You Keep Me Hangin' On
Encyclopedia
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.
in 1986. It was released as the second single from Wilde's Another Step
album (although "You Keep Me Hangin' On" was the LP's first worldwide single, as the first single had been released only in selected countries).
Wilde's version was a total re-working of the original, completely transforming the Supremes' Motown Sound into a 1980s power pop/hi-NRG 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 second and last top 40 hit in the US following "Kids in America" and is also, to date, her most successful song in that country, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100
chart for one week in June 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.
In 1988, Wilde's version was covered as a duet by Alvin and the Chipmunks
and The Chipettes
for their album The Chipmunks and The Chipettes: Born to Rock
.
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
.
Vanilla Fudge
Vanilla Fudge is an American rock band. The band's original lineup – vocalist/organist Mark Stein, bassist/vocalist Tim Bogert, lead guitarist/vocalist Vince Martell, and drummer/vocalist Carmine Appice – recorded five albums during the years 1966–69, before disbanding in 1970...
's 1967 psychedelic
Psychedelic music
Psychedelic music covers a range of popular music styles and genres, which are inspired by or influenced by psychedelic culture and which attempt to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues-rock bands in the...
/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
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
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.
Chart history (Vanilla Fudge version)
| Chart | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
6 |
Kim Wilde version
"You Keep Me Hangin' On" was covered in an updated version by British singer Kim WildeKim Wilde
Kim Wilde is an English pop singer, author and television presenter who burst onto the music scene in 1981 with the number 2 UK Singles Chart new wave classic "Kids in America". In 1987 she had a major hit in the United States when her version of The Supremes' classic "You Keep Me Hangin' On"...
in 1986. It was released as the second single from Wilde's Another Step
Another Step
Another Step is the fifth studio album by Kim Wilde, released in October 1986.Boasting 12 tracks and a varied team of songwriters, Another Step was an artistic but not necessarily a commercial triumph for Kim. She had co-written more than half of the tracks herself...
album (although "You Keep Me Hangin' On" was the LP's first worldwide single, as the first single had been released only in selected countries).
Wilde's version was a total re-working of the original, completely transforming the Supremes' Motown Sound into a 1980s power pop/hi-NRG song. She and her brother, producer Ricki Wilde
Ricki Wilde
Ricky Wilde is a British songwriter, musician, record producer and brother of singer Kim Wilde, and son of the singer and actor, Marty 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
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. It also became Wilde's second and last top 40 hit in the US following "Kids in America" and is also, to date, her most successful song in that country, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
chart for one week in June 1987.
Incidentally, since Wilde's recording was popular during the evolution of sample
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
-based hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
, a short drum break
Break (music)
In popular music, a break is an instrumental or percussion section or interlude during a song derived from or related to stop-time – being a "break" from the main parts of the song or piece....
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
Nena
Gabriele Susanne Kerner , better known by her stage name Nena, is a German singer and actress. She rose to international fame in 1983 with the New German Wave song "99 Luftballons". In 1984, she re-recorded this song in English as "99 Red Balloons". Nena was also the name of the band with whom she...
for her Never Say Never
Never Say Never (Kim Wilde album)
Never Say Never is the tenth studio album by Kim Wilde and was released in September 2006. It was a comeback album after being away from the music business for a number of years and her first studio album for eleven years...
album.
In 1988, Wilde's version was covered as a duet by Alvin and the Chipmunks
Alvin and the Chipmunks
Alvin and the Chipmunks is an American animated music group created by Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. in 1958. The group consists of three singing animated anthropomorphic chipmunks: Alvin, the mischievous troublemaker, who quickly became the star of the group; Simon, the tall, bespectacled intellectual;...
and The Chipettes
The Chipettes
The Chipettes are a fictional group of anthropomorphic chipmunk singers first appearing on the cartoon series Alvin and the Chipmunks in 1983. In this and related materials, the Chipettes served as female featured characters in their own right, starring in numerous episodes...
for their album The Chipmunks and The Chipettes: Born to Rock
The Chipmunks and The Chipettes: Born to Rock
The Chipmunks and The Chipettes: Born to Rock is a music album by The Chipmunks and The Chipettes, released in 1988 on LP and in 1990 on CD and cassette by Quality Special Products...
.
Chart performance
| Chart (1986/1987) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia Australia Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area... |
1 |
| Austria Austria Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the... |
20 |
| Canada Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean... |
1 |
| Denmark Denmark Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark... |
3 |
| France France The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France... |
19 |
| Germany Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate... |
8 |
| Ireland Ireland Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth... |
2 |
| Netherlands Netherlands The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders... |
17 |
| Norway Norway Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million... |
1 |
| Switzerland Switzerland Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition.... |
2 |
| United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages... |
2 |
| United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
1 |
Reba McEntire version
Country musicCountry music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
singer Reba McEntire
Reba McEntire
Reba Nell McEntire is an American country music artist and actress. She began her career in the music industry as a high school student singing in the Kiowa High School band , on local radio shows with her siblings, and at rodeos. As a solo act, she was invited to perform at a rodeo in Oklahoma...
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
Hot Dance Club Play
The Hot Dance Club Songs chart is a weekly national survey of the songs that are most popular in U.S. dance clubs...
.
| Chart (1996) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play | 2 |
See also
- List of Hot 100 number-one singles of 1966 (U.S.)
- List of Hot 100 number-one singles of 1987 (U.S.)