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I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)

1987 single by Whitney Houston From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)
This article is about the song by Whitney Houston. For the film, see Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody. For the song by Mando Diao, see Dance with Somebody.

"I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" is a song recorded by American singer Whitney Houston, the leading single from her second studio album, Whitney. The song was aimed to bring Houston a more accessible pop sound after having hits with ballads on her debut album in response to her contemporaries. It was written by George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam, of the band Boy Meets Girl, the songwriters of Houston's previous hit, "How Will I Know", and produced by Narada Michael Walden. The song's lyrics depict a woman seeking a special person to "dance in the life with" forever. Houston contributed uncredited lyrics while also receiving credit for being the song's vocal arranger.

Quick Facts Single by Whitney Houston, from the album Whitney ...
"I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)"
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Single by Whitney Houston
from the album Whitney
B-side"Moment of Truth"
ReleasedApril 28, 1987[1]
RecordedSeptember 1986
Studio
Genre
Length4:51
LabelArista
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Narada Michael Walden
Whitney Houston singles chronology
"Greatest Love of All"
(1986)		 "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)"
(1987)		 "Didn't We Almost Have It All"
(1987)
Music video
"I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)" on YouTube
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Released on April 28, 1987, it received initial mixed reviews from music critics, who praised Houston's vocal performance but critiqued its musical arrangement comparing it to "How Will I Know" and Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun". The song became a global hit, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming her fourth consecutive number one single and staying there for two weeks.[5] It also topped the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart and became her first number one single on its Dance/Disco Club Play chart, while also crossing over successfully on the Hot Black Singles chart, peaking at number two, becoming one of her signature songs. It is certified 7x platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The song was a worldwide hit, reaching number one in 17 other countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom. With certified sales of over 11 million units worldwide, it is one of the best-selling singles of all time.

Both the song and its colorful music video helped to cement Houston as a global icon, while also helping to make the Whitney album one of the best-selling albums of all time.

"I Wanna Dance with Somebody" won Houston the 1988 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, as well as an American Music Award, while producer Walden won the 1988 Grammy for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical. The song has since received reappraisal from critics who have now stated that the song is among one of the greatest songs ever recorded, making several best-of lists, including Rolling Stone, who ranked it among their list of the greatest songs of all time in its 2021 entry, and was named the best pop song of all time by Billboard in 2023.[6] In addition, American Songwriter named the song the most iconic song to come out of the 1980s in 2023, while Screen Rant listed it at number 7 in its 1980s list, the same website ranked the song as the most defining pop song of all time in another list, both in 2025.

Background

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By the late summer of 1986, Houston had achieved global success with her self-titled debut album. Released in February 1985, the album had produced four top ten singles on the Billboard Hot 100, including three consecutive number one singles, "Saving All My Love for You", "How Will I Know" and "Greatest Love of All", which had made Houston the first female recording artist to produce three number one singles from a single album, the first female solo artist to produce three consecutive number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and the first all-female act to do so since The Supremes more than twenty years prior. That summer, Houston embarked on her first world tour while her boss, Arista Records head Clive Davis, began plans for Houston's sophomore follow-up to her landmark debut album.

While Houston's debut had produced a series of love ballads, Davis sought for a more accessible sound for the follow-up. Noting the success of "How Will I Know", written by George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam, of the band Boy Meets Girl, Davis sought the songwriters again to compose the next big pop hit for Houston. Not shortly after "How Will I Know" topped the charts, Merrill and Rubicam had presented Davis and Arista with "Waiting for a Star to Fall", to which the music producer rejected, believing it wasn't suitable for Houston to record, with the songwriters later agreeing that the song was "a little less universal, and I think it didn't quite have her kind of melodies and verve."[7] The songwriters were then encouraged by Davis to come with a stronger song.[8]

According to Merrill and Rubicam, the idea behind "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" came while the duo walk around their neighborhood of Venice during dusk "because there's something about that dusky hour that makes a person restless and uneasy, or a little isolated and estranged from the world in some ways... There's this social pressure, like 'I should be doing something right now.'"[7] That feeling led to Rubicam seeing "a visual in my head about going to the club and finding company. Then it morphed into finding someone to love who would love you back and do that dance of life with you."[7] In another interview, Rubicam explained, "I pictured somebody single wishing that they could find that special person for themselves. It wasn't, 'I wanna go down the disco and dance,' really. It was, 'I wanna do that dance of life with somebody.'"

