Songoftheday 6/12/15 - I've done alright up to now it's the light of day that shows me how, and when the night falls loneliness calls...
"I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)" - Whitney Houston
from the album Whitney (1987)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 14
Today's SOTD is by soul/pop singer Whitney Houston, whose debut album had made her a household name with four big hit singles including three consecutive #1 hits in "Saving All My Love For You", "How Will I Know", and her cover of "The Greatest Love Of All". But it was the release of her second album, Whitney, that truly made her a superstar. Becoming the first woman to debut at #1 on Billboard's albums chart in the U.S., the record was a mainstream pop titan, and the first single was as bright and exuberant in sound as the lyrics were vulnerable and even sad. "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)", written by George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam, who themselves scored a top-40 hit as Boy Meets Girl with "Oh Girl", and also wrote Whitney's "How Will I Know". Produced by Narada Michael Walden, the track carried itself on a wall of synthesizers, while Whitney's booming vocals only hinted at a party, yet lyrics like..
Clock strikes upon the hourThat's the feeling of a woman alone in her room to heartbroken to leave, and I soooo identified with it them (as frequently I do today). And the song doesn't even resolve itself, finding a man and ending the loneliness, it's just frozen in that moment in time yearning to have someone there, with "dance" being the medium of expression of happiness. But you'd never know it listening to the Spectoresque barrage of fun it overlays...
And the sun begins to fade
Still enough time to figure out
How to chase my blues away
I've done alright up to now
It's the light of day that shows me how
And when the night falls, loneliness calls...
"I Wanna Dance With Somebody" became Whitney's fourth straight #1 pop hit in the U.S. in June of 1987. The single also topped the Adult Contemporary and the Dance Club Play charts in Billboard, and climbed to the runner-up spot on its R&B singles chart. Whitney also took home the Grammy for Female Pop Vocal in 1988 for the song. Internationally, it went to #1 almost in every country (though it didn't even make the top-10 in France, nasty buggers)...
Fun fact - I owned (well, still own) the "cassingle" for this, and used to play the acappella version at top volume in my apartment in Chicago when I came home from school or work. My roommates always knew if I was home even if they were down the street.
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Here's Whitney previewing the track in 1986 in London...
...and at the Grammy program in 1988...
Again for the Mandela birthday tribute at Wembley in 1988...
Her official VEVO provides her I'm Your Baby Tonight tour version from 1990, probably my favorite of the bunch...
...and from the Arista 25th anniversary concert in 1994 along with "How Will I Know"...
In 2006, Puerto Rican singer Lumidee teamed up with rapper Fatman Scoop with an interpolation of the song as "Dance" for the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament in Germany...
Six years later, Glee covered the song for their Whitney tribute episode, though it failed to make the top 100 in the US and UK..
In 2013, Australian singer-songwriter Scott Matthew brought out the pain in the lyrics with his 2013 version...
That same year, the Cube Guys teamed up with club singer Barbara Tucker for their take on the track...
Most recently, Dutch singer Natalie La Rose and American R&B singer Jeremih interpolated the chorus on their single "Somebody", which made the top-10 in the US and UK this year...
And finally, here's the "writer's version" with Boy Meets Girl recording the track..
Up tomorrow: Funk duo warns against rocking the beat.
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