Don't Leave Me This Way
The Communards
Four phrases here lean on the same modal, and one of them turns it inside out: I can't survive, can't stay alive, I can't exist, and then can't you see. That last is a negative question, which English forms by putting the contracted negative first — a small pattern learners often replace with a statement and a question mark. Hearing it inside a chorus fixes the shape faster than a rule does. The vocabulary is tiny, sixteen entries, and almost entirely emotional: heart, soul, desire, kiss. A1+ is right, though the tempo is quick. Dance music turns out to be unexpectedly good for drilling one grammatical point until it is automatic.
How to study this song
The card for “Don't Leave Me This Way” is built from 33 study entries at A1+: 16 English words, 6 adjectives and 11 verb forms. The glossary is the place to begin — baby, control and desire are the song’s keywords. Nothing dominates this card: 16 words against 11 verb forms, so the study time splits evenly. At this level the goal is recognition: hear a word, place it, keep going.
The words of this song, in several languages
Every word below is taken from this song and translated by us. Nothing here is the lyric itself — these are the individual words you need in order to follow it.
Vocabulary
| EN | ES | IT | FR | PT | NL | DE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| baby | nena | piccola | bébé | nenê | liefje | Kleine |
| control | control | controllo | contrôle | controle | controle | Kontrolle |
| desire | deseo | desiderio | désir | desejo | verlangen | Verlangen |
| fire | fuego | fuoco | feu | fogo |
What this song teaches you
Level · A1+
- Vocabulary words
- 16
- Adjectives
- 6
- Word combos
- 10
- Expressions
- 9
- Verb forms
- 11
- Quiz questions
- 35
More English songs at this level
Background
About the song
“Don’t Leave Me This Way” is a euphoric hi-NRG dance record by the British duo The Communards, released in 1986.
Led by Jimmy Somerville’s soaring falsetto, it reinvents a 1970s soul-disco classic as a pulsing, joyous floor-filler, turning a plea not to be abandoned into pure dancefloor release. The contrast between the yearning lyric and the ecstatic tempo is exactly what makes it fly.
The song itself is older: Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff and Cary Gilbert wrote it for Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes in 1975, and Thelma Houston took her own version to the top of the American charts a year later.
Producer Mike Thorne rebuilt it here as hi-NRG, with the contralto of Sarah Jane Morris answering Somerville’s falsetto.
Did you know?
The Communards’ version reached number one in the UK and was the biggest-selling single of 1986 there, outselling every other record that year. It became a defining track of the mid-1980s club scene and remains one of the most recognisable hi-NRG and disco-revival singles ever made.
Charts & streaming
“Don’t Leave Me This Way” was a chart-topper across several countries and a huge club and radio success, cementing Jimmy Somerville as one of pop’s most distinctive voices. It endures as a staple of party playlists, Pride celebrations and 1980s compilations.
It held the top spot for four weeks after its release in August 1986 and is certified platinum in Britain for 600,000 copies. It was also number one in Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain, and in the United States it led the dance chart while reaching 40 on the Hot 100.