You Don't Know Me (Cindy Walker song)
"You Don't Know Me" is a song written by Cindy Walker based on a title and storyline given to her by Eddy Arnold in 1955. "You Don't Know Me" was first recorded by Arnold that year and released as a single on April 21, 1956, on RCA Victor. The best-selling version of the song is by Ray Charles, who took it to number 2 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart in 1962, after releasing the song on his number 1 album "Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music". The  first version of the song to make the "Billboard" charts was by Jerry Vale in 1956, peaking at number 14 on the pop chart. Arnold's version charted two months later, released as an RCA Victor single, 47-6502, backed with "The Rockin' Mockin' Bird", which reached number 10 on the "Billboard" country chart. "Cash Box" magazine, which combined all best-selling versions at one position, included a version by Carmen McRae that never appeared in the "Billboard" Top 100 Sides listing. Origin. In his book "Eddy Arnold: Pioneer of the Nashville Sound", author Michael Streissguth describes how the song  came to be: Cindy Walker, who had supplied Eddy with "Take Me in Your Arms and Hold Me" (a number-one country record in 1949 and Eddy's first Cindy Walker release), recalled discussing the idea for "You Don't Know Me" with Eddy as she was leaving one of Nashville's annual disc-jockey conventions. "I went up to the Victor suite to tell Steve Sholes good-bye," she explained, "and just as I was leaving, Eddy came in the door." Walker remembered him saying, "I got a song title for you... 'You Don't Know Me.'" "But I  know "you"," teased Walker. "This is serious," replied Eddy, who proceeded to outline his idea. The songwriter promised to let the idea stew in her head for a while. And soon, she remembered, the lyrics tumbled onto the page. "The song just started singing. It sort of wrote itself..." Notable recorded versions. The best-selling version of the song is by Ray Charles, who took it to number 2 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart in September 1962, after releasing the song on his number 1 album "Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music". It was the follow-up single  to "I Can't Stop Loving You", which held the number 1 position for five weeks. After being released in July, it was kept from the number 1 spot by "Sheila" by Tommy Roe. This version also topped the Easy Listening chart for three weeks in 1962 and was used in the 1993 comedy film "Groundhog Day". The song was the 12th number one country hit for Mickey Gilley in 1981. The song has been performed or recorded by hundreds of artists, including Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, and Willie Nelson. Charles re-recorded the song with Diana Krall on his  number 1 album of duets, "Genius Loves Company", the only song common to both of Charles' two number 1 albums. It was sung by Meryl Streep in the 1990 film "Postcards from the Edge", by John Legend in the 2007 "Curb Your Enthusiasm" episode "The Bat Mitzvah", by Robert Downey Jr. in the 1998 film "Two Girls and a Guy", and by Lizzy Caplan. Artists that released versions of the song: