Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 115

Chart Week: August 14, 1982
Song: “And I Am Telling You I Am Not Going” – Jennifer Holliday
Chart Position: #26, 7th week on the chart. Would peak at #22 for three weeks.

One aspect of the pop chart that messed with my head when I was young was how songs that were huge hits on the genre charts would barely dent the pop Top 40. It seemed like there was always a song by a Black artist stuck at #34 on AT40 for three weeks that had already been #1 on the soul chart. Or a song that dominated the country chart but spent a month shuffling between #39 and #31 on the pop list.

“Why was this?” I thought. Isn’t a hit a hit? Just because a song doesn’t get much or any play on pop stations, isn’t it still popular?

I obviously didn’t understand the methodology of the pop chart at the time. And in the modern era of legal downloading and streaming services, we’ve learned those genres that were considered niche 40 years ago are now the most listened to forms of pop music. Hip hop, R&B, and country command the Hot 100, while most of what is analogous to the pop music of the Eighties has faded and rock has basically disappeared.

I never listened to country music, so those songs by Barbara Mandrell or whoever were always frustrating annoyances in between the newest singles from Hall & Oates and Michael Jackson. However, as I’ve shared before, my mom listened to our local “Black” station, KPRS, often. So when a song that was getting heavy airplay there snuck into Casey Kasem’s show, I got excited.

One of the more satisfying examples was Jennifer Holliday’s legendary “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going,” the feature song in the musical Dreamgirls. My mom owned the Dreamgirls soundtrack, so I heard Holliday’s signature song, and all the others from that show, on a regular basis in the summer of 1982.[1]

“AIATYING” was certainly an unlikely hit. A gospel-inflected song from a Broadway show wasn’t exactly a representation of the mainstream in 1982. It was massive on the Black Singles chart, capturing the #1 spot for a full month. Holliday’s performance was so astounding, though, that it broke down all the significant barriers between it and pop chart success.

It was an unlikely hit for more than that.

According to the story Casey shared on this week’s show, Holliday was just 19 when she auditioned for and got the part of Effie in the Broadway production of Dreamgirls. Almost immediately she and show director Michael Bennett began clashing. He was dissatisfied with her acting and she was too young and/or stubborn to take his notes. Eventually Bennett fired Holliday. Fed up with New York, she moved to LA.

Six weeks later, though, Bennett realized he had made a huge mistake. He called Holliday back to New York for a dinner, where they cleared the air and he explained what he wanted from her on stage. They went to Broadway shows and watched movies together, with him pointing out techniques other actors used. She re-joined the cast and her acting improved. Dreamgirls became a hit, largely on the strength of her performance. In 1982 she won the Tony Award for Best Actress. A year later she won a grammy for best female R&B performance for “AIATYING.”

Good thing they resolved their issues!

You don’t have to be a theater fan to be affected this record. There isn’t an ounce of doubt what it is about. It is one of the most emotional, forceful, and jarring statements about fighting to keep a relationship alive in pop music history. Holliday’s voice is gigantic, coming from the bottom of her soul. We hear her confidence that if she sings them big and loud enough, her words will be enough to convince – hell compel even – her man to take her back. This stanza, especially, is almost overwhelming:

I’m stayin’, I’m stayin’
And you, and you
You’re gonna love me!

Goddamn!

It’s no wonder that this song brought the house down each night Holliday performed it.

There is one weak section in the lyrics, the middle verse, but that’s not Holliday’s fault. Fortunately, it passes quickly and she can go back to throwing down.

Holliday never had another pop hit.[2] She has battled serious health issues her entire adult life. Like Effie, though, she didn’t give up and continued to record music and perform until the Covid years. I hope she’s doing ok today.

Tear down the mountains, yell, scream, and shout, this is a 8/10