Ain't No Way by Aretha Franklin is featured in A Night Of Neglect, the seventeenth episode of Season Two. It is sung by Mercedes, with a Choir singing back-up.
They sing it at the benefit concert for The Brainiacs. Mercedes chooses to sing this because she says that since her audition in Pilot, the first episode in Season One, Aretha has received no "respect" in the club. During the episode, Rachel fights everyone for the final spot, but when Mercedes sings this song, Rachel says she can't perform because she could never top it like Mercedes does. While Mercedes sings, Rachel looks at Finn and Quinn with a broken and hurt expression on her face, showing, one again, how she is still very much in love with Finn.
Mercedes:
Ain't no way for me to love you,
if you won't let me
It ain't no way for me to give you all you need,
if you won't let me give all of me
I know that a woman's duty is to help and love a man,
and that's the way it was planned
Oh, but how can I, how can I, how can I
Give you all of the things I can,
If you're tying both of my hands?
Mercedes (The Choir):
Oh, it ain't no way (Ain't no way)
It ain't no way (Ain't no way)
It just ain't no way, baby (Ain't no way)
Ain't no way baby (Ain't no way)
It ain't no way for me to love you,
Mercedes with the Choir harmonizing (Mercedes):
If you won't let me
(Stop trying to be someone you're not)
How cold and cruel is a man
Mercedes (The Choir):
Who pay too much for what he got?
And if you need me (Oh-oh-oh) to love you, (Say) say, (Say) say you do (You do)
Oh, then (Baby) baby, baby, baby don't you know that
I (Don't you)
Need (Know that)
You (I need you)
Oh, Oh, it ain't no way (Ain't no way)
I'll tell you that it ain't no way,
It ain't no way
It ain't no way, baby, (Ain't no way)
No
It just ain't no way (Ain't no way)
It sure ain't no way (Ain't no way)
It ain't no way for me to love you,
If you won't let me
Trivia
Amber Riley's mother can be seen in the front row of the choir during this performance.
This is the second time she had been cast as a choir member on the show. The first being Like a Prayer, where Amber is seen singing and dancing beside her.
