Stephanie Mills first came to fame as "the little girl with the big voice" as the star of the hit Broadway play, The Wiz, an adaptation of L. Frank Baum's classic book, The Wizard Of Oz. She had many R&B hits such as "I Have Learned to Respect the Power of Love," "I Feel Good All Over," "(You're Puttin') A Rush On Me," "Something in the Way (You Make Me Feel)" and "Home" along with one certified million selling single, "Never Knew Love Like This Before." In addition, she also had five gold albums: Whatcha Gonna Do With My Lovin', Sweet Sensation, Stephanie, If I Were Your Woman and Home.
Mills honed her rich vocals singing gospel music at Brooklyn's Cornerstone Baptist Church as a small child. At age 9, she began appearing in the Broadway play Maggie Flynn. She was presented with first prize after winning "The Amateur Hour" talent contest six weeks straight at New York's famed Apollo Theater when she was nine. That success led to her being chosen as the opening act for The Isley Brothers, eventually becoming good friends with lead singer Ronald Isley. Many years later, Isley would manage and later marry singer/songwriter Angela Winbush, who co-wrote one of her number one R&B hits. Mills' début album, Movin' In The Right Direction was recorded for ABC Records in 1974. A year later, she won the role of Dorothy in The Wiz. Her rendition of the beautiful ballad "Home" was a showstopper, mesmerizing audiences nightly for a number of years. The original cast recording of The Wiz was produced by Jerry Wexler and issued by Atlantic Records in spring 1975. Curiously, when The Wiz was made into a full length feature film by Motown Records' film division and Universal Pictures, Diana Ross played the role of Dorothy instead of Mills. The film ended up being a major flop.
Singer Jermaine Jackson referred Mills to Motown head Berry Gordy, who signed her to the label. Her Motown debut was For the First Time, written and produced by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, being issued in October 1976. For the First Time is a sweet affair with Mills convincingly covering Bacharach/David standards, most of which were originally recorded by Dionne Warwick. In 1978, she signed to 20th Century Records and was teamed with the hit production duo of James Mtume — later leader of Mtume, who had a gold single with "Juicy Fruit" — and Reggie Lucas. Her first LP for the label, Whatcha Gonna Do With My Lovin', went gold, going to number 12 R&B and number 22 pop on Billboard's charts in summer 1979 and spawned the singles, "Whatcha Gonna Do With My Lovin'" and "You Can Get Over." Her next LP, Sweet Sensation (#3 R&B, #16 Pop, spring 1980) yielded "Sweet Sensation," "Never Knew Love Like This Before," and the radio-aired LP track, "Try My Love." Around this time, she briefly married former Soul Train dancer Jeffrey Daniels of the group Shalamar. Next came the LP titled Stephanie in spring 1981, which also was a huge hit, peaking at #3 R&B and #30 Pop. The album included notable songs such as "Two Hearts" — a midtempo duet with Teddy Pendergrass — "Night Games" and the radio-aired LP cut, "Don't Stop Doin' What Cha Do."
In 1981, Mills switched to Neil Bogart's Casablanca Records. Her LPs for the label included Tantalizingly Hot, Merciless and I've Got The Cure. During 1983, she had her own NBC-TV daytime talk show and reprised on role in a Broadway revival of The Wiz. She also signed with MCA Records, where she released her Stephanie Mills album.
The first single from the Stephanie Mills album was "Stand Back," in late 1985, which also included the passionate ballad "I Have Learned To Respect The Power Of Love." "I Have Learned To Respect The Power Of Love" was initially written by Rene Moore and Angela Winbush — best known as the hit singing duo Rene & Angela — as a gospel song and originally was recorded by Alton McClain and Destiny on their self-titled 1978 Polydor LP. The original version is available on Polygram's Power of Love: Best of Soul Essentials Ballads. Because of its massive radio play as an album track, Mills' version of "I Have Learned To Respect The Power Of Love, — produced by Philly Soul keyboardist Ron Kersey — was reissued as an A side holding the #1 R&B spot for two weeks in spring 1986. Its follow-up, "Rising Desire" reached #11 R&B in summer 1986.
Her next LP's title cut was the Clay McMurray/Gloria Jones/Pam Sawyer song, "If I Were Your Woman," originally a 1971 #1 R&B, #9 Pop smash for Gladys Knight and the Pips. Philly-based producer Nick Martinelli gave Mills her second #1 R&B hit with "I Feel Good All Over," written by husband and wife songwriting duo, Gabriel Hardeman and Annette Hardeman. The song held the #1 R&B spot for three weeks in spring 1987. Originally submitted to Mills' fellow MCA labelmate Patti Labelle by the Hardemans, the track was included on Mills' LP If I Were Your Woman, issued June 1987 and peaked at #30 Pop in summer 1987. Paul Laurence produced and co-wrote with Timmy Allen the chugging '"(You're Putting) a Rush On Me" giving the singer her third #1 R&B hit in fall 1987. The single made it to #85 Pop and was followed by "Secret Lady," which landed at #7 R&B in late 1987. Her covers of "If I Were Your Woman" and "Where Is The Love" followed. All were included on her If I Were Your Woman album, which peaked at #1 R&B, #30 Pop in summer 1987. Following these hits, Mills contacted Ronald Isley about working with singer/songwriter/producer Angela Winbush who had hits as half of Rene and Angela and was forging a hit-filled career as a recording artist and producer for the group Body among others. The collaboration between Mills and Winbush resulted in another #1 R&B single, "Something In The Way You Make Me Feel," in summer 1989.
