Black Keys Cover ‘I Forgot to Be a Lover’ by William Bell

The Black Keys are ready for Valentine’s Day (or, more accurately, the Day After Valentine’s Day) with their cover of William Bell’s “I Forgot to Be Your Lover.” The two-and-a-half–minute apology recreates the song faithfully (and “faithful” goes a long way, as the Keys’ lovers will remind them), evoking the soulful regret Bell originally sang for recognizing he had become an inattentive, self-absorbed oaf.

The song finds Dan Auerbach plucking doleful chords and crooning through orchestral strings words like “Oh, I forgot to be your lover/And I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” It figures on the duo’s upcoming Ohio Players album, so named, ostensibly, because it’s the home state of Keys drummer Patrick Carney and Auerbach (get it?). The album arrives on April 5.

Previously, the duo released “Beautiful People (Stay High),” for which they collaborated with non-Ohioan Dan “The Automator” Nakamura. Other collaborators who feature on the Keys’ 12th EP (and aren’t Ohio Players) include Greg Kurstin and Noel Gallagher. “No matter who we work with, it never feels like we’re sacrificing who we are,” Auerbach said. “It only feels like it adds some special flavor. We just expanded that palette with people we wanted to work with. We were there to support them and their ideas, to do whatever we could to see that moment flourish. But when it came time to finish the album, it was just Pat and me.”

The album will come out after the premiere of a new documentary, This Is a Film About the Black Keys, which will premiere at South by Southwest next month (long after the Keys’ lovers have forgiven them.)

William Bell’s lover, too, has had plenty of time to get over his forgetfulness. The singer, now 84, scored a Number 45 hit with the single, which he co-wrote with Booker T. Jones, in 1968. Like the Keys, many artists have covered it since, including late dub maestro Lee “Scratch” Perry and sneer-of-the-year award recipient Billy Idol.