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You Don't Know What Love Is
Cassandra Wilson Lyrics

"You don't know what love is
Until you learn the meaning of the blues
Until you've lost a love you had to lose
You don't know what love is

You don't know how lips hurts
Until you've kissed and had to pay the cost
Until you've flipped your heart and you have lost
You don't know what love is

Do you know how a lost hearts fears
The thought of reminiscing
And how lips that taste the tears
Lose their taste for kissing

You don't know how hearts burn
For love that cannot live yet never dies
Until you've faced each dawn with sleepless eyes
You don't know what love is

Do you know how a lost hearts fears
The thought of reminiscing
And how lips that taste of tears
Ooh, they lose their taste for kissing

You don't know how hearts burn
For love that cannot live yet never dies
Until you've faced each dawn with sleepless eyes
You don't know what love is

You don't know what love is"

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: DON RAYE, GENE DE PAUL

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

To comment on specific lyrics, highlight them

Cassandra Wilson (born 4th December 1955) is a U.S. jazz vocalist and two-time Grammy Award winner from Jackson, Mississippi. Two of her albums, Blue Skies (1988) and New Moon Daughter (1996), have topped the US jazz charts, and the latter also won her a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Performance in 1997. More recently, Wilson's album Loverly (2008) also won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album at the 51st Grammy Awards in 2009.

Wilson's repertoire includes both jazz and blues standards and renditions of pop and rock songs. Read Full BioCassandra Wilson (born 4th December 1955) is a U.S. jazz vocalist and two-time Grammy Award winner from Jackson, Mississippi. Two of her albums, Blue Skies (1988) and New Moon Daughter (1996), have topped the US jazz charts, and the latter also won her a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Performance in 1997. More recently, Wilson's album Loverly (2008) also won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album at the 51st Grammy Awards in 2009.

Wilson's repertoire includes both jazz and blues standards and renditions of pop and rock songs. Her contralto voice has been described as bluesy and sultry, and the style of her music ranges from swing to funk to bossa nova. Many of the songs she covers are by artists who usually record in other genres.

Wilson counts the late Miles Davis as one of her greatest influences. In 1989 she performed as the opening act for Davis at the JVC Jazz Festival in Chicago. In 1999 she produced Traveling Miles as a tribute to Davis. The album developed from a series of jazz concerts that she performed at Lincoln Center in November 1997 in Davis's honor and includes three selections based on Davis's own compositions, in which Wilson adapted the original themes.

A Brief Discography
Point of View (1986, JMT)
Days Aweigh (1987, JMT)
Blue Skies (1988, JMT)
Jumpworld (1989, JMT)
She Who Weeps (1990, JMT)
Live (1991, JMT)
After the Beginning Again (1992, JMT)
Dance to the Drums Again (1992, DIW/Columbia)
Blue Light 'til Dawn (1993, Blue Note)
New Moon Daughter (1995, Blue Note)
Rendezvous (with Jacky Terrasson) (1998, Blue Note)
Traveling Miles (1999, Blue Note)
Belly of the Sun (2002, Blue Note)
Glamoured (2003, Blue Note)
Thunderbird (2006, Blue Note)
Loverly (2008, Blue Note)
Silver Pony (2010, Blue Note)
Another Country (2012, eOne)

Official website: www.cassandrawilson.com

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01You Don't Know What Love Is

Cassandra Wilson

02Come On In My Kitchen4:53

03Tell Me You'll Wait For Me4:48

04Children Of The Night5:19

05Hellhound On My Trail4:34

11Blue Light 'Til Dawn

12I Can't Stand The Rain5:27

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Comments from YouTube:

Fliss Cook

1y↑4

I have been in love with this version since i heard the first 8 bars..... nothing and no one surpasses this rendition for me. <3

LoveIsKind

40w

Same

Tesla Ozone O3 for Optimal Health

1y↑1

"For love that cannot live yet never dies"... one of the greatest lines ever written. I've never heard an interpretation of this song that so gets it. This woman has lived.

jim hutchison

8y↑10

this woman is class , her rendition is magnificent , have heard a few versions ,this interpetation from her and her band is outstanding , the violin is special and captures the essence n my opinion

Elaine Diamond

1y↑1

Masterpiece. 👏👏👏 Exquisite arrangement, guitar, violin, and of course Cassandra Wilson’s vocals!

LoveIsKind

40w↑1

I couldn’t tell if it was a violin 🎻 or a viola. Either instrument compliments the masterpiece of her vocal gift.
💖👄🎤🎼🎵🎶

Audrey Ewart

4y↑6

Good version of a hauntingly beautiful song. Also check out Dinah Washington, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, each different from the other, but powerful. Ella Fitzgerald and Etta James too.

