WHITNEY HOUSTON – “I Wanna Dance With Somebody”
“I wanna dance with somebody who loves me”: the lyrics on this record suggest vulnerability, but who are they kidding? It’s pure titanium, stadium-ready dance music backing a singer on juggernaut form. I’ve talked a lot in the 80s entries about how bigness for its own sake often misfires as a strategy but if you can do enormity well then you’re laughing. And thanks to Whitney this track pulls it off – the producers can conjure up as much space and scale and decoration as they like and throw it at her in the knowledge her voice can rise above it.
So the record can start with one of the great kick-off-your-heels-and-dance promises, that electro stutter and revved-up blurt of synth trumpet, and Houston totally delivers on it. Foghorn when she wants to be, sweet and strong when she needs to be: the way she sugars then bites off that long “heeeeeeeeeeea-t” mid song just the peak of a tremendous performance. It’s all so strong it can be somewhat bludgeoning, but luckily there’s laughter in it too – that husky chorus of galley slaves chanting “DANCE. DANCE.”, encouraging Whitney through the delirious coda. It’s a shame that we didn’t often hear this kind of delighted fierceness from Whitney after “I Wanna Dance” – ballads were her great showboating strength and this kind of party belter is a style she seemed happy to let others run with.
8
See also: http://tomewing.tumblr.com/post/438837067/we-booked-the-studio-for-five-days-i-went
yes, this is great, bubbly, glossy and joyful. it’s not just whitney, I think, post motown I’m not sure there are that many examples (though we’ll get to a few) of a proper big voice being used to make something thrilling – those great roaring ‘ohhhh’s, the sudden swoops into the stratosphere, the growls in the verses – not hear me roar-ery.
The thing this song has that a lot of other self-consciously big 80s productions lack is just this terrific momentum from the word go.
My main memory of this song is Whitney looking absolutely delighted in every frame of her video, which appeared to take place in the same set a-ha used for “Take on Me”.
This is still such a great, great song. It reminds me a lot of “Let’s Hear It For the Boy” by Deniece Williams; among other similarities it’s got the same totally joyous feeling that anything is possible.
The Whitney track I like the most. Energetic, fun and not the least self-conscious. A good solid 8 for me.
I’d only rate it a 7, personally, and yet at the same time I feel like this song is completely unimpeachable, and that anyone who would rate it lower than that is simply not paying attention. Who could argue against it?
Agree fully with Tom’s comments. I love the video to this too, tremendously daft stuff.
And with this, Whitney Joined The Jams. Even if she didn’t know about it at the time.
Worth 8 just for the “and when the night falls / my lonely heart calls” bit. I remember this being such a huge song – I thought it was the start of a rennaisance for my relationship with pop. I really don’t think it’s aged well though – a lot of the worst bits of 80s production. Felt like a ’10′ at the time.
This always reminded me of a review of John Gielgud’s performance in Michael Winner’s gobsmackingly awful remake of “The Wicked Lady” – “technique wasted on trivia”.
I think all the positive reviews above are probably right-it’s just me that doesn’t like happy songs.
This is a pretty straight rehash of How will I know from Whitney’s previous album. And I think it’s pretty clearly the lesser cousin/version: less catchy, hokier middle eight, weaker, more gimmicky vocal melody, less convincing lyric, etc.. The song-writers are the same, and they rewrote the song yet again as Waiting for a star to fall for themselves the following year. That version of the song has the best sugar-rush intro so far, and the chord changes and main melody hooks are there made even *more* purely diatonic, and so high high high.
The video for IWDWS repeats HWIK’s (same director according to wiki), only Whitney seems less poised, less fashion-y this time round. More scary skinny than sleek, Whitney’s now being mugged by her hair, and so on. I rate IWDS a notch lower than either HWIK or WFASTF:
7
A big five weeks at number one in Australia. I can appreciate the gusto, the song and Whitney’s vocals, but something about the production just feels too dated – more in the intro than once it gets going, but still. That gives “Saving All My Love” the edge over it for me, and makes it a 6. Gasp, sacrilege, etc.
Maybe I’m nuts, but I think one is less likely to give it an 8 after watching the video, which is “cute” and “fun” but is in reality about as cute and fun as an infomercial. The video is jammed with all sorts of inauthentic mugging, which makes you wonder what’s really being expressed. The greatness of the performance and the accessibility of the production aside, I don’t really believe that Whitney wants to dance, I think she wants to do whatever it takes to be a big diva. That vibe comes through loud and clear. I don’t know. I’d give it a 6.
A joyous upbeat pop record with a winning vocal. The production didn’t do it for me at the time, but I’m less bothered about that now. I can appreciate it today as a fine pop single.
Maybe I’m confusing the video for this with How WIll I Know?? Hmm. At work so can’t check. I remember people being splashed with paint.
I started reading Tom’s review thinking “God, more awful 1980s shiny clattering” but by the end he’d reminded me that it is a great record indeed. And I didn’t even have to listen to it again, though I think if I did I might find it a tad noisy and busy (which I did back then)
you’re confusing it w/ “how will i know” (i think the set there did look like the cartoon a-ha set splashed w/ day-glo paint). would rank “how will i know”>”waiting for a star to fall”>>>>>>”i wanna dance w/ somebody”. very very fond of the first two, this one a bit treading water though the ‘and when the night falls/my lonely heart calls’ part is nice and the galley slaves sound better here than on previous billy ocean hits. feelings toward this album comparable to true blue – massive hit followup that feels like a deadspot until the next phase (where the creative peak lies). the only single i really liked from whitney was (presumably bunny proof as it was definitely the smallest hit stateside) “love will save the day”, one last gasp of jellybean benitez.
