One of the hallmarks a a great song is its ability to stand the test of time and be reinterpreted in different genres of music.

The beginnings of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" came with composer and arranger Horace Ott, who came up with the melody and chorus lyric line after a temporary falling out with his girlfriend (and wife-to-be), Gloria Caldwell. source

Most people think The Animals wrote this song but that's not true. This song was first covered by Nina Simone in 1964. You can hear the original version in the first video below.

Artist	Nina Simone
Song	Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
Album	Broadway-Blues-Ballads
Year	1964
Wikipedia Link	Please Don´t Let Me Be Misunderstood

The Animals' lead singer Eric Burdon would later say of the song, "It was never considered pop material, but it somehow got passed on to us and we fell in love with it immediately." The Animals sped up the tempo and made prominent use of a guitar and organ riff that was picked out and expanded from an element that originally appeared in the Simone recording's outro.

The song was recorded in November 1964. The group gained a trans-Atlantic hit in early 1965 from their rendition, rising to number 3 on the UK Singles Chart, number 15 on the U.S. pop singles chart, and number 4 in Canada.

This single was ranked by Rolling Stone at #322 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. source

Artist	The Animals
Song	Please Don´t Let Me Be Misunderstood
Album	Animal Tracks
Year	1965
Wikipedia Link	Please Don´t Let Me Be Misunderstood

Artist	Santa Esmeralda
Song	Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
Album	Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
Year	1977
Wikipedia Link	Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

A Disco version of the song by the disco group Santa Esmeralda, which took The Animals' arrangement and added some disco, flamenco, salsa, and other Latin rhythm and ornamentation elements to it, also became a hit in the late 1970s. First released in summer 1977 as a 16-minute epic that took up an entire side of their Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood album, it was picked up for more worldwide distribution by the label of the time, Casablanca Records.

A 12-inch club remix was extremely popular, hitting number one on the U.S. Billboard Club Play Singles chart and in some European countries as well. The single peaked at number four on the Hot Dance/Disco-Club Play chart.

Released as a pop single late in the year, it did well as well, reaching number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 by early 1978. NBC Sports would use the song frequently in the years following its release, especially during their coverage of the World Series.

It became widely popular with a later generation after its inclusion in the 2003 Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill: Volume 1, where its instrumental passage plays over the duel between The Bride and O-Ren Ishii, and the accompanying Kill Bill Vol. 1 Original Soundtrack, where it is incorporated in a full vocal form that runs over ten minutes. Wikipedia

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