I Gotcha (Joe Tex song)

"I Gotcha"
Single by Joe Tex
from the album I Gotcha
A-side"A Mother's Prayer"
ReleasedDecember 1971
Recorded1971
StudioAmerican (Memphis, Tennessee)
Genre
Length2:18
LabelDial Records
SongwriterJoe Tex
ProducerBuddy Killen
Joe Tex singles chronology
"Give the Baby Anything the Baby Wants"
(1971)
"I Gotcha"
(1971)
"A Mother's Prayer"
(1972)

"I Gotcha" is a song by Joe Tex. Originally intended for King Floyd, instead Tex recorded it himself in the late 1960s, but did not release it at that time. He decided to re-record it in late 1971 and released it as the B-side of "A Mother's Prayer", the first single from his 1972 album I Gotcha. Mostly spoken in the form of an early rap song, with few singing passages, "I Gotcha" has the singer chastising a woman for playing with his affections: "You never shouldn't have promised if you weren't gonna do it".

Radio DJs ended up playing this B-side song more than the A-side. This would result in Tex having his first major hit in five years as "I Gotcha" eventually peaked at number one in the US, on the R&B chart and number two on the Pop chart for two weeks, behind "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" by Roberta Flack and would sell around three million copies. Billboard ranked it as the No. 6 song of 1972. In Canada, the song reached number 22. Tex would later re-record "I Gotcha" in a ballad-style for his 1978 album Rub Down.