\"You Keep Me Hangin' On\" is a 1966 number-one hit song originally recorded by The Supremes for the Motown label.
Covers
Musicians such as:
Wilson Pickett
Tim Buckley
Rod Stewart
Ann Peebles
Melanie Safka
The Box Tops
Gov't Mule
Colourbox
Madness
Glee
Omar Afuni
Dead On Arrival
The Index
The Rods and Ken Boothe
have all recorded versions of the song, but the three most successful remakes were recorded by the late-1960s rock band Vanilla Fudge, 1980s pop singer Kim Wilde, and 1990s country singer Reba McEntire.
History
Original recording
Written and produced by Motown's main production team Holland--Dozier--Holland (H-D-H), the single is very-much rooted in proto-funk and rhythm and blues, compared to the Supremes' previous single, \"You Can't Hurry Love,\" which utilizes the call and response elements akin to gospel.
The song's signature guitar part originated from a Morse code-like radio signal heard by Lamont Dozier, who collaborated with Brian and Eddie Holland to integrate the idea into a single.
The song is also noted for its angry spoken line at the end of the second bridge of the song: \"And there ain't nothing I can do about it.\"
Many elements of the recording, including the guitars, the drums, and Diana Ross's vocals, were multitracked, a production technique which was established and popularized concurrently by H-D-H and other premier producers of the 1960s such as Phil Spector (see Wall of Sound) and George Martin.
H-D-H recorded the song in nine sessions with The Supremes and session band The Funk Brothers before settling on a version deemed suitable for the final release.
Becoming The Supremes' eighth number-one single, \"You Keep Me Hangin' On\" topped the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart for two weeks in November 1966 and the magazine's soul chart for four weeks.
The track is one of the more oft-covered songs in the Supremes canon.
They performed the song on the ABC variety program The Hollywood Palace on Saturday, October 29, 1966.
\"You Keep Me Hangin' On\" was the first single from the Supremes' 1967 album The Supremes Sing Holland--Dozier--Holland.
The original version was #339 on Rolling Stone's The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Recording personnel
Lead vocals by Diana Ross
Backing vocals by Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson
Instrumentation by The Funk Brothers
Vanilla Fudge version
Vanilla Fudge's 1967 psychedelic/hard rock remake of \"You Keep Me Hangin' On\" reached #6 on the Hot 100 chart two years after the release of the Supremes' recording.
While the version released on 45 RPM single was under three minutes long, the album version was extended to six minutes and forty-five seconds.
The recording, done in one take, was Vanilla Fudge's first single.
Kim Wilde version
\"You Keep Me Hangin' On\" was covered in an updated version by British singer Kim Wilde in 1986.
It was released as the second single from Wilde's Another Step album.
Wilde's version was a total re-working of the original, completely transforming the Supremes' Motown Sound into a 1980s power pop song.
She and her brother, producer Ricki Wilde, had not heard \"You Keep Me Hangin' On\" for several years when they decided to record it.
The song was not a track they knew well, so they treated it as a new song, even slightly changing the original lyrics. It became the biggest hit of Wilde's career, reaching #2 in her home country as well as hitting the top spot in Europe and Australia.
It also became Wilde's only major hit in the US, spending a week at number one in 1987.
Incidentally, since Wilde's recording was popular during the evolution of sample-based hip hop, a short drum break in her version has become one of the most sampled pieces of audio ever.
In 2006, she performed a new version of the song with the German singer Nena for her Never Say Never album.
Reba McEntire version
Country music singer Reba McEntire covered the song on her 1996 album Starting Over.
Although not released to country radio, McEntire's rendition was her only dance hit, reaching #2 on Hot Dance Club Play.
