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Showing posts with the label harold melvin & the blue notes

MOTOWN: THELMA HOUSTON - DON'T LEAVE ME THIS WAY

Now this isn't originally a Motown song, but recorded by Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes , with Teddy Pendergrass in the lead vocals. Never released as a single in the US (it was only an album track in 1975)  the song made it to #3 in the Billboard Disco chart, and #5 in the UK where it was released as a single. Motown took the song and originally it was ment to be the follow up single to Diana Ross' #1 Love hangover , but somehow it ended up to Thelma Houston in 1976 instead*. It became her only #1 and also only major success. Besides topping Billboards Top-100 it also topped the R'n'b and Dance charts and charted all over the world. Her version has been remixed and re-released countless times and even charted here and there various times. A true one-hit-wonder classic! The song became also a kind of anthem among the gay community in the US during the AIDS/HIV epidemy.   The Communards released the song in 1986 becoming UK #1 and several top-5 placings...