Today is the 35th anniversary of the release of Whitney Houston's second studio album, Whitney. To say it was a hit would be a bit of an understatement. It debuted at #1 on the Billboard album chart and stayed at the top for 11 weeks, giving Houston a combined 25 cumulative weeks at #1 on that chart, a record for a female artist in the '80s. The album also topped the album charts in 12 other countries. It was certified diamond in the U.S. in 2020, making Houston the only non-white artist of any gender to have three diamond albums, and it has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.
The first four singles from the album -- "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)," "Didn't We Almost Have It All," "So Emotional," and "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" -- all reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, giving Houston the honor of being the first female artist in Billboard Hot 100 history to have four #1s from the same album, and even more impressive, giving her seven #1s in a row, breaking a record shared by The Beatles and The Bee Gees. And for good measure, the fifth single from the album, "Love Will Save The Day," reached #9 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it Houston's ninth of what would end up being twelve consecutive Top 10 singles on the Billboard Hot 100.
For this week's Retro Video of the Week, I'm going with "So Emotional," a dance rock song written by the superstar songwriting team of Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg -- who also gave us other #1 hits such as Madonna's "Like a Virgin", Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors," The Bangles' "Eternal Flame," and Heart's "Alone." The song is so damn catchy, and the bombastic chorus is one that you'll be trying to sing along with once you hear it, even though you likely can't hit those notes. Take it down an octave or two. You'll get there.
Houston became a drug addict and died in a bathtub.
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