Whitney Houston - I'm Your Baby Tonight (Anniversary Celebration)

UK release date: November 6th 1990
UK album chart peak: #4
US album chart peak: #3

Buy I'm Your Baby Tonight here (Amazon UK)
Read my #ImYourBabyTonight30 singles project here
Read my Whitney anniversary celebration posts here

After two phenomenally successful albums, there must have been enormous pressure on Whitney Houston and her team to continue this with her third album. Despite her chart-topping run, critics never seemed to be happy - she was too r'n'b on her first album, too pop on her second. She released too many ballads. She didn't write her own material. I remember reading some snotty article in a Sunday supplement as an ardent fourteen year old fan and thinking "just let the lady sing, gosh darn it all to heck" (because I was a super polite child). I'm Your Baby Tonight seemed to silence many of the naysayers by crafting a contemporary sound steeped in soulful influences and filled to the brim with heavenly pop choruses. The two can exist hand in hand - and IYBT was the perfect example of this. While she stuck with tried and tested producer Narada Michael Walden, on this album she expanded her circle of collaborators by including L.A. Reid & Babyface, Luther Vandross and Stevie Wonder. This allowed for a richer array of sounds and genres that was a creative step forward from her last two (admittedly great) albums - an album that was saturated with dazzling beats, sultry moans and window rattling gospel declarations. It was magnificent and as soon as I got it in my grubby little hands, I loved it. I played it non-stop and memorised every note bending aside. In retrospect, as discussed below, it was book-ended by two non-album singles that make up part of my wish-list special edition re-release. So read on, enjoy and all will become clear...

In hindsight, Whitney's duet with the legendary Aretha Franklin (from the latter's album, Through The Storm) was a clear indication of the direction she was heading in for album number three. It Isn't, It Wasn't, It Ain't Never Gonna Be was released approximately a year after One Moment In Time but also about a year before the lead single proper to album three would materialise. Initially produced by Whitney fave, Narada Michael Walden, the single version was snazzily remixed by new jack swing king Teddy Riley and gave the song a more sassy, funky vibe. The lyrics see Whitney and Aretha facing off over who gets to keep their man, with percolating beats and rhythmic grooves spurring their musical argument forward. There are some great ad-libs peppered through the song, while each of the vocalists sounds in their element, sparring against the other. When their voices combine for the chorus, it is a real treat to hear vocoder free styling as they make the melody dance to their own indomitable will. I remember buying the song on import 12" and luxuriating in the many remixes of the song (all of which - and more - appear on a special edition of Aretha's album that you can buy at Amazon UK here). I remember being gobsmacked that it didn't make the top ten in either the US or the UK - a real shame as it is a song I really love. And it feels like the natural progression between the end of the Whitney album and the start of the I'm Your Baby Tonight era.

The album campaign kicked off properly in September 1990 when the title track, I'm Your Baby Tonight, was released. I was giddy. It had been heavily promoted in pop magazines, on television and on radio. As far as I was concerned, I was smitten from the first time I heard it. It sounded slick and seductive, soulful and sensuous. I absolutely loved the rapid-fire vocal breakdowns that made up the middle 8 of the song - eagerly learning each word through multiple listens and studying the poster with lyrics from Smash Hits. A whole new era of Whitney had dawned and the public seemed to embrace it and take her once more into their collective bosom (or something). This was Whitney letting her inhibitions go and throwing caution to the wind. Amidst the swirling strings and radiant house infused piano, she sounded euphoric. The UK got a different mix (both on the single and album) to the US (by Yvonne Turner) - but the differences were subtle. The 12" single featured a delicious extended remix that kept this captivating song going for well over six glorious minutes. It rocketed up the charts all over the world, scoring a number five hit in the UK (same peak as dance pop classics such as So Emotional and How Will I Know) while giving her an eighth chart topper on the US Billboard Hot 100. (Note - the b-side to the single was a never-again-released track Feels So Good, a shimmering mid-tempo ballad fuelled by finger clicks and longing. It is easily found on youtube but has never appeared on any Whitney album or compilation since the initial release).

The album was released shortly after the lead single and became an international hit. The second single was quickly released to take advantage of the lucrative Christmas market (more so in the UK) and was actually a smart choice. All The Man That I Need put us firmly back in classic Whitney ballad territory - a hunk of gargantuan pop bombast swathed in echo and glitzy astral twinkles. As if anyone needed reminding, it demonstrated firmly what an outstanding vocalist Whitney could be as she once again provided the soundtrack to a million yearning hearts. The sumptuous sax solo (provided, I believe, by Kenny G) was the romantic icing on this delicious musical cake. It became another US chart topper whilst lingering in the ultra-competitive UK top twenty over the festive period. I was a sucker for a huge, grandiose ballad so could be found at the piano trying to learn the arrangement by ear (whilst imprinting the message of the song to whoever I had a crush on that very week. (Again, kudos on another hitherto unreleased b-side. Dancing On The Smooth Edge is a lovely, languorous celebration of love). After a brief diversion for her version of The Star Spangled Banner (in the US only), Whitney returned to the album for the release of Miracle. We all knew Whitney could belt it out to the rafters (the last minute of Star Spangled proved that in inimitable fashion), but from the first moment I played the parent album I loved how she could bring just as emotion and feeling to the understated and restraint of Miracle. It was a melancholy subject matter but never felt gloomy or oppressive - just a feat of vocal perfection from Ms. Houston. It reached number nine in the US, featuring the almost-as-lovely album track, After We Make Love, on the flip side.

In an album full of stand outs, My Name Is Not Susan was one of those songs that you knew would be a single - you just weren't sure when. It came as single three in the UK and single four in the US. For some reason, there was a whopping six months between All The Man and Susan in the UK. While she had been prolific in her native America, it seemed to lead to a cooling interest in the album in the UK. Shame, because whether you favour the album version or the scintillating remix, there is no denying My Name Is Not Susan is a stone cold funky groove. I was besotted with the assertive nature of the lyrics, Whitney stipulating in no uncertain terms how she wasn't taking any crap. The Waddell 7" mixed emphasised a more dance oriented flavour over the cathartic energy of the album track, while the 70s Flange Mix on the 12" and CD single may be one of my favourite Whitney mixes ever (sorry Freemasons). It wasn't that the song wasn't a hit (top twenty in the US, top thirty in the UK), I think I had waited so long for it that I was ready for it to put her back in the top ten (as similar dance hits had done in England from her Whitney album).

The final single from the album (in the UK) was I Belong To You. Thanks to some Shep Pettibone remixes, it was transformed from a solid album track into a glimmering, compelling single. It fully committed to the shuffling, soulful grooves that were very de rigour at the time on the English club scene and it was nigh on possible not to give it some deep shoulder action each time it spun you around. The US also got the Stevie Wonder duet, We Didn't Know, in a remix and extended format. They both extended the life of the parent album, though not as successfully as final singles from Whitney Houston and Whitney had done. It didn't matter. New versions of songs are always appreciated by fans and it evidenced Whitney (and the label)'s commitment to providing genre crossing magic. These six singles ensured that I'm Your Baby Tonight was a massive smash all around the world - and closed off nicely a run of studio albums that would not commence again until 1998 (after contributing to 3 soundtracks to movies - as an actress and singer). One final note - I always thought that the duet with Bobby Brown, Something In Common, was a perfect coda to this period. Sure the single wasn't released until after her phenomenally successful The Bodyguard period, but it appeared on the Bobby album a good few months before that began. Although clearly a Bobby song, as duets go it is definitely a keeper and a charming reminder of simpler times.