While Rubicam's idea carried through as she wrote the first verse, she was stuck on the second, stating "You've already got a structure established in the first verse rhythmically and melodically, so you're sort of doing a crossword puzzle to make the new lyrics fit."[7] Eventually the method proved successful in completing the song. After completing the demo of the song "by way of a PPG Wave synthesizer", said Merrill, who helped to compose the music and write the chorus with Rubicam. Said Merrill, "I think when we were writing the chorus, we had a really good feeling. We felt confident and certainly enough so to present it to Clive [Davis]."[7] Merrill recounts running through the airport of Trans World Airlines to present the demo of the song to Davis.[7] Once Davis listened to the song while flying back to New York, he approved the song.[8] Davis recounts in 2023 that he heard hit potential in the song's chorus but felt there was "a lot that could be brought to the fore", including a new vocal and track arrangement.[7]

Recording

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Narada Michael Walden, the producer behind the track, was afraid the song was "too country" for Houston to record.

Davis decided upon hearing the song that producer Narada Michael Walden, who helped to produce (and co-write) "How Will I Know", should oversee production of the song. Walden admitted he wasn't impressed and that it took a little more persuading with regard to the song's potential.[8] Walden wasn't "too keen" on having Houston record the song, as he felt it was "too country and western sounding," stated it "reminded [him] of a rodeo song with Olivia Newton-John singing."[8][9] However, Walden later told Billboard in 2023 that he was initially drawn to the "happy and infectious" chorus, and could "hear what Davis was liking [about the demo]", but still felt he needed to funk it up to make it right for Houston.[7] In a previous interview with Mix Online, Walden called the song "definitely white pop".[10]

Walden further explained to Billboard his thought process in regards of presenting the pop song to black audiences, "Because I'm a Black cat, I know Whitney's African-American, and we want our people to be down... the demo was just too poppy and not grounded in the funk which it needed to be the smash for Whitney. Immediately, I'm listening to it and going, 'Whatcha gon' do, Narada, to Blacken this thing up and funk it up, so that the people in the ghetto and the nightclubs are jamming too?'"[7] Inspired by lessons he learned from his mentor Quincy Jones, Walden said "My philosophy is the outhouse bottom with the penthouse view... if it's got nastiness on the bottom, which is really funky, but it's very pretty on top, that combination is kind of irresistible."[7]

Walden recruited Randy Jackson on synth bass, along with fellow musicians such as Italian guitarist Corrado Rustici, longtime collaborator Preston Glass, who employed a Roland TR-808 that was used to produce the drum machine percussion and handclaps that started the song,[11] drummer Gregory "Gigi" Gonaway, and Marc Russo to work on the song with him, "lined up all different kinds of keyboards," and employed a very particular approach to recording Houston's vocals.[7] Noting Houston's busy work schedule, especially as she was still on tour at the time, Walden and his team worked around the limitations by recording the entire song first without Houston, so "she could easily envision what the end product would sound like."[7]

Since Houston's debut mostly relied on ballad singles, Walden knew that the song "had to prove that she could dominate with uptempo pop, and also fit alongside the most forward-thinking pop auteurs of the time," according to Billboard, noting popular music at the time "had made a shift with synthesizers and drum machines" inspired by the LinnDrum machines artists such as Prince was using at the time, while Jones was busy hiring "the most death-defying brains to make Michael Jackson's new sounds", noting that the competition "was really high to mastermind a new sound for Whitney."[7] Synth horns were added as a result of an engineer "playing around" with a synth overdub that he requested.[7] "It was synth horns," said Walden, "but with a glizz on it that made it something we've never done before. We glizz the bass, we never glizz the horns!"[7]

The song's recording first took place at Walden's Tarpan Studios in San Rafael in September 1986 and carried on through other studios including the Record Plant in Sausalito.[12]

When Houston arrived at Tarpan Studios to record the song, Walden noted Houston looked weary and had just recovered from a bronchial infection that led to the singer canceling some concerts in Australia.[12] The producer asked Houston what song she wanted to record first and the singer responded with recording a rendition of "For the Love of You", originally recorded by The Isley Brothers.[13] Walden noted that the song was the first time in which Houston vocally stacked herself on harmonies, which led to a change in Houston's behavior that encouraged Walden to approach her with the dance song.[14]

