He Hit Me [[And It Felt Like A Kiss)

[antceleb12]

Without a doubt, this is one of the darkest, most controversial songs since Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit." It's a disturbingly haunting song, and the fact that radio stations even played it at all is interesting in itself.

Now I've read Phil Spector's biography, so I know how Carole King & Gerry Goffin came to pen this song. Of course, it's no surprise that Spector would produce such a dark and sombre song. What really fascinates me is how and why the Crystals chose to record this song. The song deals with such a taboo subject [[even today), and many believed it perpetuated misogynous attitudes in society.

I'm sure no one could have predicted how infamous the song has become, but I doubt that the seriousness of the song's lyrics never crossed the girls' minds. Were they willing to record the song, or were they forced to due to contractual obligations?

[motony]

The Crystals, per Dee Dee Kennibrew & Barbara Alston[[lead singer) HATED the song but had 2 previous hits with Phil Spector so he was able to persuade them to record it...However, I do not EVER remember hearing it on the radio , I think it was withdrawn almost immediately.The Crystals ofcourse, NEVER did it LIVE.I think Phil got pissed & left for Ca. & then the "Hes A Rebel" turmoil started.

[Jerry Oz]

I cannot imagine that these lyrics were not disturbing to anyone but the writer and the lowest rung of humanity. I just heard this song for the first time and it blew my mind.
.
He hit me and it felt like a kiss
He hit me but it didn't hurt me
He couldn't stand to hear me say
That I'd been with someone new
And when I told him I had been untrue
He hit me [[da-da-da-ah) and it felt like a kiss [[felt like a kiss)
He hit me [[da-da-da-ah) and I knew he loved me
If he didn't care for me,
I could have never made him mad
But he hit me [[da-da-da-ah) and I was glad
[[Da-da-da-ah)
[[Da-da-da-ah)
Yes, he hit me [[da-da-da-ah) and it felt like a kiss [[felt like a kiss)
He hit me [[da-da-da-ah) and I knew I loved him
And then, he took me in his arms
With all the tenderness there is
And when he kissed me [[da-da-da-ah), he made me his
[[Da-da-da)

[antceleb12]

The Crystals, per Dee Dee Kennibrew & Barbara Alston[[lead singer) HATED the song but had 2 previous hits with Phil Spector so he was able to persuade them to record it...However, I do not EVER remember hearing it on the radio , I think it was withdrawn almost immediately.The Crystals ofcourse, NEVER did it LIVE.I think Phil got pissed & left for Ca. & then the "Hes A Rebel" turmoil started.

Yeah, apparently it got some radio play until people started writing in protesting against the song. Also, La La Brooks still performs this song!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqDlooIylMI

I did find some information regarding their reaction toward the song. La La in a 2011 interview:

“It is an overlooked song and misinterpreted. That was weird for us. We were thrown aback by the song. I’m a teenager at the time. Where you goin’ with that one? And Barbara [[Alston) was a little uneasy doing it. And I was trying to figure out the song and why Phil would record something like this. I knew it was sort of out the box and weird. And you go along with it. I know Barbara had a hard time with it. I think she was so turned off because in a way she was singing the lyrics and can’t feel anything. Because the lyrics are so out of order. So in the studio Phil was telling her, ‘Barbara…Don’t be so relaxed on it.’ Because she was confused."

http://www.cavehollywood.com/soulkitchen_lalabrooks.htm

I cannot imagine that these lyrics were not disturbing to anyone but the writer and the lowest rung of humanity. I just heard this song for the first time and it blew my mind.

Hey Jerry, did you know Carole King and Gerry Goffin wrote this song? Blew my mind when I first heard that. Little Eva apparently used to baby sit their child, and the songwriting duo/couple discovered that her boyfriend regularly beat her, but she didn't object. And that is the history behind the song's composition.

[smark21]

The song has been covered a few times over the years and it has a reputation as an underground, cult classic. Covers have been performed by bands such as
The Motels: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByhDYE4o0zw
Grizzly Bear: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjrxcDNNk_A
Hole/Courtney Love: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FITNb__0J80

[Jerry Oz]

I think what's disturbing is the fact that it's not covered with a hint of irony. It's sad because there are thousands of women who mistake attention - even violence - with love and identify with the sentiment of the song. That story about Little Eva, Carole King, and Gerry Goffin absolutely rings true.

[sunshineonacloudyday]

I wondered too why The Crystals recorded it. There are others of that ilk too...

Margie Alexander, [[also Shirley Brown) - "It's Worth A Whippin'
Written by a WOMAN too, Bettye Crutcher
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5lhyTxFUDY

And the masochistic imagery of "It Hurts So Good" - Katie Love & the Four Shades of Black [[also Millie Jackson)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXol1bsUJXM

Both recorded more than once, so someone must have enjoyed listening. There are others I can't think of at this moment, like one by Joe Tex. But hey...at least these older songs had an underlying message of love, dysfunctional as it was. Now we have
blatantly derogatory and misogynistic lyrics/videos from Hip Hop "artists", and women are buying!
SMH.

[Jerry Oz]

Art imitates life, I guess. If we hear songs about selling drugs, promiscuity, pimping prostitutes, murder, rape, and criminal enterprising, I guess we might as well hear them about women being beat by their men.

[smark21]

In 1994 Chrissy Hynde and her band The Pretenders did a song called 977 that touched on the same themes as He Hit Me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pLATFFuZok

[antceleb12]

And then the Crystals had more songs with similar messages, such as "Please Hurt Me" [[although to a much lesser degree). And then there were the even more bizarre Crystal numbers, "Let's Dance the Screw" parts I & II.

[rrussi]

The Crystals didn't choose to record this song. They had no say in the songs they recorded as did most artists recording in the early 60s. The record was withdrawn and left off the group's first lp, Twist Uptown, which is why there are only 11 instead of 12 tracks.

[reese]

And then the Crystals had more songs with similar messages, such as "Please Hurt Me" [[although to a much lesser degree). And then there were the even more bizarre Crystal numbers, "Let's Dance the Screw" parts I & II.

I think THE SCREW was recorded and dismally released only to piss off or to cheat Phil's soon to be ex partner Lester Sill out of royalities from a legitimate hit, as Phil knew that a song called THE SCREW would never get airplay.

[Kamasu_Jr]

Do the Screw had a good beat, no pun intended. Seriously, women have sung about being beaten and hit by men for years. It was just as wrong then. Billie Holiday sang "He beats Me Too...what can I do?" in My Man, Tina Turner sang Cussin, Crying and Carrying On and Mable John had Don't Hit Me No More.
My dad says when he was a young boy growing up in Detroit, he saw so many men punch and slap their women, he thought that it was what a male was supposed to do. He slapped my mother once when he was around 12 and she lit into him like a wildcat.
They've never fought physically since.
And it creeps me out when I think how most people did nothing back in the day when a man was beating a woman and vice versa.

[robb_k]

I don't remember hearing it on the radio. I find it hard to believe that any DJ would play it.

[luke]

Carole King has said she is mortified that she helped write it.

[jalowe1957]

And then the Crystals had more songs with similar messages, such as "Please Hurt Me" [[although to a much lesser degree). And then there were the even more bizarre Crystal numbers, "Let's Dance the Screw" parts I & II.

According to legend, "[[Let's Dance) The Screw" was recorded and released so that Phil Spector could get out of a business partnership. Spector's lawyer would interject at various points with "Dance the Screw" and at one time "Do the Screw"

The lyrics were repetitively simplistic yet implicitly suggestive enough:

Let's do it, come on and do it
To the right, to the left
Now front, now back
Come on and do....
[[Dance the Screw)