You Keep Me Hangin' On

"You Keep Me Hangin' On" is a 1966 number-one hit song originally recorded by The Supremes for the Motown label. Written and produced by Motown's main production team Holland-Dozier-Holland, the song became The Supremes' eighth number-one single, topping the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for two weeks in November 1966, and the number one the soul chart for four weeks. The track is one of the more oft-covered songs in the Supremes canon. They performed the song on the ABC variety program The Hollywood Palace on Saturday, October 29, 1966. Musicians such as Wilson Pickett, Rod Stewart, Melanie Safka, Gov't Mule, Colourbox, Madness have all recorded versions of the song, but the three most successful remakes were recorded by the late-1960s rock band Vanilla Fudge, 1980s pop singer Kim Wilde, and 1990s country singer Reba McEntire. While both are very much rooted in rhythm & blues, the Supremes' previous single, "You Can't Hurry Love," showcased a gospel music feel, while "You Keep Me Hangin' On" leans more towards proto-funk. Songwriter Lamont Dozier got most of his inspiration for the song's Morse code-like guitar line from listening to the "news flash" signal over the radio, and he and brothers Brian and Eddie Holland integrated the idea into a song. Many elements of the recording, including the guitars, the drums, and Ross's lead vocal, were multitracked (the parts were recorded multiple times and the takes layered over one another). This was all done to create a fuller sound than the previous Supremes records. H-D-H recorded the song nine different times with the Supremes and session band The Funk Brothers before they got the version they were finally satisfied with. "You Keep Me Hangin' On" was the first single from the Supremes' 1967 album The Supremes Sing Holland-Dozier-Holland. The original version was #339 on Rolling Stone's The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Set me free, why don't cha babe? Get out my life, why don't cha babe? 'Cause you don't really love me You just keep me hangin' on You don't really need me But you keep me hangin' on Why do you keep a-comin' around Playin' with my heart? Why don't you get out of my life And let me make a new start? Lettin' me get over you The way you've gotten over me, hey Set me free, why don't cha babe? Let me be, why don't cha babe? 'Cause you don't really love me You just keep me hangin' on Now, you don't really want me You just keep me hangin' on You say, although we broke up You still wanna be just friends But how can we still be friends When seein' you only breaks my heart again? And there ain't nothin' I can do about it Whoa, whoa, whoa, set me free, why don't cha babe? Whoa, whoa, whoa, get out my life, why don't cha babe? Set me free, why don't cha babe? Get out my life, why don't cha babe? You claim you still care for me But your heart and soul needs to be free And now that you've got your freedom You wanna still hold on to me You don't want me for yourself So let me find somebody else, hey Why don't you be a man about it and set me free? Now, you don't care a thing about me, you're just usin' me Go on, get out, get out of my life And let me sleep at night, please 'Cause you don't really love me You just keep me hangin' on