I wouldn’t put this in the same bracket as “Saving All My Love”, but this is still hugely enjoyable, and more to the point it looks and sounds like all concerned are having a ball, at least they manage to convince me that they are! It’s not “we’re instructing you to have fun”, it’s “we’re having fun and would like you to be having fun too”. And a triffic vocal too.
Number 2 Watch – Johnny Logan’s second Eurovision winner, “Hold Me Now”. Thanks Whit!
Oh, and this was number one when I met my wife :))
A 9 from me, bordering on 10. Perfect pop record
I’m ashamed that it took a brief interest in the JAMMs last year to get me back into this, but I am mighty pleased that their love for the track is straight up (at least that’s the way I hear it – do not disabuse me).
I happened to be subjected to Whitney’s most famous number when I was at the shops yesterday. Horrible stuff, must be a candidate for most unpleasant vocal of all time (at least had an earlier thread not linked to her earlier ‘Merry Little Christmas’). Very sad, when she could’ve been churning out stuff like this.
…and back from the days when I used to DJ 80s music to a couple of thousand students a week – a pitch- (before the key change), tempo- and phrasing-perfect mix into ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’. (For bonus points, mix 2 beats of whoosh plus 8 bars of intro of the latter under second 8 bars of the second chorus of the former then cut).
For me – an easy 10, as crystal clear as any other song.
Its glorious, but a couple of fiddly bits – especially the middle-eight – detract from it a little bit for me. The version that I remember in my head is about a minute shorter, and is undeviatingly euphoric!
A Manhattanite cousin to the the SoHo strains of Into the Groove.
It is indeed a delight.
Not keen on this record but without it we wouldn’t have had the original version of “5,6,7,8″ by Shut Up and Dance which used vast swathes of the instrumentation.
And that one really does bring the memories back…hearing it pumping out of Centreforce FM and vague memories of this wafting over near the cars at about 6 in the morning at Sunrise’s party at Longwick in 1989.
They were never gonna get that sample cleared though were they!?
I think my reading of this video at the time must have played a large part in my sense of Whitney’s public persona. I thought then that she seemed so vivacious and carefree – and to a certain extent I still do. However, now I also see a woman being asked to sing and dance in a series of ridiculous and incoherent scenarios with a great grin on her face. She seems too eager to please. I like the song although I can find it a bit shrill and manic. 6 or 7 from me
Don’t forget Richard X and the I Wanna Dance With Numbers song. Richard X later produced a number 1 of his own.
The original 8 of this, that also went #1 U.S. is one notch too high for me, but no doubt the song is a reminder of when Houston used to provide quick, easy, fun singles to Top 40 radio.
@jezza, 26. Wow, thanks. I wanna dance with numbers is simply fantastic. Is there anything Kraftwerk can’t do/improve? [Say in the Homer donuts voice.]
Free associating a bit: the always higher higher Skins Season 2 intro theme has always reminded me of this cluster of merrill/rubicam-written songs that Whitney hit out of the park.
Always smile when I hear “Numbers”. I remember celebrity shrink, Pamela Stephenson doing an interpretive dance to it on BBC2′s Arena around 1980 I think.
Where “Saving All My Love For You” sought to make Whitney prematurely middle-aged, “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” her only non-ballad UK number one, sparkles with an ebullience more properly befitting her age. From its expectant, quivering intro of Linn congas and shuddering synth bass, suddenly propelled by Whitney’s “Whoo!” and an upwards-unzipping keyboard flourish into a celebratory dance – despite, or perhaps because of, the song’s underlying closeted desperation (“It’s the light of day that shows me how/But when the night falls/The loneliness calls”), it anticipates the immediate and unexpected revival of the bubblegum ethic in mainstream American pop, as at least two further number ones within the next six months will demonstrate.
Architecturally the record’s continued subtle build-up is exemplary (brilliantly choreographed by producer/arranger Narada Michael Walden); the plateau of rest where Whitney momentarily meditates in the middle eight (“Somebody whoooo…”) before she braces herself up for the ascending key change and the ecstatic final choruses where she cheerfully trades fours with her backing singers – “Don’tyouwannadance Sayyouwannadance Don’tyouwannaDANCE!” Her “uh huhs,” whoops and laughs at the climax sound and feel natural, and for one of the pitifully few times in her life Whitney is having fun and experiencing uncomplicated happiness. Even Bill “No Music Day” Drummond had to acknowledge great pop when he recognised and felt it; his own ecstasy as the opening strains of “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” ease their way into “Whitney Joins The JAMMs” is infectious and truthful. It remains one of the great tragedies of recent pop that this Whitney Houston wasn’t allowed more air to breathe her joy.
This is just happy school disco memories for me, hard to to fault it. Everything she did later, well, that’s a different story of course.
TOTPWatch: Whitney Houston performed ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ on the Top of the Pops transmitted on May 21st 1987. Also in the studio that week were; Marillion, Wet Wet Wet and Cameo. Peter Powell and Simon Bates were the hosts.
Greate thing you are shared with us. Thanks!
I was looking for this the other day. i dont usually post in forums but i wanted to say thank you!
Nice post admin.. Keep it right.
I added it to my bookmarks
yhhhhjew
This thread has been spammed more than most, but only once in the past year. Assuming #38 is indeed spam, to have it happen today when we’re avidly waiting for – well, you know – is positively Twilight Zone.
Not many comments for this, so can I just add that I think Whitney is the only artist who I remember emerging onto the scene, going on to produce music and memories which have distinctly made me happier and then sadly, died too soon.
Lots of love to you Whitney and thank you for all the joy you brought.