa, Jeff Beck, Journey, Jefferson Starship, Nils Lofgren, Eric Burdon, Shuggie Otis, Ian Hunter, Lou Reed, David Bowie, Mick R ...
). During the Experience's first performances during a short tour of France in October 1966 and before they worked up some original material, they played the song along with a few other R&B cover songs during their 15-minute opening sets. A performance by the Experience at
the Flamingo Club The Flamingo Club was a jazz nightclub in Soho, London, between 1952 and 1969. It was located at 33–37 Wardour Street from 1957 onwards and played an important role in the development of British rhythm and blues and modern jazz. During the 1 ...
in London on February 4, 1967, was recorded and has been issued on several bootleg albums. Hendrix announces the song as "very straight Top-40 R&B rock 'n' roll record ... a little thing called 'Have Mercy' ... 'Have Mercy on Me, Baby'". The three and a half minute song features more elaborate and driving guitar work, although remains focused on chording.


Rolling Stones version

The Rolling Stones recorded their interpretation of "Mercy, Mercy" during their early American recording sessions, when they were beginning to emerge from their blues- and R&B-cover band roots. Their first attempt came during their second session at the
Chess Records Chess Records was an American record company established in 1950 in Chicago, specializing in blues and rhythm and blues. It was the successor to Aristocrat Records, founded in 1947. It expanded into soul music, gospel music, early rock and roll ...
studio in Chicago in November 1964. This version, which Malvinni calls "workmanlike", remains unreleased. On their third Chess visit, they recorded the final version of the song. The session took place on May 10, 1965, with engineer
Ron Malo Ronald Clements Malo (August 29, 1935 in Illinois – August 15, 1992 in Burbank, California) was an American engineer for Chicago's Chess Studios from 1959 until 1970. He was the engineer for the first sessions the Rolling Stones did in the US, i ...
. The Stones generally follow Covay's arrangement, but Unterberger notes the guitar work: " heyreally upped the guitar wattage, as heard in the memorable opening section of interwoven guitars and, more particularly, in the booming low fuzz guitar riffs that underpin the verses". Malvinni comments on the song's development since the first attempt: Mick Jagger's vocal for the song has been compared to Covay's. AllMusic critic Steve Huey notes " eclearly modeled his vocal on Covay's original, which apparently had a lasting impact on the way Jagger subsequently used his voice". Guralnick calls Covay's style a "formative influence" on Jagger, who was "gaining confidence as a soul-rock vocalist". The Stones' rendition of the song was not released as a single; however, it was used as the lead track on the American version of the band's '' Out of Our Heads'' album. Released on July 30, 1965, it became their first number one album in the US. The album, released in the UK on September 24, 1965, reached number two in the UK and includes the song as the second track. The group was filmed performing the song during their first appearance with Mick Taylor in Hyde Park on July 5, 1969, which was later included on the 2006 ''
Stones in the Park In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks form the Earth's ...
'' expanded DVD.


Notes

Footnotes Citations References * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{authority control 1964 singles Songs written by Don Covay Don Covay songs Jimi Hendrix songs The Rolling Stones songs 1964 songs