In recording Houston, Walden explained that he had the singer record the end of the song first, to ensure that the most vocally demanding portions of the track had Houston working at full capacity.[7] That way, the recording of the ending would help to "keep the energy high," in which he would then return to the first verse where, Walden noted, Houston "pulled back and used her little-girl voice".[15] Noting Houston's soul music background, Walden stated, "now we can get a bit more methodical and technical... I've learned this with soul singers: If you get too technical too early, you suck the spirit out of them."[7] Houston took a few notes from Rubicam's demo and expanded them "into a freewheeling showcase of vocal fortitude", Billboard continued.[7] Rubicam later called Houston a "true recording artist, because she just found her way into making a song her own when she liked it."[7] This method later helped Houston to come up with her own arrangement and encourage her to have a more hands-on approach, in which she composed the ending vamp, "say you wanna dance / don't you wanna dance" following the final chorus, "the ultimate nod to her amalgamation of gospel, funk, soul and pop" and earning her credit for vocal arrangement.[7][15] Said Walden to Billboard in 2023, "you're hearing an excited Whitney on [that song]."[7] During later dates of her 1986 world tour, Houston performed the song live to give fans a preview of the second album.[16]

Critical reception

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"I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" received mixed reviews from critics upon its release in 1987.[17] Vince Aletti of Rolling Stone magazine, in a review of the album Whitney, criticized the song, commenting that "not taking any chances, the songwriters [Merill Griffith and Shannon Rubicam] have simply come up with a clever anagram of their original hit [How Will I Know], and [Narada Michael] Walden has glossed it over in an identically perky style. The strategy is not so different from that behind Hollywood's blockbuster sequels: this is 'How Will I Know II'."[18] Los Angeles Times's pop music critic, Robert Hilburn described the song as "a deliciously raucous tune with a bit of the synthesizer underpinning and giddy zest of Cyndi Lauper's 'Girls Just Want to Have Fun'."[19]

In his review of Whitney, Jon Pareles of The New York Times gave a negative comment, writing that listening to "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" and "You're Still My Man," another track on the album was like "watching television while someone fiddles with color controls."[20] In 2006, Slant Magazine ranked the song at #88 in their 100 Greatest Dance Songs, commenting that "with its parenthetical title, gummy bassline, schmaltzy horns, tinkling keyboards, and half-step key changes,[21] [the song] is definitive '80s dance-pop."[3] By 2020, the publication's staff had reranked it to #58.[22]

Accolades

"I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" won the award for "Favorite Pop/Rock Single" at the 15th American Music Awards on January 25, 1988.[23] Additionally, Houston won the Grammy award for "Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female" with the song at its 30th ceremony on March 2, 1988, where she received a total of three nominations.[24][25] The music video for the song was nominated for "Best Music Video" at the 2nd Soul Train Music Awards on March 30, 1988.[26] Houston won the award for "Best Music Video" for the video at the 1st Garden State Music Awards.[27] In 2015 the song was voted by the British public as the nation's fifth favourite 1980s number one in a poll for ITV.[28] In 2021, Rolling Stone ranked "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" at number 231 on their updated list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[29] In 2023, Billboard ranked the song number one on their list of the 500 Best Pop Songs of All Time.[30] That same year, American Songwriter ranked the song as the most iconic song of the 1980s.[31] In 2025, Screen Rant ranked the song twice in two lists, ranking it the seventh most defining song of the 1980s and in another list as the most defining pop song of the genre.[32][33]

More information Organization, Year ...
Awards and nominations
Organization Year Award Result Ref.
American Music Awards 1988 Favorite Pop/Rock Single Won [34]
Billboard Year-End Awards 1987 Top Pop Singles 4th place [35]
Top Black Singles Included
Top Dance Sales 12-Inch Singles Included
Top Dance Club Play Singles Included
Top Adult Contemporary Singles Included
Cash Box Awards 1987 Top 100 Pop Singles 2nd place [36]
Top Black/Contemporary Singles Included
Garden State Music Awards 1988 Best Music Video Won [27]
Grammy Awards 1988 Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female Won [37]
Music & Media Year-End Awards 1987 Single of the Year Won [38]
Official Charts Pop Gem Hall of Fame 2014 Hall of Fame Inductee No. 80 Inducted [39]
Radio & Records 1987 CHR Record of the Year Won [40]
Soul Train Music Awards 1988 Best Music Video Nominated [26]
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More information Publisher/critic, Year ...
Critic lists
Publisher/critic Year Listicle Rank Ref.
American Songwriter 2023 The Most Iconic Song of the 1980s 1 [31]
Billboard 2021 Greatest of All Time Songs of the Summer 104 [41]
2023 The 500 Best Pop Songs of All Time 1 [30]
Pitchfork 2015 The 200 Best Songs of the 1980s 20 [42]
Rolling Stone 2019 20 Biggest Songs of the Summer: The 1980s 8 [43]
2021 The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time 231 [29]
Screen Rant 2025 10 Songs That Completely Define the 1980s 7 [32]
10 Pop Songs That Completely Define The Genre 1 [33]
Slant Magazine 2006 100 Greatest Dance Songs 88 [3]
2020 58 [22]
VH1 2000 VH1's 100 Greatest Dance Songs 86 [44]
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Commercial performance

