B-side "Pick It Up" Format 7" single Label Elektra | Released March 1975 (1975) Length 3:29 | |
Writer(s) Jerry Butler, Curtis Mayfield, Calvin Carter | ||
"He Don't Love You (Like I Love You)" is a 1975 No. 1 song in the United States sung by Tony Orlando and Dawn. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart on May 3, 1975, and remained there for three weeks. The song also went to No. 1 on the US adult contemporary chart for one week in 1975. It was later certified Gold by the RIAA.
Contents
Origins
The original title of the song was "He Will Break Your Heart". It was written by Jerry Butler, Calvin Carter, and Curtis Mayfield. The song was recorded by Butler and released as a single in 1960, where it peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In addition, Butler's recording spent seven non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the U.S. R&B chart. Subsequent cover versions of "He Will Break Your Heart" were released by artists such as The Righteous Brothers and Freddie Scott.
In the Jerry Butler version, before he connects the second verse into the third verse, he says "BUT WAIT."
Tony Orlando and Dawn version
When Orlando and the other members of Dawn (Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson) were waiting in the lobby to go on at a Golden Globes award ceremony, Orlando spoke with Faye Dunaway and her then-husband, Peter Wolf, lead singer for The J. Geils Band. To pass the time, the two began singing various R&B songs from the `60s, including Butler's "He Will Break Your Heart", which the couple recommended that the group record on an upcoming album. Orlando contacted Mayfield requesting permission to do a remake, but to change the song's title to the opening lines, and Mayfield gave his permission. Billboard ranked it as the No. 18 song for 1975.
Another track from the same 1975 album was adapted from an Italian hit by Giorgio Gaber from two years prior entitled Far Finta di Essere Sani recorded in English as Tomorrow's Got to be Sunny. Even though the song did not chart, it became a concert favorite.
Subsequent versions
Jim Croce included a version of the song as part of his "Chain Gang Medley" (along with Sam Cooke's "Chain Gang", and The Coasters "Searchin'") recorded before his death in 1973, it featured on the 1975 album The Faces I've Been and was a chart success as a single in 1976.
Dolly Parton covered the song in 1984, retaining the Orlando and Dawn retitling, though changing the gender to "She Don't Love You". She included the song on The Great Pretender, an album of covers of early rock and roll hits.