Constant touring and background vocal work kept the money coming in, but she remained strong. While in California, Houston met with a series of session musicians, which would lead to an album made for the then-new audiophile market. This album, I've Got The Music In Me, was released by the new Sheffield Lab label. The album would become the label's best seller, and everyone wanted to know who that voice belonged to.
This partnership would lead to both her biggest hit and her signature song, a cover of "Don't Leave Me This Way". Houston's cover version would become a disco staple, in the same vein as "Last Dance" and "Stayin' Alive". Houston continued to record long after her biggest hit, and she still performs to this day. Houston won a Grammy award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for "Don't Leave Me This Way" in 1976, the same year that many industry insiders believed that Diana Ross would/could/should have won for "Love Hangover". Ironically, both songs were Motown records produced by the same production team.
Also in 1977, Houston teamed up with Jerry Butler to record the duets album, Thelma & Jerry, and in November of the same year, she co-starred in the film Game Show Models. It was announced in February that Houston would star as Bessie Smith in a filming of the play Me and Bessie, to be produced by Motown; after an announcement in December that Houston was set to portray Bessie Smith in a biopic to be produced in 1978 by Columbia Pictures, nothing more was heard of the project.
The second single from Any Way You Like It was Houston's rendition of "If It's the Last Thing I Do", a standard written by Saul Chaplin and Sammy Cahn; the track had been recorded and prepped for release as a single in 1973 but was canceled. The impact of "If It's the Last Thing I Do" was far less than that of "Don't Leave Me This Way". With the lead single from her 1978 album The Devil in Me, titled "I'm Here Again", Houston returned to the previous style of "Don't Leave Me This Way" without recapturing the earlier single's success. Houston did enjoy considerable commercial success in 1978 via the inclusion of her track, "Love Masterpiece", on the Thank God It's Friday soundtrack album which sold double platinum but her own album release that same year, Ready to Roll, again failed to consolidate the stardom augured by "Don't Leave Me This Way". The album's second single: "Saturday Night, Sunday Morning", gradually accrued airplay entering the national charts in March 1979 and ascending as high as #34 (#19 R&B) that June. "Saturday Night, Sunday Morning" was issued on a new album by Houston, Ride to the Rainbow, but the track's relative success was not enough to forestall Houston's planned departure from Motown.
Houston continued recording music into the 1980s, beginning with an album titled Breakwater Cat which reunited her with Jimmy Webb who produced her debut 1969 album, Sunshower, and, like their earlier collaboration, was a commercially overlooked critical success. In the December 22, 1984 Billboard magazine interview, Houston admitted to "no real commercial success" since the single "Don't Leave Me This Way" broke on the Pop charts in 1976, indicating that the disco backlash had left her with "no real base of audience support" and that her current album, Qualifying Heat, executive produced by Houston herself, was a concentrated initiative to restore her as a viable chart presence; the album featured three cuts from Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis - including the single "You Used to Hold Me So Tight" - and production work from Glen Ballard, Dennis Lambert, Cliff Magness and - in his first known recording work - Lenny Kravitz (then billed as Romeo Blue), who each produced a cut apiece. "You Use to Hold Me So Tight" became Houston's most successful post-70s release with a #13 R&B peak, but its parent album was a comparative failure - charting at #41 - and Houston would not cut another album for six years.
The constant ranking of her '80s releases as moderate or minor R&B hits led Houston to concentrate on alternate exposure. After appearing in the independent film The Seventh Dwarf in 1979 Houston made guest-starring appearances into the mid-1980s in several popular television programs including Cagney & Lacey, Simon & Simon - a January 1986 appearance that featured her performing "You Used to Hold Me So Tight" - and Faerie Tale Theatre. Houston also appeared in the 1987 CBS after school special Little Miss Perfect (1987) - as "Prison Singer" - in the 1988 film And God Created Woman.
On the May 19, 1985 NBC broadcast Motown Returns to the Apollo, Houston performed "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes" in the guise of Dinah Washington. Houston continued to contribute to movie soundtracks, recording "Keep It Light" for the 1985 film Into the Night and also remade Bill Withers' "Lean on Me" for the 1989 film entitled Lean on Me. Houston also co-wrote and sang back-up on the song "Be Yourself" for Patti LaBelle's 1989 album of the same title.
