Songoftheday 8/22/21 -You said you'd be here by nine Instead you took your time, you didn't think to call me boy...

 

 

"Heartbreak Hotel" - Whitney Houston featuring Faith Evans & Kelly Price

from the album My Love Is Your Love (1998)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2 (three weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 21

 

Today's song is by Whitney Houston, who we just saw with her duet with Mariah Carey from the Prince Of Egypt movie, "When You Believe".  The same week that song entered Billboard magazine's R&B chart, the first single from Whitney's new studio album My Love Is Your Love also arrived (as well as the third, mind you, but we'll get to that in another installment). "Heartbreak Hotel" wasn't a remake of the Elvis hit from the 50's but rather a neo-new jack swing track written by Tamara Savage along with producers Carsten "Soulshack" Schack and Kenneth Karlin. Featuring current R&B upstarts Faith Evans, who just scored her first top ten solo pop hit with "Love Like This", and Kelly Price, who topped Billboard's R&B chart for five weeks with "Friend Of Mine" in the summer of 1998. Left by her man, Whitney is forced to confront him by letter (in song) of the wrong he did in leaving her. Evans and Price provide the muse backup on the leadups to the chorus, leaving Whitney to stand front and center in this betrayal. It was a big departure from her squeaky-clean pop past, delving into the current soul tropes of infidelity, and Evans and Price compliment Houston rather than compete with her this time. The music video has Whitney doing bad things to a white fur coat...

"Heartbreak Hotel" spent three weeks in the runner-up spot on Billboard's Hot 100 pop chart in March of 1999. The song topped the R&B list for seven weeks, while the remixes of the track, done by Hex Hector, Thunderpuss 2000, and Johnny Vicious, helped it spent a week at #1 on their Dance Club Play tally. Internationally, the single peaked at #7 in France, while reaching the top-40 in Belgium (#12F/#33W), Iceland (#15), Canada (#16), Australia (#17), the UK (#25), and New Zealand (#33). The My Love Is Your Love album, released in November of 1998, was her first to miss the Billboard 200 top ten at #13, but stayed on the chart for over a year, eventually moving over three million copies. At the Grammy Awards, "Heartbreak Hotel" was nominated for Best R&B Duo/Group Vocal Performance, which actually went to the group that was originally pitched the song, TLC, for their "No Scrubs". Also, My Love Is Your Love was up for Best R&B Album, which TLC also took home for their FanMail album. Whitney will be back to the series.

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Here's the house music remix by Hex Hector that helped "Heartbreak Hotel" top Billboard's Dance Club Play chart...

Next up, Whitney, Faith, and Kelly appearing on the Rosie O'Donnell Show to promote the album...

The trio also reprised their performance at the Billboard Music Awards in 1998...

Lastly, we got Whitney in concert in 1999...

Up tomorrow: Boyband brings everything.