Chart Week: August 14, 1982
\nSong: \u201cAnd I Am Telling You I Am Not Going\u201d – Jennifer Holliday
\nChart Position: #26, 7th week on the chart. Would peak at #22 for three weeks.<\/p>\n
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<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy was this?\u201d I thought. Isn\u2019t a hit a hit? Just because a song doesn\u2019t get much or any play on pop stations, isn\u2019t it still popular<\/em>?<\/p>\n I obviously didn\u2019t understand the methodology of the pop chart at the time. And in the modern era of legal downloading and streaming services, we\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019ve shared before, my mom listened to our local \u201cBlack\u201d station, KPRS, often. So when a song that was getting heavy airplay there snuck into Casey Kasem\u2019s show, I got excited.<\/p>\n One of the more satisfying examples was Jennifer Holliday\u2019s legendary \u201cAnd I Am Telling You I\u2019m Not Going,\u201d the feature song in the musical Dreamgirls<\/em>. My mom owned the Dreamgirls<\/em> soundtrack, so I heard Holliday\u2019s signature song, and all the others from that show, on a regular basis in the summer of 1982.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cAIATYING\u201d was certainly an unlikely hit. A gospel-inflected song from a Broadway show wasn\u2019t 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\u2019s performance was so astounding, though, that it broke down all the significant barriers between it and pop chart success.<\/p>\n It was an unlikely hit for more than that.<\/p>\n According to the story Casey shared on this week\u2019s show, Holliday was just 19 when she auditioned for and got the part of Effie in the Broadway production of Dreamgirls<\/em>. 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.<\/p>\n Six weeks later, though, Bennett realized he had made a huge mistake<\/a>. 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<\/em> 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 \u201cAIATYING.\u201d<\/p>\n Good thing they resolved their issues!<\/p>\n You don\u2019t have to be a theater fan to be affected this record. There isn\u2019t 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\u2019s 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:<\/p>\n I\u2019m stayin\u2019, I\u2019m stayin\u2019 Goddamn!<\/p>\n It\u2019s no wonder that this song brought the house down each night Holliday performed it.<\/p>\n There is one weak section in the lyrics, the middle verse, but that\u2019s not Holliday\u2019s fault. Fortunately, it passes quickly and she can go back to throwing down.<\/p>\n Holliday never had another pop hit.[2]<\/a> She has battled serious health issues her entire adult life<\/a>. Like Effie, though, she didn\u2019t give up and continued to record music and perform until the Covid years. I hope she\u2019s doing ok today.<\/p>\n Tear down the mountains, yell, scream, and shout, this is a 8\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nAnd you, and you
\nYou\u2019re gonna love me!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n