It Was 50 Years Ago Today: “Hold On! I’m Comin'” by Sam & Dave
June 21, 1966
“Hold On! I’m Comin'” by Sam & Dave
#1 on the Billboard Hot Rhythm and Blues Singles chart, June 18-24, 1966
Like many soul acts, Sam Moore and Dave Prater got their start on the gospel circuit; supposedly, Moore was even invited to replace Sam Cooke in the Soul Stirrers after the latter left for a solo career. And like many gospel singers of the era, they opted to leave holy music behind to break into the more lucrative secular market. Originally solo artists, Moore and Prater met at a Miami nightclub’s amateur night in 1961. They discovered that their voices — Sam’s smooth, somewhat nasal tenor; Dave’s rougher, emphatic baritone — were an ideal foil for each other, and a musical partnership was born.
The duo recorded a number of singles together in the early ’60s for various labels, most notably the New York-based Roulette Records. After a run of flops, however, famed A&R man Jerry Wexler signed the duo to Atlantic Records. Wexler made the crucial decision to “loan” the duo to Stax Records in Memphis, a label Atlantic distributed that also happened to be the Mecca of Southern soul. In addition to its own acts, including Otis Redding and Booker T. & the M.G.’s, Stax also worked with Atlantic soul stars like Carla Thomas and Wilson Pickett, who benefitted from the label’s grittier, deep-soul approach. It was at Stax that Sam & Dave developed their trademark sound, which played off their gospel roots and matched the effusive energy of the live shows.
At Stax, Sam & Dave became partnered with another duo, neophyte producers/songwriters Isaac Hayes and David Porter. Together, they designed the distinctive Sam & Dave vocal patterns, based on the call-and-response of gospel. Rather than harmonizing, the pair usually traded off verses or sung in unison, giving a competitive edge to their sound, as if each singer were trying to outdo the other. In doing so, Sam & Dave pushed each other to go bigger and more emotional, making their records some of the most soulful that Stax produced. Even as one of them would take the lead, the other would echo or ad-lib behind him — contributing both to the texture of the record, and to rumors that the duo couldn’t stand each other.
The 1965 Hayes/Porter composition “You Don’t Know Like I Know” instantly propelled Sam & Dave from obscurity, surging to #7 on the Billboard R&B charts and crossing over into the Hot 100. It would be the first of the duo’s 13 consecutive singles to make the pop charts — an astonishing feat by any metric, but especially impressive given that duo’s sound was far rootsier than the mainstream-courting soul coming from Motown. But while the success of “You Don’t Know Like I Know” vindicated Sam & Dave’s years of struggle, its follow-up single would send them into the stratosphere.
“Hold On! I’m Comin’” is loose and funky yet immaculately constructed, packed with hooks without being overwhelmed by them. Sam & Dave’s vocals feel casual, as if improvised, but are so tightly focused that they never seem sloppy. The horn section, courtesy of Stax house band the Mar-Keys, emphasizes the groove of the song and sets up the high drama of the chorus. Booker T. and the MG’s serves as the backing band; even with Isaac Hayes sitting in for an absent Booker T. Jones on piano, they lock into their usual white-hot groove.
“Hold On! I’m Comin’” (titled “Hold On! I’m A-Comin’” in its original pressing, to de-emphasize any potential sexual interpretations) outdid “You Don’t Know Like I Know” to become the duo’s first R&B #1, while also becoming their first Top 40 pop hit (#21 on the Hot 100). The record became the second of what would be eight consecutive R&B top 10 hits, and firmly established them as one of the most successful soul acts of the mid and late ’60s. (Aretha Franklin was the only R&B artist in this period with more consistent success on both charts.) The duo would go on to have bigger hits with “I Thank You” (#4 R&B/#9 pop), and their signature song, “Soul Man” (#1 R&B/#2 pop), but “Hold On! I’m Comin’” set the template and is still one of the most thrilling products of the Atlantic-Stax collaboration.
It Was 50 Years Ago Today examines a song, album, movie, or book that was #1 on the charts exactly half a century ago.