LoveIsKind

40w↑1

Great vocal queens, each in their own unique ways. 👸🏽💖👄🎼🎵🎶

Marlene McAuley

2y↑1

Tx you for letting me know that. Wow. All the greats

PrettyOne ☺

9y↑3

Love it!

LoveIsKind

This is one of those timeless classics for me personally because it has a dangerously beautiful combination soul, acoustic guitar, and a string instrument. All of them mixed together sounds like a sure fire recipe for a memory to capture in one's spirit forever. Thank you for sharing this gem here. Take care and stay healthy. (Smile)

jzzgrl3

Outstanding arrangement. Thank you.

Rebecca T

4y↑1

A tiny correction: The line is "Do you know how a lost heart FEARS the thought of reminiscing." Wilson gets it right, but it's written incorrectly above. The lyrics to this song are rather odd, unexpected in places, but wonderful. I always appreciate it when the singer takes the trouble to get them exactly right. Rarely, of course, there are variants, changes made by the lyricist after the song was published.

Nadav Halali

6y↑14

Nina, Billie, chet baker..hands down Wilson has outdone all of the greatest with this.
for me this proves she IS one of the greatest also

P CJ

All of those performances are wonderful, but I would like to know what you think after you have listened to George Benson sing this song ("Tenderly" album).

Benson's performance is flawless. But, there's more to it than that. The orchestral arrangement is incredible. It gives the song a fuller presence while still conveying the same sense of heartbreak and tragedy.
I would really like to know what you think.

romanaseve75

Nadav Halali Where is a Sarah Vaughan,Ella Fitzgerald, Diana Washington, Miles Davis,Etta James,Nat King Cole..there are so many of theme..

sabrina lizares-sabo

Nadav Halali ....... The best is by Nancy Wilson ❤️

tad link

agreed....I liked Etta James version of this but Ms. Wilson tops it.

jim hutchison

first heard this album when blue note had there relaunch and chose this , and of course they were so smart ,this is beautiful as is she , that was the magic .

Patrick Green

48w

Looking for a new tune and found this. Nina Simone wins hands down, yet, this is good also.

BlackCapsula71

9y↑5

Beautiful

Brightraven1

Dipped deep in liquid lucid blue. I found my old cassette copy of the album the other day.

RENEE

4y↑4

OMG The Violin! Totally unexpected.

Denise E Hardy

8y↑26

"...and how lips that tasted tears lose their taste for kissing..." ; Stabs my soul. Is my life.
This lyric line is a heightened insight of how one who doesn't know what is love nor how it feels on the the flip side of love loss- which was never there to begin with. :(

As time fills in the wound; I remain damaged.
Damaged, but not incapable of living happily ever after-even more so- without the delusion of my life's soul mate.

Thanks for sharing :)

watercolornyc

@Craig Cochrane You're right, it's FEARS and TASTE OF TEARS...small thing, but respect to the lyricist Don Rae. From wiki:
"You Don't Know What Love Is" is a popular song of the Great American Songbook, written by Don Raye (lyrics) and Gene de Paul (music) for the Abbott and Costello picture Keep 'Em Flying (1941), in which it was sung by Carol Bruce.[1] The number was deleted from the film prior to release. The song was later included in Behind the Eight Ball (1942), starring the Ritz Brothers.

Craig Cochrane

2y↑1

the written words are wrong. "Do you know how a lost heart fears the thought of reminiscing? And how lips that taste of tears lose their taste for kissing."

Camilla James

Thank you..Your words touched and lifted me.

Shabbazz Organics

2y↑2

I heard it on 90.9 KTSU and I was hooked.

Santino Miceli

Excellent

tad link

6y↑3

gorgeous

jim hutchison

how beautiful is she

NJDJ F.

18w

Class pur sang, try Sankofa..... pure beauty...

Nandan Unk

28w

RIP Pat Martino !!!

Laurie Jean DiBartolo

5y↑6

i think the lyrics are " do you know how a lost heart FEARS the thought of reminiscing" not *feels

watercolornyc

5y↑1

Yes...FEARS rhymes with TEARS in the third line. Such a killer song and rendition...

jai Jing

:'(

snotragmusic

Deep

Daniel Asper

5y↑8

mop me off the floor

Tesla Ozone O3 for Optimal Health

Best response ever.

David Holiday

I hear ya!!!

Nicole

I'll pick you up, when I get up! 😆😅😂😂

Peter Nielsen

6y↑5

Not a bad version. She's trying to hard though imo. Slowing way down to try to pour emotions into the song, but i just dont feel it like i do when i hear Nina sing . I still think Nina Simone did the best version of this song ever.