You Don't Know Me

Album: Disco 1999 (1999)
Charted: 1
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song features on vocals Duane Harden, who first met Armand Van Helden in a New York club where Van Helden used to DJ. Van Helden's first success in the UK was re-mixing "Sugar Is Sweeter" for C.J. Bolland. He then re-mixed "Professional Widow" for Tori Amos, which was a UK chart topper. Van Helden pioneered a new genre, Speed Garage, by mixing the deep basslines of jungle music with house music.
  • Also in 1999, Duane Harden sang on Powerhouse's "What You Need," A Top 20 single on the Pop charts in Australia, Canada and the UK. In 2000 Harden climbed to #19 in the UK with the hit "Sunshine (Dance With You')," a track credited to Infinity featuring Duane Harden.
  • In 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh, Armand Van Helden explained, "'You Don't Know Me' was a perfect example of putting two simple things together, the beats from Jaydee's 'Plastic Dreams' and a disco loop from Carrie Lucas. The vocalist will hear a few and pick a track and that's what happened with Duane."

    Armand Van Helden goes on to say in the same book, "He (Duane) had never recorded or written a song before and my only direction to him was that he could not write a song about love or an uplifting spirit or whatever all of the garage songs were singing about at the time. I think he wrote it overnight and came over to record it. I basically told him to sing the song 15 times or so and put him on record for one hour, meanwhile, I went to my bedroom. The whole thing seemed very unforced and natural."

    "Later, Duane told me that he wrote the song, thinking of how people used to judge me without even knowing me when we lived in Boston, which, by the way, was how he felt before he met me."

Comments: 1

  • Paul Marlo from Perthone of the better songs from that year!
see more comments

Editor's Picks

The 10 Bands Most Like Spinal Tap

The 10 Bands Most Like Spinal TapSong Writing

Based on criteria like girlfriend tension, stage mishaps and drummer turnover, these are the 10 bands most like Spinal Tap.

Carol Kaye

Carol KayeSongwriter Interviews

A top session musician, Carol played on hundreds of hits by The Beach Boys, The Monkees, Frank Sinatra and many others.

Mike Campbell

Mike CampbellSongwriter Interviews

Mike is lead guitarist with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, and co-writer of classic songs like "Boys Of Summer," "Refugee" and "The Heart Of The Matter."

Trans Soul Rebels: Songs About Transgenderism

Trans Soul Rebels: Songs About TransgenderismSong Writing

A history of songs dealing with transgender issues, featuring Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Morrissey and Green Day.

Songs About Movies

Songs About MoviesSong Writing

Iron Maiden, Adele, Toto, Eminem and Earth, Wind & Fire are just some of the artists with songs directly inspired by movies - and not always good ones.

Steely Dan

Steely DanFact or Fiction

Did they really trade their guitarist to The Doobie Brothers? Are they named after something naughty? And what's up with the band name?