Album review: Whitney Houston - I'm Your Baby Tonight

I'm Your Baby Tonight is one of my earliest memories of really liking Whitney Houston and getting into her music. And the album title track was one of the first Whitney singles that I remember owning. I didn't dislike "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" or "How Will I Know". But they were just songs that I liked. Whitney wasn't a factor for me, which is wild to say given that her voice made those songs. But that changed when I first heard "I'm Your Baby Tonight". A song which changed the course of Whtiney's career and put her front and centre as a person and a personality, as opposed to just a voice.

Whitney Houston's first two self-titled albums were commercial successes of a magnitude that I don't think Whitney nor Arista records had imagined. But for all of the sales and the Billboard chart success that these albums enjoyed, critics weren't so in favour of them. Nobody could say a bad thing about Whitney's voice. The common criticisms were that all of the music was sounding the same, Arista were sticking to a formula and that the songs could be given to any female vocalist and be no better nor worse off. And they weren't wrong. But music is a business. And whilst critical success is lovely, commercial success is what makes the money, keeps people in jobs and provides Whitney her luxury. But one criticism which rocked Whitney the most was from Black audiences, who weren't wholly embracing Whitney despite being one of the few Black girls at the time to have major chart success and be on TV. Her music simply wasn't seen as 'Black enough'. So I'm Your Baby Tonight was an album that both Clive Davis and Whitney approached with bones to pick. Clive had to show everybody that Arista records could deviate from a formula and give the world a Whitney album which sounded fresh and wasn't by numbers. And Whitney had to assert some creative control to ensure that her 'Blackness' would not longer be in question.

The one stone that would kill two birds were Babyface and L.A Reid. Not only were they new talent entering a close circle that Clive Davis had maintained for two albums, but they were also a response to those feeling Whitney's shit wasn't quite 'Black enough'. Who better than two Black guys who worked on Black as hell Bobby Brown's Don't Be Cruel album to help Whitney get her Black card back?

Babyface and L.A Reid were a great fit for Whitney. Providing her songs with a new energy and a much needed switch in gears for an artist who was clearly able to give and do more than she had done prior. Everything that Whitney was given up to this point felt like a case of just giving Whitney hit potential songs because she could sing them well. Babyface and L.A Reid had a similar mentality, but the thing that set them apart was that they pushed Whitney. Their contributions to the album feel like cases of them giving Whitney challenges; something which a song like "I'm Your Baby Tonight" re-enforces. That damn song is an assault course. But Whitney flies through the bitch like it's nothing.

The album title track was a complete step change for Whitney. Still Pop, but with an edge, a sass and a fire running throughout it that we hadn't heard in any of her songs before. It also placed Whitney's virtuosic vocals at its centre. Not just showcasing her range and musicality, but her ability to just run circles around a track and make it seem so effortless, whilst allowing listeners to acknowledge the skill it takes to do it. "I'm Your Baby Tonight" is peak Whitney, Babyface and L.A Reid. Nothing else the trio deliver on the album is quite as thrilling, but they keep the same energy for every song and there are no duds. "My Name Is Not Susan" and "Anymore" are interesting songs retrospectively, with lyrical content foreshadowing almost exact situations Whitney would live through in her future marriage to Bobby Brown. "Miracle" however sticks out, as it's the one instance of Babyface and L.A Reid making a conscious decision to try and take on the balladry that Whitney became known for with songs like "Greatest Love Of All" and "Didn't We Almost Have It All". Whilst "Miracle" isn't one of Whitney's most memorable ballads, it's a nice song. And in its attempt to adhere to a clear formula, it offers familiarity. But the way in which Whitney sings the song provides a new take on a Whitney ballad. She's putting the emotion of the song first and her vocals second. Whitney sang the absolute shit out of "Saving All My Love For You" and "Where Do Broken Hearts Go". From a technical standpoint, they cannot be faulted. But there was no real heart or emotion in either of them.

