"I'll Have to Let Him Go" is a 1962 song and single written, composed and produced by William "Mickey" Stevenson and issued on the Gordy (Motown) label.
The song is about ending a romantic relationship, as its narrator, after seeing her lover kissing and holding another, realizing its over and decides she going “to set him free” even though "it's gonna hurt (her) so".
The song was intended for Mary Wells, but when Wells could not make the session, Martha, then an assistant and secretary to Stevenson, was asked to sing it in her place as a demo record,[3] and she recruited her groupmates Rosalind Ashford, Gloria Williams and Annette Beard to back her.
The performance so impressed Stevenson and label president Berry Gordy that they signed the group to the label, decided to release the song as a single, and recorded another single for release, the Williams led "You'll Never Cherish A Love So True('Til You Lose It)" / "There He Is (At My Door)".
Also around this time, Williams would leave the quartet, deciding that show business was too rigorous, making them a trio from then onward.