“Don’t” is a song recorded by English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran taken from his second studio album x (2014). It was written by Sheeran and Benjamin Levin and produced by Rick Rubin and Levin, under his production moniker Benny Blanco. The song samples “Don’t Mess with My Man” by Lucy Pearl.
“Don’t” was initially planned as the lead single for the album but was passed over in favour of “Sing”. The song was instead released to iTunes on 13 June 2014 as the second “instant grat” promotional single from x. It peaked at number 8 on the UK Singles Chart. “Don’t” officially impacted US contemporary hit radio on 15 July 2014 and was released independently on 24 August 2014 as the album’s second single.
Background and recording
“Don’t” is a song about a girlfriend who cheated on Sheeran with a close friend, and has been linked to several of Sheeran’s fellow singers, including Ellie Goulding and Taylor Swift. Sheeran has said it is “100 percent not about Taylor”. Having played the song for Swift he said, “She was just like, ‘Whatever happens, ever, between us as friends, I never want to piss you off that much,’”. The song started off “as a riff on his phone”, and was recorded first with Benny Blanco, then again with Rick Rubin with the two producers coming together to produce the final cut. The song almost didn’t make it onto the album, as Sheeran felt it was “a bit personal”, but was urged by those who had heard the demo to release it, as it was “an alright song… so it ended up on the record”. “Don’t” was planned to be released as the first single from the album, but it was decided that the chorus, especially the line “Don’t fuck with my love,” was not suitable for a first single.
“Don’t” contains interpolations of “Don’t Mess with My Man”, written by Raphael Saadiq, Dawn Robinson, Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Conesha Owens and performed by Lucy Pearl.
Release
“Don’t” was planned to be released as the first single from the album, but it was decided that the chorus, especially the line “Don’t fuck with my love”, was not suitable for a first single. However, prior to the release of x, all swearing was cut from the album. Sheeran debuted a snippet of the song in a commercial for Beats by Dr. Dre in May 2014. On 13 June 2014, “Don’t” was made available to customers who pre-ordered x as the second “instant grat” promotional single, following “One”, and an official audio stream was released on Sheeran’s YouTube page. An extended play accompanied the release of the single, featuring a remix by Rick Ross, a live cover of Nina Simone’s “Be My Husband” and a non-album song “Everything You Are”. Notably, Ed’s lyrics aren’t censored on the Rick Ross remix but are on the album version of “Don’t”.
“Don’t”was released to US contemporary hit radio as the second official single from the album. It debuted at #21 in the Canadian Hot 100 on the chart dated for June, 28th, 2014, the top debut for that week.
Music video
An accompanying music video was released on YouTube on 4 August 2014. The video was directed by Emil Nava and follows a dancer (Philiph Chbeeb from I.aM.mE) going from poverty to wealth. Sheeran makes a brief drive-by cameo appearance. 4Music called it a “compelling watch”.
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