From The Moment I Saw You I Went Out Of My Mind

Whitney Houston “I’m Your Baby Tonight”

From the first few seconds “I’m Your Baby Tonight” feels slightly, imperceptibly wrong. It’s something about the beat – is it too fast? Or too emphatic too soon, like it’s somehow starting with the climactic fill? There are pop songs that sound like an idealized experience of cocaine, or like the music one might make on cocaine, but this song is like being around someone who’s totally coked up in the most cartoonish way while you’re stone sober.

The frantic energy of the music feels incongruous with the song on a compositional level, but it does suit the lyrics, in which Whitney Houston sings about obsessive, yearning lust. It’s an interesting contrast with her earlier hit “How Will I Know,” which approaches similarly neurotic crush feelings from a more wholesome perspective. That song is also quite energetic, but it’s stable and grounded and as much she overthinks her situation in the lyrics the music conveys faith in a positive outcome. “I’m Your Baby Tonight” feels frazzled and insecure. Whereas “How Will You Know” is confiding in someone else about a crush, this song directly addresses the object of affection and while that’s drastically bolder, it’s also significantly more nerve-wracking. The words are direct and frank and sung by one of the most confident vocalists to ever live, and yet when paired with this percussion all of that is undermined. But then again, the lyrics also contain some rather morbid asides like “from the second you touched me I was ready to die / I’ve never been fatal, you’re my first time.”

“I’m Your Baby Tonight” was written and produced by L.A. Reid and Babyface, and the latter’s involvement is made obvious in the bridge to the chorus. It’s the best part of the song and the melody is so obviously Babyface, not too far removed from his then-recent solo hit “Whip Appeal.” The song falls in a strange spot on the R&B timeline – it’s part of Babyface’s ascendency as a major figure in the genre through the ‘90s, the verses are seemingly influenced by Michael Jackson’s 1987 hit “The Way You Make Me Feel,” the production is adjacent to Teddy Riley’s emerging New Jack Swing style. It’s a few too many things at once, but in a good way – it sounds like a specific moment in time, and the musical decisions are risky as so much of it is a step away from the aesthetics that had made Houston a superstar.

Houston’s first two albums present her a safe, idealized young woman and the focus of every track is on her enormous technical prowess as a vocalist. Her last major hit before “I’m Your Baby Tonight” was “One Moment In Time,” a ballad recorded for the 1988 Summer Olympics and that makes all kinds of sense because her approach to music up until that point was more similar to an Olympic athlete than a typical R&B or pop vocalist. Showcasing this vocal talent remained the focus of her work through the rest of her life, but “I’m Your Baby Tonight” was the first single of her career to offer up a version of Houston that was allowed to seem less than superhuman. I’m not sure if the goal was for her to return with a song that conveyed anxiety and vulnerability or if that was just the organic result of the artistic process, but it was nevertheless an important step in her progress.

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