Chart entered : 5 May 1990
Chart peak : 5 ( 53 as a re-mix in 1998 )
Number of hits : 11
Though now over-shadowed by acts that followed in their wake, these girls should be credited as heralds of a new wave of female R& B vocal groups.
En Vogue were put together by the new jack swing production duo of Denzel Foster and Thomas McElroy ( formerly part of Club Nouveau ) who wanted to create a Supremes for the nineties.All four girls came through an audition process in 1988 . Cindy Herron from San Francisco had experience as a session singer and a moderately successful acting career. Maxine Jones and Dawn Robinson were newcomers from New Jersey and Connecticut respectively. Foster and McElroy originally envisaged a trio but then decided that a fourth auditionee, Terry Ellis from Texas, was too good to leave out. They were initially called "For You" but then switched to "En Vogue". Atlantic bought into the project and signed them up.
The girls worked on their debut album throughout 1989 and "Hold On" became its lead single. It starts with a direct signifier to Motown with Terry taking the lead on an a cappella extract from Smokey Robinson's Who's Loving You ? They were taking a risk as far as radio play was concerned as it seems to go on too long before the song proper cranks into action but it paid off. The group were credited as co-composers with Foster and McElroy ( as with The Spice Girls a few years later ). The lyrics are not particularly enlightened, a woman bemoans the loss of her guy because she didn't give him enough space then the rest of the song becomes a didactic instruction on how to keep hold of a guy.
The song has a slinky groove which allows the girls to build up a vocal swell with Cindy taking over the lead. It's not all that strong melodically and the outro just tails off without resolution; it's the quality of the singing itself that becomes the hook . You wanted to buy into such an obviously talented group. The record was a hit here after reaching number two in the U.S.
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