Thelma Houston - "Don't Leave Me This Way" (1976)

[🇯🇲 lucy88 🇯🇲]

Love it! It was originally intended to be for Diana Ross, but was given to Thelma instead. It topped the soul singles, Hot 100, and disco charts.

[Soulsista]

I love it!

This was originally recorded by Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes.

[Agent Yoncé]

I love her version & the original. FKJ sampled her version in his 'Lying Together'. One of my favorite samples.

[Chelsea Press 2]

Amazing song. Such a great hook and chorus. The production is great too.

Eyes Cream sampled the instrumental for their song "Magdalena".

[Dreams]

This is a classic, isn't it? I remember knowing it all my life.

[HolidayGuy]

Much enjoy it. This and Bonnie Pointer's "Heaven Must Have Sent You" pack a nice 1-2 punch.

[♛ The Manticore ☯]

I didn't like it. KTU played the hell out of this over and over and over back in the day and got tiring.

[Private Dancer]

Nice song and I wish they had given it to Donna Summer I can hear her singing this song!

[disman00911]

Was her biggest hit but my favorite from her is the 1984 R&B track "You Used to Hold Me So Tight".  I prefer Themla's version over the 1986 Communards version.  I would hear this on defunct 103.5 Jammin Oldies when I was younger.

[🇯🇲 lucy88 🇯🇲]

#432 on Billboard's 500 Greatest Pop Songs 

You Know What It Is: Thelma Houston’s mighty cover of Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes’ R&B hit, which in her hands became one of the defining singles of the disco era.

This Magic Moment: Few choruses in pop history have a better lead-in than when the groove starts to stutter here, leading to a slowly rising “aaaaaahhhhhhhHHHHHHHHHH BABY!” that introduces Houston at max power, declaring, “My heart is full of love, and desire for you!”

Gimme More: For another classic gender-flipped disco rendering of a heartaching R&B hit, consult Gloria Gaynor’s roof-raising version of the Jackson 5’s “Never Can Say Goodbye.”