Sheet music arrangements for "Don't Explain"

Jazz & Blues

Song description

Written by Billie Holiday and Arthur Herzog Jr. in 1944, “Don’t Explain” is a hushed jazz-blues confession about betrayal, devotion and the ache of choosing love despite heartbreak. Nina Simone’s intimate interpretation deepens its late-night melancholy and emotional restraint.

Featured in

Any Given Sunday (Film, 1999)
Passione (TV series, 2010, Stela's theme)
If We Were a Love Song (Film, 2021, Nina Simone version)

Original song details

Artist / Composer

Nina Simone / ARTHUR JR HERZOG, BILLIE HOLIDAY

Lyrics by

Nina Simone

Genre / Style

Jazz & Blues

Release / Era

1944 (1940s)

ISWC

T0702337210

Artist / album imagery

Music Story SAS

Mood

Melancholic Mellow Poignant Romantic

Themes

Relationship Personal Loss & Grief

Lyrics summary

The singer asks a returning lover not to explain the lipstick or rumors of cheating, only to promise to stay. Though the lover brings both joy and pain, she says her life is theirs.