"Don't You Lie to Me" is a blues song recorded by Tampa Red

Tampa Red

Tampa Red , born Hudson Woodbridge but known from childhood as Hudson Whittaker, was an American Chicago blues musician....

 in 1940. It became a standard of the blues, with recordings by various artists. The song was also interpreted by rock and roll pioneers Fats Domino

Fats Domino

Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino, Jr. is an American R&B and rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter. He was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Creole was his first language....

 and Chuck Berry

Chuck Berry

Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...

.

Original song

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

Hokum

Hokum is a particular song type of American blues music - a humorous song which uses extended analogies or euphemistic terms to make sexual innuendos...

 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

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

", "Love with a Feeling", and "Anna Lou Blues", the B-side 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

Blind John Davis was an African American, blues, jazz and boogie-woogie pianist and singer. He is best remembered for his recordings including "A Little Every Day" and "Everybody's Boogie".-Biography:...

 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:

There're two kind of people I just can't stand

And that's a lying woman and a sneakin' man

So don't you lie to me, don't you lie to me

Because it makes me mad, and I get evil as a man can be

Other versions

Fats Domino 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 Chuck Berry when he recorded a roll and roll version for his 1961 album New Juke-Box Hits

New Juke-Box Hits

New Juke Box Hits is a Chuck Berry album which was released in 1961 under Chess Records. This was Berry's fifth album under record label Chess Records. The album was recorded and later released while Berry was in the middle of certain legal difficulties that would see him put in jail the following...

. The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...

 recorded Berry's version in 1964, which was not released until their Metamorphosis album in 1975; in 1972 they performed the song in concert.

In 1962, Albert King

Albert King

Albert King was an American blues guitarist and singer, and a major influence in the world of blues guitar playing.-Career:...

 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

The Big Blues is a blues album by Albert King, released in 1962 by King Records. Featuring mostly songs composed by Albert King himself, this was his first album and the only one before he signed with Stax Records, where he would record most albums along his career.The album is a collection of...

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

Crosscut Saw (song)

"Crosscut Saw", or "Cross Cut Saw Blues" as it was first called, is a bawdy blues song "that must have belonged to the general repertoire of the Delta blues". The song was first released in 1941 by Mississippi bluesman Tommy McClennan and has since been interpreted by many blues artists...

". Later, King with Stevie Ray Vaughan

Stevie Ray Vaughan

Stephen Ray "Stevie Ray" Vaughan was an American electric blues guitarist and singer. He was the younger brother of Jimmie Vaughan and frontman for Double Trouble, a band that included bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton. Born in Dallas, Vaughan moved to Austin at the age of 17 and...

 recorded it live for television in 1983, which is included on Albert King with Stevie Ray Vaughan in Session. In 1977, B.B. King recorded the song for his King Size

King Size (B. B. King album)

King Size is a studio album by B. B. King, released in 1977.-Track listing:#"Don't You Lie to Me"#"I Wonder Why"#"I Just Wanna Make Love to You"#"Your Lovin' Turned Me On"#"Slow and Easy"#"Got My Mojo Working"#"Walking in the Sun"#"Mother Fuyer"...

album. Gary Moore

Gary Moore

Robert William Gary Moore , better known simply as Gary Moore, was a Northern Irish musician from Belfast, best recognised as a blues rock guitarist and singer....

 recorded it using both titles "Don't You Lie to Me (I Get Evil)", which follows Albert King's version, for his 1992 After Hours album. The Flamin' Groovies also recorded a version of this song as a single.