The fall of 1990 saw the release of Houston's first album in six years, Throw You Down, a long-planned collaboration with producer Richard Perry which briefly extended Houston's career as a minor R&B chart presence. The title song reached #5 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. A remix of "Don't Leave Me This Way" was released, and once again charted on the Hot Dance Club Play chart at #19 in 1995. Subsequent singles include "I Need Somebody Tonight" and "All of That".
In 1994, Houston participated in an AIDS benefit at New Yorkโs Algonquin Hotel, performing gospel music with Phoebe Snow, Chaka Khan and CeCe Peniston as Sisters of Glory. Intended as a one-off performance troupe, the Sisters of Glory remained together - with the addition of Mavis Staples and Lois Walden, and without Chaka Khan - to perform at Woodstock '94. Houston performed with the Sisters of Glory for the Pope in Vatican City and in 1995, Houston, Phoebe Snow, CeCe Peniston, Lois Walden and Albertina Walker recorded an album titled Good News In Hard Times as the Sisters of Glory.
Houston provided lead vocals on several tracks of guitarist Scott Henderson's 1997 album, Tore Down House, and in 1998 she made cameo appearances in two films: 54, which Houston portrayed herself singing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" supposedly at Studio 54, and in Beloved, in which Houston played 'One of The Thirty Women'.
In 2000, Houston toured successfully throughout Australia in the stage musical version of Fame. In 2002, she once again guest-starred on a Scott Henderson album, providing lead vocals for two of the tracks on Well to the Bone. Upon returning to the U.S., Houston toured with Nile Rodgers and Chic, and was among the opening acts of the originally intended finale of Cher's Farewell Tour in Toronto on October 31, 2003. Houston regularly performs at Teatro ZinZanni in Seattle and San Francisco.
Her version of "Don't Leave Me This Way" continues to be popular today. In recent years, Houston has been invited to sing this song on dozens of TV shows and specials including NBC's Today Show, ABC's Motown 45 and The Disco Ball...A 30-Year Celebration, and PBS' specials American Soundtrack: Rhythm, Love and Soul, Soul Superstars, and Old School Superstars. "Don't Leave Me This Way" was mentioned by VH1 as being among the greatest dance songs in 2000, and was ranked number eighty-six on the channel's countdown of The 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders. She won an episode of the NBC show Hit Me, Baby, One More Time with her renditions of her own hit and "Fallin'" by Alicia Keys. On September 20, 2004, Houston's rendition of "Don't Leave Me This Way" was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame in New York City.
On August 14, 2007, Houston released her first studio album in seventeen years, titled A Woman's Touch. The album was produced by Peitor Angell and features cover versions of songs by male artists such as Luther Vandross, Marvin Gaye, and Sting that Houston had been inspired by. The first single from the album was "Brand New Day". On August 20, 2007, Houston's 1984 album, Qualifying Heat, was reissued as an import title in the U.S. with a bonus track.
Houston sang "Don't Leave Me This Way" on American Idol on April 22, 2009, and on America's Got Talent on September 16, 2009. On July 29, 2013, a collaboration between Houston and Los Angeles-based producer Janitor, entitled "Enemy", premiered on Soundcloud. Several tracks followed, culminating in the release of an EP, Forty-Two, in September. This is the first new material from Houston in six years.
