About The Song
“Me and Mrs. Jones” is a 1972 soul song written by Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff, and Cary Gilbert, and originally recorded by Billy Paul. It describes an extramarital affair between a man and his lover, Mrs. Jones. In the song, the two meet in secret “every day at the same cafe”, at 6:30, where they hold hands and talk. The two are caught in a quandary: “We got a thing going on/we both know that it’s wrong/but it’s much too strong/to let it go now.”
“Me and Mrs. Jones” was a #1 single originally performed by Billy Paul, recorded and released in 1972 on CBS Records’ Philadelphia International imprint. The single, included on the album 360 Degrees of Billy Paul, was written by Cary ‘Hippy’ Gilbert, Kenny Gamble, and Leon Huff, and arranged by Bobby Martin.
The single became Paul’s only #1 single on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, holding that position for three weeks in December 1972. “Me and Mrs. Jones” also achieved this feat on Billboard’s R&B Singles chart, remaining at the top for four weeks. On the Hot 100, it replaced “I Am Woman” by Helen Reddy and was replaced by Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain”. It also hit #10 on the Adult Contemporary chart. For two weeks – February 3-10, 1973 – it peaked at number 12 on the UK Singles Chart. Paul won Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male at the 15th Grammy Awards. In 2018, Paul’s single was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
The radio edit versions were shorter, omitting the second verse, as well as shortening the coda. The video for this song features Paul playing piano in a recording session, with an unlit green cigar, accompanied by dancers.
The saxophone quotes the first seven notes of the Doris Day song “Secret Love”, heard in the intro and outro of the song. Both Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster sued Cary Gilbert plus Gamble and Huff for quoting the song without written approval beforehand. Both Fain and Webster won the damages in a lawsuit, with half of the song’s proceeds going to Fain and Webster.
Reviewing the song for Stereogum in 2019, Tom Breihan said: “It’s a finely observed song, one that never judges its characters or imagines a way out of its situation. But it’s also schmaltz. One of Gamble and Huff’s great strengths was their sense of rhythmic push; it’s what would make them so ideally suited for the early days of disco. But we don’t hear that on “Me And Mrs. Jones”. Instead, it’s a lush and lazy sprawl of a song. It all sounds magnificent, these guitars and pianos and saxophones all luxuriating into each other. But there’s no force to it, no urgency.” In his obituary for Paul in The New York Times William Grimes said: “The arrangement has been described as having “A lush string arrangement and punchy horn parts complemented Mr. Paul’s velvety, husky baritone, which built from a near-whisper at the beginning of the song to a wrenching, drawn-out shout of “Me and Mrs. Jones” at climactic points.
Video
Lyrics
Me and Mrs. Jones
We got a thing goin’ on
We both know that it’s wrong
But it’s much too strong
To let it go now
We meet every day at the same café
Six-thirty and no one knows she’ll be there
Holding hands, making all kinds of plans
While the jukebox plays our favorite songs
Me and Mrs., Mrs. Jones
Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Jones
We got a thing goin’ on
We both know that it’s wrong
But it’s much too strong
To let it go now
We gotta be extra careful
That we don’t build our hopes up too high
‘Cause she’s got her own obligations
And so, and so do I
Me and Mrs., Mrs. Jones
Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Jones
We got a thing goin’ on
We both know that it’s wrong
But it’s much too strong
To let it go now
Well, it’s time for us to be leaving
It hurts so much, it hurts so much inside
Now she’ll go her way and I’ll go mine
Tomorrow we’ll meet
The same place, the same time
Me and Mrs., Mrs. Jones
Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Jones
We got a thing goin’ on (thing)
We gotta be extra careful (goin’ on)
We can’t afford to build our hopes up too high
I wanna meet (thing) and talk with you
At the same place (goin’ on), the same café, the same time
And we gonna hold hands like we used to
We gonna talk it over, talk it over
(Thing) we know, they know (goin’ on), and you know
And I know that it was wrong
But our thing is strong, we gotta let ’em know now
That we got a thing going on, a thing going on