Today’s classic song of the day is that disco classic, Thelma Houston’s “Don’t Leave Me This Way.” If you were anywhere near a radio or dance floor during the spring of 1977, you heard a lot of this one.
“Don’t Leave Me This Way” was written by Philly Soul legends Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, along with frequent collaborator Cary Gilbert. They originally gave the song to Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, with Teddy Pendergrass singing lead. The group included it as a track on their 1975 album, Wake Up Everybody but didn’t release it as a single. (At least not in the U.S.; they did release it as a single in Europe, and it hit #5 on the UK Singles chart.)
Gamble and Huff next offered the song to former Supreme Diana Ross; it was intended to be a follow-up to her big 1976 hit, “Love Hangover,” but she ultimately passed on it. That left Thelma Houston next in line, and she included it on her 1976 album, Any Way You Like It. DJs picked up on the track and started playing it at big city discos, which convinced the record label (Tamla) to release it as a single late in December of that year.
Houston’s version of “Don’t Leave Me This Way” went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as Billboard’s Dance Club Songs and Hot R&B Songs charts. It was a top ten hit in Australia, Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, South Africa, Sweden, and West Germany. Ms. Houston won a Grammy for Best R&B Performance, Female, for her recording, and the song eventually became somewhat of an anthem for the gay community.
“Don’t Leave Me This Way” is a prototypical disco track, complete with four-on-the-floor bass drum and insistent upbeat hi-hat chirps. The track was produced by Motown producer Hal Davis and arranged by Art Wright. They recorded it at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles using a crack team of studio musicians that included John Barnes on piano, arranger Art Wright on guitar, Henry Davis playing that distinctive bass line, and James Gadson on drums. Gadson recalls how the session went:
“They had what they called three-hour recording sessions—if you cut over five minutes of disco then that was a session and that’s the way the union did it. So we were in a vamp and you can hear the door brrr-oom slamming—he was stopping the session, I remember that. It became a hit record and so that was great, I was so happy for her.”
There was one other cover of “Don’t Leave Me This Way” worth noting. In 1986, British synth-pop duo the Communards released a “hi-NRG” version of the song that went all the way to #1 on the UK charts. In the U.S., this version went to #40 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on Billboard’s Dance Club Songs chart. It is not as well remembered today, at least here in the states.
