Don't Make Me Over (song)
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"Don't Make Me Over" is a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. It is best known to North American audiences in the original recorded version, a 1962 soul single recorded by American singer Dionne Warwick. UK audiences know it better as a 1966 hit single by Merseybeat group The Swinging Blue Jeans.
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[edit] Dionne Warwick version
The original recorded version of the song was Dionne's Warwick's first collaborative effort with Bacharach and David. Warwick, whose real name is Marie Dionne Warrick, first met the famed team while singing background for The Drifters recording a Bacharach song entitled "Mexican Divorce". She then began being produced under the duo for songs like "Make It Easy On Yourself".
As legend has it, Warwick originally thought that "Make It Easy On Yourself" would be her debut as a lead singer, and was angry when she learned Bacharach and David were giving the song to Jerry Butler. An upset Warwick balked, "don't make me over, man", which was a street slang for "don't lie to me". The duo decided to make the slang into a song for Warwick and she recorded it in New York.
Released in November 1962, the recording of "Don't Make Me Over" was issued with a misspelling of the artist's name: Warwick, rather than a Warrick. The singer decided to keep the misspelling and would be forever after known as Dionne Warwick. The song became Warwick's first hit single reaching #21 on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart and #5 on the hot R&B singles chart in January 1963 becoming the first of over 50 singles Warwick scored between 1962 and 1998.
Warwick's original version of this track was inducted to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000. That year, she recorded and released a revamped and updated version of the song on her album Dionne Sings Dionne II, roughly thirty-eight years after recording the original version.
[edit] Swinging Blue Jeans version
Warwick's version of "Don't Make Me Over" did not chart in the UK. The Swinging Blue Jeans, a mid-1960s beat group best remembered for the singles "Hippy Hippy Shake" and "You're No Good" covered the song in early 1966, and took it to #31 UK. It was the band's final chart hit.
[edit] Sybil version
In 1989, "Don't Make Me Over" entered the charts again under a new jack swing remake by singer Sybil, reaching #20 pop and #3 R&B. In the UK, it reached #19 pop and #2 dance. Sybil would go on to do another remake of a Bacharach/David composition originally recorded by Dionne Warwick: "Walk On By".
[edit] Bob version
A polymorphous band from Montréal, Bob did a cover of the song.