Whitney placing heart into her performances also bled into her songs with Michael Masser and Narada Michael Walden, who were brought back to work on this album having helmed most of the Whitney Houston and Whitney albums. No doubt because Clive Davis didn't want to fuck with the formula too much and have I'm Your Baby Tonight retain some of what he knew worked. And understandably so, given that Masser and Walden were responsible for producing Whitney's biggest hits from both albums.

"All The Man That I Need" continued the trend of having Whitney sing a cover. But Whitney really makes this her own in a way that she hadn't done with any ballad before and would do once again for that song from The Bodyguard. Maybe it was because at this point she was starting to fall in love. Maybe it's because of the Gospel undertones in the arrangements and the lyrics being able to be interpreted as being about God. Whatever it was, Whitney sings her own wig clean off on this song. Tens across the board.

But one aspect of I'm Your Baby Tonight that is oft overlooked is that it also featured the songwriting and production talents of Luther Vandross and Stevie Wonder. Who the fuck else can say that they had Babyface, Stevie Wonder and Luther Vandross all write and produce for one of their albums!?

Whitney really was and remains that bitch.

Luther and Stevie's contributions are both distinct because fans of their work will hear them immediately. The Luther penned and produced "Who Do You Love" sounds like something straight off of his 1983 album Busy Body. And Stevie's "We Didn't Know" sounds like...well, Stevie Wonder. But Whitney sounds at home on both songs, because they still feel like fits for her despite strongly evoking the sounds of their writers and producers. And by this point it's highly likely that Whitney was friends with them both as well as fans of theirs. So there's a level of comfort in Whitney working with them and you can hear it in the songs. She sounds relaxed. Playful. Completely into the material.

And with the campaign to get Whitney her Black card in full effect, you really could not go any Blacker or better than Luther and Stevie. Two artists that Black audiences and music lovers stanned before stanning was even a thing.

I'm Your Baby Tonight is an odd one because of where and how it stands. As an album, I'm Your Baby Tonight is pretty solid and consistent. The album title track is well known and no doubt a discography highlight of a song for many. But the album as a whole has never felt truly seen to me. The same could be said for me and Whitney's first two albums. I can name singles, but wouldn't be able to tell you which single is from which album. And I always forget whether Whitney or Whitney Houston was the album that came first. The only thing I'm sure of is that Whitney Houston is the album where Whitney didn't have a wig on the cover.

But I'm Your Baby Tonight was an important album for Whitney. It did a great job of establishing Whitney's musical womanhood, following two albums which seemed to not really know how to position Whitney as a woman. And if Whitney hadn't arrived with this album and Babyface and L.A Reid in tow, then we may not have gotten The Bodyguard or Waiting To Exhale. It was also the album that would set the template for Whitney albums that would follow, which was placing Whitney in the company of young Black up and coming songwriters and producers who could carve out a new lane for Whitney, alongside veterans who could provide the familiarity of the tried and tested. But it also impacted Pop and R&B in a way that it's not often given credit for, which is the act of carefully A&R'ing a project and letting a group of songwriters and producers work on an album, as opposed to just enlisting one or two. "I'm Your Baby Tonight" introduced a rapid fire style of singing on Pop records which would see a resurgence later down the line via acts such as Destiny's Child. And Babyface and L.A Reid having a successful Whitney album under their belt was no doubt a big help in them setting up their own label L.A Face records, at Arista no less.

I'm Your Baby Tonight started to turn people on to the realisation that Whitney wasn't a fluke and that there was more to her than just a voice. There was a magnetism that Whitney had that just drew you in. And even if you still weren't sold on the songs that Whitney was bringing to the table with this album, there was certainly no denying her.

RATING: 6 / 10

Album highlights:
■ I'm Your Baby Tonight ★ J's fave
■ All The Man That I Need
■ Anymore
■ I Belong To You
■ Who Do You Love
■ We Didn't Know

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