Comparative Gamble/Huff, lesson number one.
The Chart Topper: Thelma Louise reached #1 in ‘76 with the Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff and Cary Gilbert composition.
Ultra ’80s new wave: Jimmy Somerville (ex-Bronski Beat) and the Communards scored no. 40 on the U.S. pop charts, but went to the top of the U.K. charts with their version. It's almost sacrilegious to say that it's better than the Thelma Louise version, but it is.
(Is it wrong that Sarah Jane Morris looks hot in that ’80s version of a Marie Antoinette get-up? Did the bizarre excesses of ’80s fashion permanently shift fashion's gaze to the past?)
But the best is the original: Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes 1975 recording. While it only went to no. 5 in the U.S. (and didn't chart in the U.K.), this is the version that's done right. Jimmy Somerville and Thelma Louise are great disco singers, but HMBN are masters of Philly Soul, and this track needs the roots.
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