I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down | |
Cover: | Ann-peebles-im-gonna-tear-your-playhouse-down-1973.jpg |
Type: | single |
Artist: | Ann Peebles |
Album: | I Can't Stand the Rain |
B-Side: | One Way Street |
Released: | January 1973 |
Recorded: | 1972 |
Label: | Hi |
Producer: | Willie Mitchell |
Prev Title: | Breaking Up Somebody's Home |
Prev Year: | 1972 |
Next Title: | I Can't Stand the Rain |
Next Year: | 1973 |
I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down | |
Type: | single |
Artist: | Paul Young |
Album: | The Secret of Association |
B-Side: | One Step Forward |
Released: | 1 October 1984 (UK)[1] August 1985 (US) |
Recorded: | 1984 |
Length: | 5:05 (album version) 4:39 (single version) |
Label: | Columbia |
Producer: | Laurie Latham |
Prev Title: | Tomb of Memories |
Prev Year: | 1985 |
Next Title: | Wonderland |
Next Year: | 1986 |
"I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down" is a song written by Memphis-based songwriter Earl Randle, and first recorded in 1972 by soul singer Ann Peebles. The song was also a hit in 1984 for English singer Paul Young.
Produced by Willie Mitchell and with performances by the Hi Rhythm Section, Ann Peebles' recording was made at the Royal Studios on South Lauderdale Avenue in Memphis.[2] It was issued as a single on the Hi label in January 1973.[3] It reached no.31 on the US R&B chart,[4] and "bubbled under" the Hot 100, reaching no.111. The track was also included on her 1974 album I Can't Stand the Rain.
Writer Craig Werner said:[5]
Like the most powerful gospel soul from the early sixties, "I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down" serves notice on a cheating lover (white America? the brothers in the Black Panther movement?) that the free ride has come to an end. It's a restatement of the revolutionary gospel anthem "Samson and Delilah," and the message, on every level, is the same: "If I had my way, I would tear this building down."
Ann Peebles
Paul Young
Chart (1984) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australia (Kent Music Report)[8] | 25 |
Finland (Suomen virallinen lista)[9] | 19 |
France (IFOP)[10] | 28 |