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"I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" was released as the first single from Houston's second studio album on radio stations on April 28, 1987. It entered the Billboard Hot 100, the issue dated May 16, 1987, at number 38, her highest chart debut at the time, and her highest of the 1980s.[45] Six weeks later, it reached the top spot of the chart, making it Houston's fourth number-one single in the United States, the issue date of June 27, 1987 ― the same day that Houston's album Whitney debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 (known at the time as "Top Pop Albums") the first time ever by a female artist.[46] It would top the chart for two weeks in a row and spent a total of eighteen weeks on the chart, including nine weeks inside the top ten, which produced the most weeks inside the top ten more than any other song released in 1987.[47]

The song reached number one on the Hot 100 Single Sales chart for two weeks, and on the Hot 100 Airplay chart for three weeks, her longest run at that time. The single also peaked at number one on the Hot Adult Contemporary and the remixed dance / club version by Steve Thompson and Michael Barbiero became Houston's first chart-topper on the Billboard Hot Dance/Club Play Songs, staying on the top position of the charts for three weeks and two weeks, respectively.[48][49] In addition, it reached a peak of two on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart (known then as "Hot Black Singles"), the issue date of July 4, 1987.[50] It remained at that position for two weeks, behind "I Feel Good All Over" by Stephanie Mills (which never appeared on the Hot 100 at all), and spent 15 weeks on the R&B chart. Paul Grein of Billboard noted the success of the song on the adult contemporary and R&B charts despite its accessible dance-pop sound "dramatizes how solidly entrenched Houston is and underscores her mass appeal".[51]

On July 28, 1987, the single was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for shipment of 1,000,000 copies of the single, and re-certified Platinum, making it Houston's first single to achieve that feat, for the same shipment on February 13, 1989, with the change of the RIAA certification criteria for singles.[52] (The number of sales required to qualify for gold and platinum discs was higher prior to January 1, 1989. The thresholds were 1,000,000 units (gold) and 2,000,000 units (platinum), reflecting a decrease in sales of singles.[53] It placed at number four on the Billboard Year-End Top Pop Singles chart for 1987.[54] In Canada, the song debuted at 74 on the RPM Top 100 Singles chart, the issue dated May 9, 1987,[55] and reached the top of the chart on July 4, 1987.[56] It was ranked second on the RPM Year-End Top 100 Singles chart for 1987.[57] The single was later certified Gold by the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) on February 29, 1988.[58]

Internationally, the song was a massive hit, becoming her most successful single at the time. It reached number one in eighteen countries. The song debuted at number 10 on the UK Singles Chart, the week ending date of May 23, 1987.[59] Two weeks later, it reached number one on the chart, the week ending June 6, 1987, becoming her second UK number-one single.[60] The single was certified Gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on August 1, 1987, for shipments of 400,000 copies.[61] According to The Official Charts Company, it has sold 760,000 copies in the United Kingdom[62] and was the first number one hit to be released with a CD single in the UK.[63]

The single also topped the singles chart in Belgium for three weeks,[64] the Netherlands for four weeks,[65] Germany for five weeks,[66] Italy for a week,[67] Norway for seven weeks,[68] Sweden for six weeks[69] and Switzerland for six weeks,[70] and peaked inside top five in Austria[71] and Ireland.[72] This popularity of the single across Europe led to the song topping the European Hot 100 Singles chart for eight weeks. It became Houston's second number-one single on the Australian Kent Music Report chart, staying at the top for five weeks.[73] The song also peaked at number one on the New Zealand Singles Chart and remained there for four weeks, making it Houston's first number-one single in the country.[74]

"I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" has sold over 11.6 million certified copies worldwide. After Houston's death, the single returned to the Billboard Hot 100 debuting at number 35 the same week "I Will Always Love You" re-entered at number 7, giving her two posthumous Top 40 hits.[75] The following week, the song reached number 25. With "Greatest Love of All" reaching number 36 and "I Will Always Love You" reaching number three, it made Houston the first posthumous artist to land three top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100. In July 2023, the song amassed one billion audio streams on Spotify, the first of Houston's songs to do so. Houston was only the second female artist to reach this feat with a 1980s single after Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill".

