"I (Who Have Nothing)" is a cover of Italian song "Uno Dei Tanti" (English: "One of Many"), with music by Carlo Donida and lyrics by Giulio "Mogol" Rapetti. "Uno Dei Tanti" was released by Joe Sentieri in 1961. The English lyrics for "I (Who Have Nothing)" were written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who also produced the June 1963 Ben E. King record using the backing track from Joe Sentieri's record (orchestra conducted by Luis Enriquez Bacalov).
Dame Shirley Bassey released the song (produced by George Martin) in September 1963, where it reached #6 on UK charts. She has performed the song at almost every live concert she has given since, and (even though Ben E. King first recorded it in English) this standard is almost universally associated with Dame Bassey. (And in my opinion rightly so; no singer who has covered this song has ever brought to it the passion and gut-wrenching emotion Dame Bassey has. The Tom Jones version, released in 1970, is a good cover which reached No. 11 in the US. Nobody has ever made it their own like Dame Bassey has.)
While the song is a heart-wrenching tale of unrequited love, there is an unmistakable and unavoidable, subversive class dimension to the lyrics. This is one of the reasons it was so wildly popular in the UK.
"I (Who Have Nothing)" is a cover of Italian song "Uno Dei Tanti" (English: "One of Many"), with music by Carlo Donida and lyrics by Giulio "Mogol" Rapetti. "Uno Dei Tanti" was released by Joe Sentieri in 1961. The English lyrics for "I (Who Have Nothing)" were written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who also produced the June 1963 Ben E. King record using the backing track from Joe Sentieri's record (orchestra conducted by Luis Enriquez Bacalov).
Dame Shirley Bassey released the song (produced by George Martin) in September 1963, where it reached #6 on UK charts. She has performed the song at almost every live concert she has given since, and (even though Ben E. King first recorded it in English) this standard is almost universally associated with Dame Bassey. (And in my opinion rightly so; no singer who has covered this song has ever brought to it the passion and gut-wrenching emotion Dame Bassey has. The Tom Jones version, released in 1970, is a good cover which reached No. 11 in the US. Nobody has ever made it their own like Dame Bassey has.)
While the song is a heart-wrenching tale of unrequited love, there is an unmistakable and unavoidable, subversive class dimension to the lyrics. This is one of the reasons it was so wildly popular in the UK.