I Gotcha

Album: I Gotcha (1972)
Charted: 2
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Songfacts®:

  • This was Joe Tex's highest-charting career single as far as the Billboard Hot 100 was concerned. It is all original Joe Tex, in his own absolutely inimitable style - he's known as one of the precursors of rap music.

    While Joe Tex may have been charting on the Hot 100 since 1965, his previous highest score had been #5 for his breakout single "Hold What You've Got". Since that time, he'd barely tasted the Top-10. This song was actually the B-side of "A Mother's Prayer" - Radio station DJs would flip it and play this side instead, giving him his highest-charting hit.
  • We have yet another Tarantino hit! The film Reservoir Dogs features this song prominently. It's used for the scene where three of the robbers transport the hostage cop to their warehouse hideaway, where they proceed to beat the nickels out of him, both because they suspect they were set up and just to work off some frustration after their robbery plan goes to pieces. The action is even choreographed to the music a little; watch Michael Madsen pulling off a length of duct tape in time to the lyrics for a beat or two.
  • Does "I Gotcha" show a little James Brown influence? There might have been more than just inspiration going on there; the two, who sometimes shared a stage, feuded quite a bit. Tex said Brown copied him and later stole his girlfriend, Brown didn't like the way Tex made fun of him. According to AOL-Spinner, this led to an incident where allegedly Brown used a gun to fire a few rounds at Tex in a nightclub, then pay off the patrons with $100 bills so they wouldn't call the police.
  • Joe Tex re-recorded "I Gotcha" for his 1978 album Rub Down, this time as a ballad.

Comments: 2

  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn March 25th 1972, Joe Tex performed "I Gotcha" on the ABC-TV program 'American Bandstand'...
    At the time the song was at #10 on Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart; and little over a month later on April 30th, 1972 it would peak at #2 {See the next post below}...
    On the same 'Bandstand' show he also performed his next release, "You Said a Bad Word", it would reached #41 on the Top 100, and stay on the chart for 8 weeks.
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn January 16th 1972, "I Gotcha" by Joe Tex entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart; and on April 30th, 1972 it peaked at #2 (for 2 weeks) and spent 21 weeks on the Top 100 (and 9 of those 21 weeks it was on the Top 10)...
    And on March 12th, 1972 it reached #1 (for 1 week) on Billboard's R&B Singles chart...
    The two weeks it was at #2, it was "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" by Roberta Flack that kept it out of the top spot (plus it had stayed at #3 for three weeks before moving up to #2)...
    Between 1965 and 1978 he had thirty-three on the R&B Singles chart; with twelve making the Top 10 and three reaching #1 (the other two were "I Want To (Do Everything for You)" in 1965 and "A Sweet Woman Like You" again in 1965)...
    R.I.P. Mr. Tex, born Joseph Arrington, Jr., (1933 - 1982).
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