Music video

The music video for "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" was filmed in New York City in March 1987.[76] It was directed by Brian Grant and choreographed by Arlene Phillips, who also worked with Houston on the music video for "How Will I Know". It played on MTV in heavy rotation, which it premiered on May 30, 1987.[77] The video features Houston in a purple dress and a continuous shot of a purple backdrop that never changes its angle of vision. In the intro of this video, Houston just finishes a performance onstage. She walks backstage, and the scene is intercut with more vivid, colorful images of her. The song then explodes into its beginning, with myriad locations and various outfits by Houston, as dancers trying to impress her as she dances. Towards the end of the song she manhandles a guy, who has a mixture of a look of shock and surprise asking him "Don't you wanna dance say you wanna dance".[78] The video was remastered in 4K to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the release of the Whitney album and has over 500 million views as of April 2025 on YouTube.

Live performances

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Houston performed the song on almost all of her world and regional tours. She premiered its usage during the later shows of The Greatest Love World Tour in 1986, before its official release of the following year, introducing the song, along with "Didn't We Almost Have It All", as new tunes from her upcoming album.[16] During her European promotion for a new album from April–May 1987, Houston performed the song on various television series such as Domenica In (an Italian entertainment programme), the Montreux Golden Rose Rock Festival: IM&MC Gala (May 15, 1987), and Top of the Pops (May 21, 1987), where she sang live, unlike some other performers who lip-synched on the programme.[79][better source needed]

Houston's Moment of Truth World Tour in 1987–88 had her performing it as the finale song of the tour. She performed it without back-up dancers on the North American leg (1987), and with four dancers on the European leg of the tour (1988). Two different performances of the song were recorded in Saratoga Springs, New York on September 2, 1987, and at Wembley Arena in London, United Kingdom in May 1988; the first was broadcast on MTV, during the 4th MTV Video Music Awards on September 11, 1987.[80] The second was taken from one night of nine sold-out Wembley Arena concerts, aired by Italian channel Rai Uno on a special program for her in 1988. On March 2, 1988, Houston opened the night of the 30th Annual Grammy Awards singing the song.[81] During the European leg of the tour, she participated in the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute Concert and performed the song in front of about 72,000 people at Wembley Stadium on June 11, 1988.[82][83]

Houston also performed "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" as part of her set on fourteen-date Feels So Right Tour in Japan. One performance of the song on the tour was recorded at Yokohama Arena on January 7, 1990, and later broadcast on Japanese television. On March 17, she sang the song live on That's What Friends Are For: Arista Records 15th Anniversary AIDS Benefit Concert, televised on CBS on April 17, 1990.[84] This performance was included in the 2014 CD/DVD release, Whitney Houston Live: Her Greatest Performances.[85]

In 1991, Houston opened her I'm Your Baby Tonight World Tour with "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)". Three different performances of the song were taped and broadcast: the first was in Yokohama, Japan on March 15 and the second was in Norfolk, Virginia, the concert itself entitled Welcome Home Heroes, televised live on HBO on March 31 and later released as the video of the same name; the third was in A Coruña, Spain on September 29, broadcast on a Spanish television channel and later featured on the select set-list on This Is My Life, her first hour-long special which aired on ABC, May 6, 1992.

