This is the eighth time the Supremes have been to the top of the charts. It’s the second of a four song run of number ones for the group. “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” was written by the Motown team of Holland-Dozier-Holland who have written all of the other Supremes hits, as well as much of everything else that came out of Motown in the Sixties.

The was H-D-H’s attempt to get the Supremes away from rhythm and blues and have a more rock and roll sound. They weren’t sure if it would be successful, but they didn’t have to worry. Everything the Supremes did during these years was gold.

The staccato sound that you hear in the background throughout the entire song comes from an old Morse Code special effect that was used in the old days on the radio, usually used right before a news announcement. Lamont Dozier heard the sound and thought it would work for “You Keep Me Hangin’ On.” It did. This song is an early example of layering the music. Multitracking is common today, but it wasn’t done so much in the Sixties. This record was recorded a track at a time. It took them eight sessions before they had something they could release.

The original Supremes version of “You Keep me Hangin’ On” is ranked number 339 on Rolling Stone Magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It is also one of only six songs that have reached number one by two different artists. The second artist in this case was Kim Wilde who hit number one with the song in 1987. Vanilla Fudge covered “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” about a year after the Supremes and rose to number six with their version.

The Supremes version of “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” debuted on the pop charts on November 5, 1966 and spent two weeks at number one. On the week that it hit number one, a unique thing happened. It was the first time in chart history that all five of the top five songs for that week (the week of November 19, 1966) had been or would be number ones.