I Gotcha (Joe Tex song)

"I Gotcha" is a song by Joe Tex. He originally intended for the song to be recorded by King Floyd, but Floyd never recorded it. Instead, Tex recorded it himself in the late 1960s but did not release it at that time. He decided to re-record the song in late 1971 and released it as the B-side of "A Mother's Prayer", the first single off his 1972 album that was also titled I Gotcha. This angry song has the singer accusing his lover of being unfaithful to him, by having an affair with another man, so he tests her to ask her to kiss him for a longer time, and when he is unsatisfied, he demands to her to have her give him back his love, as a result of playing with his affections. Radio DJs decided to flip the single over and started playing "I Gotcha". This would result in Tex having his first major hit in five years as "I Gotcha" eventually peaked at Number 1 on the R&B chart and Number 2 on the Pop chart for two weeks, behind "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" by Roberta Flack and would sell around three million copies. Billboard ranked it as the No. 6 song of 1972.

Contents

• Jimmy Barnes version
• Track listing
• References

Tex would later re-record "I Gotcha" again, this time in more of a ballad-style, for inclusion on his 1978 album Rub Down. Like other Tex songs, "I Gotcha" has been sampled in various hip hop and R&B songs over the years. Liza Minnelli performed the number at her 1972 television concert Liza with a Z. It is also featured in the official soundtrack to the Quentin Tarantino film Reservoir Dogs. A shorter version of it played in Kermit's Swamp Years when Willson the pet store owner took Croaker and Kermit to George Washington High School.