"Don't You Lie to Me" (sometimes called "I Get Evil") is a song recorded by

Tampa Red Hudson Whittaker (born Hudson Woodbridge; January 8, 1903March 19, 1981), known as Tampa Red, was an American Chicago blues musician. His distinctive single-string slide guitar style, songwriting and bottleneck technique influenced other Chicago ...

in 1940. It became popular with blues artists, leading it to become a

blues standard Blues standards are blues songs that have attained a high level of recognition due to having been widely performed and recorded. They represent the best known and most interpreted blues songs that are seen as standing the test of time. Blues s ...

. The song was also interpreted by rock and roll pioneers

Fats Domino Antoine Caliste Domino Jr. (February 26, 1928 – October 24, 2017), known as Fats Domino, was an American singer-songwriter and pianist. One of the pioneers of rock and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records. Born in New Orl ...

and

Chuck Berry Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, guitarist and songwriter who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and de ...

Original song

"Don't You Lie to Me" was recorded by Tampa Red approximately midpoint in his prolific recording career, representing the transition from his earlier

hokum Hokum is a particular song type of American blues music—a song which uses extended analogies or euphemistic terms to make humorous, sexual innuendos. This trope goes back to early dirty blues recordings, enjoyed huge commercial success in ...

recordings to his later early Chicago-blues combo style. This was the same period when he began playing the electric guitar and recorded his best-known blues classics, including "

It Hurts Me Too "It Hurts Me Too" is a blues standard, regarded as one of the most interpreted songs in the genre. First recorded in 1940 by Tampa Red, the song is a mid-tempo eight-bar blues that features slide guitar. It borrows from earlier blues songs a ...

", " Love with a Feeling", and "Anna Lou Blues", the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

of "Don't You Lie to Me". The song is a mid-tempo twelve-bar blues that features Tampa Red playing jazz-inflected single-note guitar fills behind his vocals.

Blind John Davis Blind John Davis (December 7, 1913 – October 12, 1985) was an American blues and boogie-woogie pianist and singer. He is best remembered for his recordings, including "A Little Every Day" and "Everybody's Boogie". Biography Davis was born in ...

provided the piano accompaniment with an unidentified bass player and, as a throwback to his earlier days, Red added a twelve-bar kazoo solo. Although many later versions are credited to other artists, they usually use some, if not most, of Tampa Red's lyrics:

Recordings by other artists

recorded "Don't You Lie to Me" early in his career in 1951 (Imperial 5123). He used most of Tampa Red's lyrics and, although there is a full backing band, his trademark piano accompaniment dominates the recording. Domino received sole credit for the song, as did

when he recorded a rock and roll version for his 1961 album '' New Juke-Box Hits''. In 1962,

Albert King Albert King ( Nelson; April 25, 1923 – December 21, 1992), was an American guitarist and singer who is often regarded as one of the greatest and most influential blues guitarists of all time. He is perhaps best known for his popular and ...

recorded "Don't You Lie to Me" as "I Get Evil" (Bobbin 135), which was included on his first album ''

The Big Blues ''The Big Blues'' is a compilation album by Albert King, released by King Records in 1963. It is his first album and the only one before he signed with Stax Records, where he would record most albums during his career. The album was later reissue ...

''. King's version uses an Afro-Cuban style rhythm, which he would later use for his 1967 hit "

Crosscut Saw A crosscut saw (thwart saw) is any saw designed for cutting wood perpendicular to (across) the wood grain. Crosscut saws may be small or large, with small teeth close together for fine work like woodworking or large for coarse work like log b ...

". Later, King with

Stevie Ray Vaughan Stephen Ray Vaughan (also known as SRV; October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990) was an American musician, best known as the guitarist and frontman of the blues rock trio Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble (band), Double Trouble. Although his ma ...

recorded it live for television in 1983, which is included on '' Albert King with Stevie Ray Vaughan in Session''. In 1977,

B.B. King Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, sh ...

recorded the song for the opening track on his '' King Size'' album. An

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

album review noted its "nice, rolling groove that King rides real easy". In 1992,

Gary Moore Robert William Gary Moore (4 April 19526 February 2011) was a Northern Irish musician. Over the course of his career, he played in various groups and performed a range of music including blues, blues rock, hard rock, Heavy metal music, heavy ...

recorded the song for his ''After Hours'' album.

Supertramp Supertramp were a British rock band formed in London in 1970. Marked by the individual songwriting of founders Roger Hodgson (vocals, keyboards and guitars) and Rick Davies (vocals and keyboards), the group were distinguished for blending p ...

have released two versions of Don't You Lie To Me, on two of their live albums, Live 88 in 1988 and

It Was The Best Of Times ''It Was the Best of Times'' is the third live album by the English rock band Supertramp, released in April 1999. The album title makes use of the opening line from ''A Tale of Two Cities'' by Charles Dickens. Overview ''It Was the Best of Tim ...

in 1997. It is a staple of band leader

Rick Davies Richard Davies (born 22 July 1944) is an English musician, singer and songwriter best known as founder, vocalist and keyboardist of the rock band Supertramp. Davies was its only constant member, and composed some of the band's best-known songs ...

' current band, Ricky And The Rockets' set list, as of 2022.

Notes

{{authority control 1940 songs Tampa Red songs 1951 singles Fats Domino songs Chuck Berry songs Albert King songs Pretty Things songs Blues songs