Songoftheday 9/13/18 - I can cast a spell of secrets you can tell, mix a special brew put fire inside of you...

"I'm Every Woman" - Whitney Houston
from the album The Bodyguard (Original Soundtrack) (1992)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 19

Today's song of the day comes from the late Whitney Houston, who had just had the biggest hit of her career and at the time broke records with her cover of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You" for the movie The Bodyguard. Shortly after, presumably because the record company wasn't prepared for the massive international success of the single, they released "Someday (I'm Coming Back)" from British songstress Lisa Stansfield; it was able to climb to #10 on the UK Chart as well as in Portugal, and reached the top-40 in Ireland (#16), the Netherlands (#30), and Belgium (#34). That track from the Bodyguard album wasn't released as a single in the States; that honor fell to yet another remake done by Whitney, who starred in the movie, that would end up overshadowing its predecessor.

"I'm Every Woman" originally was released as the first solo single from R&B singer Chaka Khan, member of the group Rufus, as the lead release from her debut album Chaka. Written by the iconic team of Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson, Khan's single spent three weeks at #1 on Billboard's R&B chart, peaked at #21 on the pop Hot 100, and surprisingly only got to #30 on their Disco/Dance Club Play chart. It would be nominated for a Grammy for Best R&B Female Vocal, which went to Donna Summer for "Last Dance"...

Aside from an a cappella start like her last hit, Whitney's version, produced by Narada Michael Walden (who did her "How Will I Know" hit single), doesn't stray from the original, with swirling strings in the background, but with an added subtle house music beat remixed in by C&C Music Factory's Rob Clivilles and David Cole. Chaka gets called out at the end, and she even appears in the music video along with Houston's mother Cissy, dance music legend Martha Wash, song co-writer Valerie Simpson, and even label newcomers TLC...

Houston's take on "I'm Every Woman" climbed up into the pop top five in America in February of 1993. The song also scaled to #5 on Billboard's R&B chart, and even crossed over to their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio list, peaking at #26. The club remixes done by Clivilles and Cole among others helped the track top the Dance Club Play chart for two weeks as well. Internationally, the single made the top ten in Canada (#2), Belgium (#2), Spain (#3), the UK (#4), Ireland (#4), The Netherlands (#4), Portugal (#4), New Zealand (#5), Denmark (#5), Italy (#6), Sweden (#7), Greece (#7), and Finland (#10). It also got to #11 in France and Australia, #13 in Germany, #18 in Switzerland, and #19 in Austria. Like Chaka, Whitney was nominated for a Grammy Award in that same category, R&B Female Vocal Performance, again losing, this time to Toni Braxton with her "Another Sad Love Song".

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Here's Whitney performing the song live in 1994 for a concert benefiting South Africa...

Next up is the nearly ten minute epic house music throwdown done by Clivilles & Cole, the "Every Woman's House Club Mix"...

That mix may have been inspired by the one done in 1989 for Chaka's "I'm Every Woman" for her Life Is A Dance remix project; that version redone by Dancin' Danny D (of D-Mob) actually outdid the original in the UK, climbing to #8 on the British singles chart...