"I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" was also performed during The Bodyguard World Tour (1993–94). On the tour, five different performances of the song were recorded and televised; four were on the South American leg of the tour in 1994 ― Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Venezuela ― and one was in Johannesburg, South Africa, broadcast live via satellite on HBO on November 12, 1994, the concert itself entitled The Concert for a New South Africa. Houston also performed the song at a 25-minute pregame show of the 1994 FIFA World Cup Final at Rose Bowl in Los Angeles, broadcast in more than 180 countries on July 17, 1994.[86]

"I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" was included in the set-list on two regional tours, The Pacific Rim Tour (1997) and The European Tour (1998). During the My Love Is Your Love World Tour of 1999, the remix version of the song was performed as a part of '1980s Dance Medley' along with "How Will I Know". One performance of the song on the tour was recorded in Sopot, Poland and broadcast live on Polish channel TVP1 on August 22, 1999. In 2000, Houston performed the song as a similar version to that of her '99 tour at Arista Records 25th Anniversary Celebration, recorded at Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on April 10, and broadcast on May 15 on NBC.[87] In November 2009, during promotion of her comeback album, I Look to You, Houston performed the song along with "Million Dollar Bill" on the season finale of Dancing With the Stars.

Covers and samples

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Glee stars Naya Rivera and Heather Morris covered the song on the show's Houston tribute episode, "Dance with Somebody" in 2012.

The song is Houston's most covered and sampled song in her catalog. According to the sample database site, WhoSampled, the song has been covered approximately 269 times from various artists of different musical genres, including rock, jazz, country and electronic dance music (EDM).[88]

Among its most prominent covers include versions from Fall Out Boy, Ashley Tisdale, Jessie J, David Byrne, Evanescence, Rob Thomas and James Bay among others.[88] In addition, for their tribute episode to Houston, "Dance with Somebody", Glee cast mates Naya Rivera and Heather Morris covered the song. In that portion of the episode, references to Houston's video for this song as well as the video for "How Will I Know" were used. The song charted inside the Canadian Hot 100 in 2012.

In addition, the song has been sampled 83 times, most prominently in songs such as pop artist Bebe Rexha and rapper Lil Wayne's "The Way I Are (Dance With Somebody)", "Dance!" by singer Lumidee and hip-hop artist Fatman Scoop, singer Natalie La Rose's "Somebody" ft. Jeremih, and country artist Thomas Rhett's "Don't Wanna Dance", which interpolated the song's chorus.[89][90]

Track listing and formats

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Credits and personnel

  • George Merrill – writer
  • Shannon Rubicam – writer
  • Narada Michael Walden – producer, arranger
  • Whitney Houston – vocal arrangement, background vocals
  • Narada Michael Walden – drums
  • Walter "Baby Love" Afanasieff – synths
  • Randy "The King" Jackson – bass synth
  • Corrado Rustici – guitar synth
  • Preston "Tiger Head" Glass – percussion programming
  • Marc Russo – alto sax
  • Greg "Gigi" Gonaway – Simmons
  • Sterling Smith – synth horns
  • Jim Gilstrap – background vocals
  • Karen "Kitty Beethoven" Brewington – background vocals
  • Kevin Dorsey – background vocals
  • Myrna Matthews – background vocals
  • Jennifer Hall – background vocals
  • David Fraser – recording, mixing
  • Dana Jon Chappelle – assistant engineer
  • Lincoln Clapp – additional engineer
  • Gordon Lyon – additional engineer, additional assistant engineer
  • Jay Rifkin – additional engineer
  • Ken Kessie – additional engineer
  • Maureen Droney – additional engineer
  • Stuart Hirotsu – additional assistant engineer
  • Paul "Goatee" Hamingson – additional assistant engineer
  • Noah Baron – additional assistant engineer
  • Bill "Sweet Wil liam" Miranda – additional assistant engineer
  • Ross Williams – additional assistant engineer
  • Rob Beaton – additional assistant engineer

Charts

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More information Chart (1987), Peak position ...
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Certifications

More information Region, Certification ...
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[166] 8× Platinum 560,000‡
Brazil (Pro-Música Brasil)[167] Gold 30,000‡
Canada (Music Canada)[168] Gold 50,000^
Denmark (IFPI Danmark)[169] 2× Platinum 180,000‡
France (SNEP)[170]
2017 release 		Gold 100,000‡
Germany (BVMI)[171] Gold 250,000‡
Italy (FIMI)[172] Platinum 70,000‡
Netherlands (NVPI)[173] Gold 75,000^
New Zealand (RMNZ)[174] 6× Platinum 180,000‡
Spain (PROMUSICAE)[175] Platinum 60,000‡
Sweden (GLF)[176] Gold 25,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[177]
Physical single 		Gold 598,000[178]
United Kingdom (BPI)[179]
Digital single 		4× Platinum 2,400,000‡
United States (RIAA)[180] 7× Platinum 7,000,000‡

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

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