Song of the Day 2/2: Ray Charles, “You Don’t Know Me”

Groundhog Day is the least impressive of holidays, but it has the best movie associated with it. The song most associated with the movie is naturally the Sonny and Cher ditty Bill Murray wakes up to over and over again. But the best use of a song on the soundtrack comes when Murray finally constructs the perfect day to seduce Andie McDowell but realizes, as they dance in the pavilion, that it was built with lies — “You Don’t Know Me,” prolific country songwriter Cindy Walker’s heart-rending story of a love that will never be. The movie uses the version Charles recorded for his 1962 album “Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music,” which is marred by strings and heavy backing vocals. This live version does more justice to both the song and the performer.

Walker wrote “You Don’t Know Me” in 1955, after Eddy Arnold gave her the title and his idea for the plot of the song. It’s been recorded by literally hundreds of singers over the years, but Charles’ version, which reached No. 2 on the Hot 100, was the most successful.