Song: You Keep Me Hangin’ On
Artist: Kim Wilde
Original artists: The Supremes
When the Kim Wilde version of “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” topped the US’s Billboard
100 chart in June 1987 it became one of the few songs to gain that lofty position when
performed by two different acts. The Supremes had hit the same slot a little more than
two decades earlier in 1966.
Strangely, the song did not perform quite so well in Wilde’s home, the UK. Her version
reached No 2 and The Supremes had made it to No 8.
The original gained several other accolades. The Supremes’ song was ranked 339 in
Rolling Stones magazine’s 500 greatest songs of all time. It was also voted No 43
among Detroit’s greatest songs. Wilde’s UK release sold more than a quarter of a
million copies earning it silver status.
Pop music ran in the Wilde family. Her father, Marty, enjoyed great success in the UK in
the 1950s and Wilde herself has the distinction of being the most charted femaIe artist
in the UK during the 1980s. Just before the turn of the century her career took a
completely different turn when she became a landscape gardener (no kidding!) and
would present TV shows on the subject. In 2005, she won a gold award for her
courtyard garden at the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show. Below she talks about her
love of gardening with her former publicist Nicki Chapman.