I'm Here Again
Thelma Houston Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I can't make it in love
I don't know why,
But I'm here again
And wouldn't you think
That I'd get enough love
But here I am
Asking you for more love
Ooh baby
I've memorized the path that leads to you
With blinded eyes
I'd find a way to get through
And you know that it's true
Chorus:
Oh baby, I try to tell myself that this is wrong
I try to fight the need but it's too strong
I need a love like yours to carry on
Ohh help baby
I'm here again, I let you half in love
You're reason why, so I'm here again
Now say what you will
I'm just weak for the thrill love
I can't wait until I have it back
All I ask is you give me your love, your love
Oh baby, I try to tell myself that this is wrong
I try to fight the need but it's too strong
I need a love like yours to carry on
Ohh help baby
Oh baby, I try to tell myself that this is wrong
I try to fight the need but it's too strong
I need a love like yours to carry on
Ohh help baby
Here I am baby
Here I am baby
If there's an obstacle, I'll go around
If there's a mountain, I'll go underground
Baby, I'm here
I can't stay away baby, because I need your love
The lyrics to "I'm Here Again" by Thelma Houston tell the story of a person who keeps returning to their lover, despite knowing that it may not be the best decision for them. The opening lines reveal the person's confusion about their inability to find love that lasts. Yet, the chorus indicates that the individual is so consumed with the intense desire to feel loved and cared for that they cannot resist the temptation to return to their lover. The lyrics are loaded with feelings of vulnerability, desperation, and the fear of isolation. The line "I've memorized the path that leads to you, with blinded eyes I'd find a way to get through" suggests that the person is so desperate to feel loved that they would even go to extreme lengths to attain it. Furthermore, the bridge of the song delves deeper into the person's emotional struggles, as she admits that she can't stay away from her lover because she needs their love.
Overall, "I'm Here Again" explores the complicated emotional landscape of a person who finds it challenging to resist the allure of an intense and fleeting love. The song's lyrics provide a rich tapestry of the many ways that we can be drawn into unhealthy relationships, even when we know that they are not in our best interest.
Line by Line Meaning
I'm here again
I have returned once more to seek love despite any previous efforts.
I can't make it in love
I have struggled to find love and make it last.
I don't know why,
I am unsure why love is difficult for me to obtain.
But I'm here again
Regardless, I have returned to try again.
And wouldn't you think
One might assume that after previous attempts, I would not continue seeking love.
That I'd get enough love
That I would have already found enough love to sustain me.
But here I am
Despite that assumption, I am still searching for love.
Standing at your door again,
I have returned to seek your love yet again.
Asking you for more love
I am requesting that you provide me with love.
Ooh baby
An expression of affection or endearment.
I've memorized the path that leads to you
I know the way to you so well that I could navigate it with my eyes closed.
With blinded eyes
I could navigate to you even if I were unable to see.
I'd find a way to get through
I am determined to always find a way to reach you.
And you know that it's true
You are aware that I am committed to finding a way to be with you.
Oh baby, I try to tell myself that this is wrong
I attempt to rationalize that my pursuit of love is misguided.
I try to fight the need but it's too strong
Despite my efforts to resist, my desire for love is too powerful.
I need a love like yours to carry on
I require your love to continue living and thriving.
Ohh help baby
An appeal for assistance in obtaining the love needed to thrive.
I let you half in love
I only allowed myself to be partially in love with you.
You're (the) reason why, so I'm here again
Your absence of love is what motivates me to keep seeking it.
Now say what you will
While you may have objections, I will still seek your love.
I'm just weak for the thrill love
My attraction to love is so strong that it feels like an exhilarating thrill.
I can't wait until I have it back
I eagerly anticipate the return of the love that I seek.
All I ask is you give me your love, your love
My only request is that you provide me with the love that I need.
Here I am baby
I have returned, ready to continue seeking your love.
If there's an obstacle, I'll go around
I am willing to overcome any obstacle that may stand between us in pursuit of your love.
If there's a mountain, I'll go underground
I am willing to go to extreme lengths to obtain your love.
Because I need your love
An acknowledgment that without your love, I cannot flourish or be truly happy.
Contributed by Brody C. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
ASIsoy ASIsoy
I love this song so much,, Thelma Houston,,great singer!
Cauldron Moon
I absolutely love this song! ๐๐๐๐ท
Billy Barnard
Thelma! Love her to bits! In 1972 she a special on the BBC and DAMN was on holiday when it aired and missed it!!! I do not think it was repeated. Still have all her albums.
Jay Wad
Good timing!! The mixing at the end of the hook is just right!
Michael Araneo
This song peaked at #18 billboard dance/disco charts. 12/3/77. Good song!๐
Jay Wad
It would have also made the Billboard Top 40 too!
Azbo Shippuden
The piano is earth shattering
Bengans 2
Thelma! Im still here after 40 years.
Sami Bennani
pure bliss !!
brian skeete
Classsic Thelma!!!!