"Ain't Nothin' Goin' On but the Rent" | ||||
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Single by Gwen Guthrie | ||||
from the album Good to Go Lover | ||||
Released | 1986 | |||
Genre | Dance-R&B [1] | |||
Label | Polydor | |||
Songwriter(s) | Gwen Guthrie | |||
Producer(s) | Gwen Guthrie | |||
Gwen Guthrie singles chronology | ||||
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"Ain't Nothin' Goin' On but the Rent" is a song by American singer-songwriter Gwen Guthrie. It was released in 1986 as the lead single from her fourth album, Good to Go Lover (1986), on Polydor Records. It became the biggest hit of Guthrie's career, and the song's title became a semi-popular catchphrase among many women throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s. [2] [3] The single peaked at number five in the UK, but hit number-one in New Zealand, Zimbabwe and on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play. In 1993, it was remixed and again charted in the UK, peaking at number 42. In 2005, Blender listed "Ain't Nothin' Goin' On but the Rent" as number 339 on its list of "Greatest Songs Since You Were Born". [4]
Alan Jones from Music Week gave the 1993 remix three out of five. He wrote, "A disappointing seven-inch remix by Nigel Wright is stale and one-dimensional, but the original, still sounding fresh, and a radical E-Lustrious remix are more than enough to score a hit." [5] James Hamilton from the RM Dance Update noted, "1986 garage anthem's radical blippily thundering E-Lusirious, breezily soulful Nigel Wright Remixes, ponderously lurching Original". [6]
The song was a major hit on both sides of the Atlantic, [7] mostly in dance clubs and on the radio, charting moderately on the US pop chart (reaching number 42 on the Billboard Hot 100), but faring better on the Billboard R&B chart where it spent one week at number-one and on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart where it spent two weeks at the top. [8] The song peaked at number-one in New Zealand and Zimbabwe, and was also successful in parts of Europe, reaching number five on the UK Singles Chart. [9] The 1993 remix reached number eight on the UK Dance Singles Chart.
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The song contains apparent references to at least three other songs:
The line "Ain't nothing goin' on now, but the rent-uh" appears in the 1972 James Brown hit "Get on the Good Foot — Pt. 1".
The line "You got to have a J-O-B if you want to be-with-me" is set to a melody line that recurs throughout "Doctor Love", a 1977 disco hit by First Choice.
The line "Nothing from nothing leaves nothing" is taken from Billy Preston's 1974 hit song of the same name.
This article appears to contain trivial, minor, or unrelated references to popular culture .(January 2023) |
Gwendolyn Guthrie was an American singer-songwriter and pianist who also sang backing vocals for Aretha Franklin, Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder, Peter Tosh, The Limit and Madonna, among others, and who wrote songs made famous by Ben E. King, Angela Bofill and Roberta Flack. Guthrie is well known for her 1986 anthem "Ain't Nothin' Goin' on But the Rent," and for her 1986 cover of the song "(They Long to Be) Close to You."
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It's no wonder City Girls want men to pay up for their time. The mindset isn't new. Gwen Guthrie sang, "No romance without finance," on her 1986 dance-R&B hit "Ain't Nothin' Goin' on But the Rent."