My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It)

Album: Funky Divas (1992)
Charted: 4 2
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Songfacts®:

  • The sophisticated ladies of En Vogue introduced their second album, Funky Divas, with the lead single "My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It)," where they let their guy know in very clear terms that it's over. He says he's changed and is making lots of promises, but he had his chance and blew it. He'll never see their lovin' again.
  • Like most En Vogue songs, this was written and produced by the Oakland team of Denzil Foster and Thomas Mcelroy, former members of Club Nouveau who started working with En Vogue on their debut album, Born To Sing. Foster and Mcelroy kept "My Lovin'" stylistically similar to the group's first hit, "Hold On," which they also wrote and produced.
  • This was the fourth #1 R&B hits for En Vogue - their next single, a cover of Aretha Franklin's "Giving Him Something He Can Feel," also reached #1 but was their last R&B chart-topper. "My Lovin'" also climbed to #2 on the Hot 100, where it stayed for three weeks, held back by the Kris Kross song "Jump." En Vogue never did land a #1 hit on that chart, but had two other songs reach #2: "Hold On" and "Don't Let Go (Love)."
  • The track is built on a sample of the James Brown song "The Payback."
  • The song has one of the most memorable a cappella breakdowns in pop music, with the ladies making it very clear he's never gonna get it. This section begins with an announcer stating, "And now it's time for a breakdown." Radio DJs sometimes had a bit of fun with this by stopping the song after the announcement and having a breakdown ("I can't take it anymore!") before starting it again.
  • Dawn Robinson and Maxine Jones took the lead vocals on this track. Matthew Rolston, who also did TLC's "Creep," directed the video, which is more focused on glamorous shots of the group in different settings than on storyline.
  • "My Lovin'" had been used on episodes of Sister, Sister, Pose, and RuPaul's Drag Race. It also shows up in the movies The To Do List (2013) and Pitch Perfect 2 (2015).
  • Dr. Evil sings this to mock his son Scott in a 2022 Super Bowl commercial for General Motors electric vehicles that reboots the Austin Powers franchise. There an EV (electrical vehicle) tie-in with En Vogue, "nEVer Gonna Get It," and Dr. EVil."

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