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Don't Leave Me This Way

"Don't Leave Me This Way"
Harold Melvin And The Blue Notes Don't Leave Me This Way single cover.jpg
Single by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes
from the album Wake Up Everybody
B-side "To Be Free to Be Who We Are"
Released
  • November 1975 (as an album track)
  • November 1977 (as a single)
Format
Recorded 1975
Genre
Length
  • 6:08 (Album version)
  • 3:59 (7' edit)
  • 7:07 (12" version)
  • 11:00 (1988 version)
Label Philadelphia International
Writer(s) Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff and Cary Gilbert
Producer(s) Gamble & Huff
Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes singles chronology
"Tell the World How I Feel about 'Cha Baby"
(1976)
"Don't Leave Me This Way"
(1977)
"Reaching for the World"
(1977)
Audio sample
file info · help
"Don't Leave Me This Way"
Thelma Houston Don't Leave Me This Way single cover.jpg
Single by Thelma Houston
from the album Any Way You Like It
B-side "Today Will Soon Be Yesterday"
Released December 2, 1976
Format
Recorded 1976
Genre
Length 3:37
Label Motown
Writer(s)
Producer(s) Hal Davis
Thelma Houston singles chronology
"You've Been Doing Wrong for So Long"
(1976)
"Don't Leave Me This Way"
(1976)
"If It's the Last Thing I Do"
(1977)
"Don't Leave Me This Way"
Communards with Sarah Jane Morris Don't Leave Me This Way single cover.jpg
Single by The Communards with Sarah Jane Morris
from the album Communards
B-side "Sanctified"
Released August 1986
Format 7" vinyl,
12" vinyl,
CD single,
Cassette single
Recorded 1986
Genre Hi-NRG
Length 4:50
Label London
Writer(s) Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff and Cary Gilbert
Producer(s) Mike Thorne
The Communards chronology
"Disenchanted"
(1986)
"Don't Leave Me This Way"
(1986)
"So Cold The Night"
(1986)

"Don't Leave Me This Way" is a song written by Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff and Cary Gilbert. First charting as a hit for Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, an act on Gamble & Huff's Philadelphia International label in 1975, "Don't Leave Me This Way" was later a huge disco hit for Motown artist Thelma Houston in 1977. The song was also a major hit for British group The Communards in 1986.

The Blue Notes' original version of the song, featuring Teddy Pendergrass' lead vocal, was included as an album track on the group's successful album Wake Up Everybody released in November 1975. Though not issued as a single in the United States at the time, the Blue Notes' recording reached #3 on the US Billboard Disco Chart in the wake of Thelma Houston's version. The song proved to be the group's biggest hit in the UK, #5 on the UK singles chart, when released there as a single in 1977. It became the title track of a budget LP issued on the CBS Embassy label in the UK in 1978.> The track was finally issued as a 12-inch single in the US in 1979, coupled with "Bad Luck".

"Don't Leave Me This Way" was covered by Motown in 1976. Originally assigned to Diana Ross, it was intended to be the follow-up to her hit "Love Hangover" but was reassigned and given to the upcoming Motown artist Thelma Houston instead. Studio musicians on the track included James Gadson on drums, Henry E. Davis (of the band L.T.D.) on bass, and John Barnes on keyboards.

Following the release of her third album Any Way You Like It, a Boston record pool unanimously reported positive audience response to "Don't Leave Me This Way" in discos, and the song was selected for release as a single. Houston's version became a massive international hit, topping the soul singles chart and, nine weeks later, the Billboard Hot 100 for one week in April 1977. The song peaked at #13 in the UK. The song went to number one on the disco chart. Later in the year, it was featured on the soundtrack of the movie, Looking for Mr. Goodbar. In 1978, "Don't Leave Me This Way" won the award for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female at the 20th Annual Grammy Awards.


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