Having starred for five years in the smash Broadway show The Wiz and recorded the song "Home for the play's 1975 original cast soundtrack album, she wanted to record the song again as a posthumous tribute to the play's producer, Ken Harper, and the song's composer, Charlie Smalls. On her new version of "Home," Take 6 sung the background vocals. The song went to #1 R&B in late 1989 and was followed by "Comfort Of A Man" and "Real Love." The Home LP ended up peaking at #5 R&B, #82 Pop in summer 1989. She then recorded a charting single with J.T. Taylor titled "Heart To Heart" in late 1991. Her final MCA album, Something Real included the hit "All Day All Night" and "Never Do Wrong." Following this album, she recorded a gospel album, Personal Inspirations, for Interscope Records and recorded several tracks at Philadelphia International Records with Bunny Sigler among others in the late '90s.
After a hiatus from recording Mills returned with sixteenth album, "Born For This" in 2004. It includes the singles "Can't Let Him Go" and "Healing Time." Mills is currently working on her seventeenth album titled "Breathless." The lead single chosen is a song called, "Yesterday."
You Can't Run From My Love
Stephanie Mills Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Don't you try it
You can't deny it
You can't hold back on love
Don't you try it
You can't deny it
You can't hold back on love
You can't deny it
From the day that I learned your name
Everything's been re-arranged
You came into my life
Like no one ever can
Ooh, my, my
Now you say the feelings have changed
That you've been hurt
And loved once
And you don't want to be hurt and loved again
But how could you put a hold on your heart
That's when the hurt starts
That's when the hurt starts
My, my
You can't hold back on love
Don't you try it
You can't deny it
You can't hold back on love
Don't you try it
You can't deny it
Why should I be judge by his mistakes?
Especially when there're so much state, baby
Your heart
My heart falls apart
Oh, baby, baby, baby
That's when the hurt starts
That's when the hurt starts
My, my
Breaking up is such a hard thing to do
When you know you've got love that's still true
It's not fair to me
It's not fair to you
Oh, baby, baby, baby, baby
Think it through
I want you to think it through, baby
I want you to think it through, baby
You can't hold back on love
Don't you try it
You can't deny it
You can't hold back on love
Don't you try it
You can't deny it
You can't hold back on love
Don't you try it
You can't deny it
You can't hold back on love
Don't you try it
You can't deny it
You can't hold back on love
Don't you try it
You can't deny it
You can't hold back on love
The lyrics of "You Can't Run From My Love" by Stephanie Mills tell a story of a woman who has fallen in love with someone who is trying to hold back their own feelings. The song seems to be a plea to this person to not let fear and past hurt get in the way of allowing themselves to fall in love again. The lyrics emphasize the idea that love cannot be denied or held back, and that trying to do so will only result in pain and heartbreak.
The song opens with a warning that holding back on love is futile, and that denying one's feelings is impossible. The singer goes on to recount how the person's entrance into her life changed everything, and she portrays a sense of desperation as she begs them not to hold back their heart. She acknowledges the fear of being hurt again, but argues that putting a hold on one's heart will only lead to more pain.
The lyrics also touch on betrayal and the idea that one person's mistakes or past experiences should not affect the present, as well as the difficulty of breaking up when love is still present. Overall, "You Can't Run From My Love" is a passionate plea for the person to open themselves up to the possibility of love and not let fear get in the way.
Line by Line Meaning
You can't hold back on love
You cannot suppress or repress your feelings of love for someone
Don't you try it
Do not attempt to hold back your feelings of love
You can't deny it
You cannot reject or refuse the feelings of love you have for someone
From the day that I learned your name
Ever since I met you and found out your name, everything in my life has changed
Everything's been re-arranged
My life has been completely altered since you came into it
You came into my life
You entered my life and made it better
Like no one ever can
You have brought something unique and special into my life
Now you say the feelings have changed
You are now saying that you no longer feel the same way about me
That you've been hurt
You are saying that you have experienced pain and heartbreak in the past
And loved once
You are saying that you have loved before and it did not work out
And you don't want to be hurt and loved again
You are afraid of being hurt and do not want to experience love again because of that fear
But how could you put a hold on your heart
How can you stop yourself from feeling love?
That's when the hurt starts
When you try to hold back on love, you end up getting hurt
Why should I be judged by his mistakes?
Why should I be blamed for something that someone else did?
Especially when there're so much state, baby
Especially when there is so much at stake in this relationship
My heart falls apart
My heart breaks and falls to pieces
Breaking up is such a hard thing to do
Ending this relationship is going to be difficult and painful
When you know you've got love that's still true
Ending the relationship is difficult because the love is still there and true
It's not fair to me
Ending the relationship is not fair to me
It's not fair to you
Ending the relationship is not fair to you
Think it through
Consider your decision carefully
I want you to think it through, baby
I hope you will carefully consider your decision
Contributed by Luke I. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Michael Wilson
Stephanie Mills is definitely one of the greatest female singers of all time You heard No Shade but the lady can sang
Antonio ///
Wow, thanx Michael..
Ladi Jae1
One of my fav dance songs !!! When this came out I played it soooooo much love the music...
Axel H
Huge classic. For those who love this, try Evelyn "Champagne" King.
Adrian Allen
this be jamming I be playing it all the time wish I was around when it was out doing the soul train day's
Anne Hamilton
One of my favorite classic's........Sista' Mills, is still 1st Class!
yvonne Finch
she brought them tracks: just classical
Carl Robinson
Still tantalizingly hot in 2016,,, sang lady Steph!!! :-)
Antonio ///
Thanx bro!
Simonne Simmons
I am having me a Stephanie Mills day today