You Don't Miss Your Water
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
"You Don't Miss Your Water" is a soul song and the debut single written and recorded by singer William Bell. It was released by Stax in 1961. It is Bell's signature and most well-known song. The song was wrote while Bell was in New York playing with the Phineas Newborn's Orchestra. The personal motive behind the lyrics of the song are not actually about a lost love, but rather about Bell's feeling of being homesick. When Bell returned to Memphis he believed that he was recording a demo, however it was decided to release the song as the B-side of the now lesser known 'Formula of Love'. It was only after dj's flipped the record that sales started to pick up. The song did not chart in the Billboard R&B charts (southern records were often either not given enough attention by the chart compilers or they lacked the slick production of the more popular detroit and uptown soul outlets) although it did reach 95 on the pop charts. Since then the track has gone on to become a Southern soul classic.
The song was also released on Bell's 1967 album The Soul of a Bell, along with the original version of 'Do Right Woman, Do Right Man, which was more famously covered by Aretha Franklin.
Lyrical theme
The theme of the song revolves around the singer's confession of his unfaithfulness and, now that she's gone, he realizes how wrong he was.
