21 for Khan), while Chaka’s won on the soul list (No. Not surprisingly, Houston’s version charted higher on the pop chart (No. Of course, “I’m Every Woman” would go on to be given even newer meaning in future covers by other singers, most famously Whitney Houston in 1992 for The Bodyguard soundtrack. That unprecedented chart dominance gave new context to being “Every Woman,” at least on the Billboard charts. 1 (Ashford & Simpson’s “It Seems To Hang On” at No. Chaka Khan topped Billboard’s Soul Singles chart for three weeks with “I’m Every Woman,” which prevented its songwriters own hit from reaching No. 2 on the R&B chart behind Chaka Khan was Ashford & Simpson’s own “It Seems To Hang On,” with opening lyrics sung by Valerie Simpson. 2 on the country chart behind Mandrell’s hit was “Sweet Desire” by the father-daughter duo the Kendalls (with lead vocals by daughter Jeannie). 2 country and soul songs were powered by women. 1 on their respective charts the week before.Įven the No. 1 slots on the soul singles chart (Khan), the country singles chart (Barbara Mandrell’s “Sleeping Single In A Double Bed”), the top two slots on the disco chart (“Donna Summer’s “Mac Arthur Park Suite” and Alicia Bridges’ “I Love The Nightlife”), the top two pop singles (Summer’s “MacArthur Park” and Anne Murray’s “You Needed Me”), and the top two albums (Summer’s Live and More and Linda Ronstadt’s Living In The U.S.A.), with Murray’s and Ronstadt’s entries having been No. 1 spot, women dominated all the major charts in Billboard. The week that “I’m Every Woman” jumped into the No. It fittingly became part of a historic week for women when it topped the Billboard soul charts in November 1978. “I’m Every Woman” was the only hit from Chaka Khan’s début album, simply titled Chaka, but it was a big one. By the time “I’m Every Woman” came out in 1978, she had recorded six albums with Rufus (she would record three more with them after her solo début), many of which were certified gold. Her promotion to front-woman status in the group Rufus is what elevated the otherwise all-male band from middling upstarts in 1973 to the R&B supergroup they became with their mid-to-late 1970s output. Of course, Chaka Khan knew first-hand about uplifting her fellow-man.
And when it comes down to some good old-fashioned love, that’s what I’ve got.”Ĭonsidering that a man – Nick Ashford – wrote those words (Valerie Simpson wrote the music), it was no small feat that Chaka’s soaring interpretation made it the women’s anthem the song eventually became.
I can make a rhyme of confusion in your mind. It didn’t demand respect outright in the way that Aretha’s classic “Respect” had eleven years earlier, so much as it demonstrated what this specific woman was capable of and why it was important to have her by the man’s side.Ĭonsider these lyrics: “I can sense your needs, like rain onto the seeds. It was ground that Chaka had also covered before with the band Rufus on “I’m A Woman (I’m A Backbone),” a track from their stellar 1974 Rufusized album, which Khan still occasionally includes in her live performances.īut “I’m Every Woman” was more pointed in its celebration of womanhood, with lyrics that spoke less of liberation and more about her ability to support and uplift her man. With a lush but ominous string arrangement and a soaring vocal that towered over anything her late-1970s peers could offer, Chaka’s arrival on the solo scene was part disco, part pop and all soul! The triumphant I-can-do-anything lyrics, penned by the talented Nick Ashford (of Ashford & Simpson), were soul music’s answer to Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman,” the pop music anthem for the women’s liberation movement some six years earlier. 21 pop chart peak.įorty years later, it is still considered Chaka’s signature song, perhaps rivaled only by “Ain’t Nobody” and “I Feel For You,” two songs released five and six years, respectively, after “Woman.” 1 soul song in America and on its way to a No. Produced by Arif Mardin and released on Warner Brothers Records, the song made its début on the national Billboard pop and soul charts dated October 7. “ I’m Every Woman,” Chaka Khan’s début solo single, was released in late September 1978. A full-page ad in the October 14, 1978, issue of Billboard Magazine, promoting Chaka Khan’s début solo album, Chaka. This month, the iconic song that signaled her moonlighting break from the group Rufus and the beginning of an amazing solo career celebrates its 40th anniversary. Bodacious, funky, sassy, spunky, bold, and exuberantly sexy.
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