Whitney Houston's I'm Your Baby Tonight
(33 1/3) by Brandon Tensley
I was a little hesitant to read this book since I’m not a huge
Whitney Houston fan, and I really was not that familiar with her 1990 album I’m
Your Baby Tonight. Weirdly enough, I felt like I grew up with Whitney’s
earlier music in some ways, as one of the few cassettes my mom had in her car
was Houston’s 1985 debut album Whitney Houston, featuring “The Greatest
Love of All,” one of the few secular songs we sang in Catholic school. Although
my mom didn’t have Whitney, I distinctly remember seeing the videos for
songs like “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” and hearing “So Emotional” on the
radio when my emerging musical tastes were diverging from my parents’ influence.
I can’t also forget her rousing rendition of the National Anthem for Super Bowl
XXV as the nation tuned in to watch the Bills lose on a last second missed field
goal as it was grappling with its involvement in Desert Storm. I’ve never been overtly
patriotic, but Whitney Houston definitely brought people together,
conservatives and liberals, white and Black, young and old, and used her voice
to evoke positive feelings about our country, and as author Brandon Tensley
notes, she also was able to radically reclaim this ode to freedom, making “ ‘free’
the emotional centerpiece of the song.” Reading Tensley’s entry into the 33 1/3
collection made me appreciate Houston’s overlooked and sometimes maligned
career and life, as he not only serves as a champion for Whitney’s career and often
overlooked album, but he also ends up championing the harsh realities that
female artists, especially Black female artists, face in maintaining pop
supremacy while also being artistically authentic. I didn’t expect to be so
challenged and have to interrogate so many assumptions about pop music, but
Tensley’s research and analysis provides a clear entryway to further analyze
one of the most successful and misunderstood female artists of the 1980s and
90s.
Rather than taking a traditional approach to examining Houston’s
1990 album I’m Your Baby Tonight by discussing its creation and
production, Tensley frames this album in the greater context of Houston’s other
albums and pop domination. However, as Tensley explores Houston’s success with
mainstream (and white) America, he notes that she faced backlash and frequent
accusations of selling out or not being Black enough as an artist. Tensley sees
I’m Your Baby Tonight as both a statement to Houston’s Black critics,
bringing in more of a new jack swing style, which was popular in the late 80s
and early 90s, from producers LA Reid and Babyface, and also asserting more of
her sexuality with songs that thematically discussed sex and one night stands
more than the love songs on her previous two albums explored. It’s interesting
to consider, especially when I think about many of the female R n B artists
that followed Houston’s lead from TLC and SWV to later acts like Monica and
Brandy in the later 90s. Houston, along with Janet Jackson, challenged the
ideas of Black female sexuality and love in popular music, and while Houston
didn’t necessarily have the dance moves of Janet Jackson, Tensley argues that
Houston’s background in Gospel music and her relationship with Robyn Crawford
enabled Houston to craft a more complex and nuanced idea of love and sexuality in
R n B and pop music than was previously presented. Tensley analyzes each of the
songs, and while he does present information about the song’s production and
recording, he also takes the time to analyze the sound, its evolution from
Houston’s other work, and the lyrical content, exploring how the song’s offered
more nuanced meanings and interpretations than her previous love songs that often
followed a forlorn more abstract approach to love as a feeling. It’s
interesting to consider, especially as Tensley reminds readers that many of
these songs came out at the height of the AIDS crisis, which Houston was
impacted by.
Beyond the musical content of Houston’s third album, Tensley
also explores her later work, as well as Houston’s championing and support for
other female artists, including Brandy and Miss Lauryn Hill, another New Jersey
artist whose own struggles with the music industry and its expectations for
control of her artistry and image, have led to labels and perceptions about her
personality, similar to Whitney Houston’s. Tensley also takes some of the last
chapter to reference Britney Spears, who serves as another cautionary tale for
how the control of these female artists’ image and the public’s desire for spectacle
and their suffering can have tragic consequences, as it did with Houston’s own death
at age 48. Again, I was not expecting to think this much about how the music
and entertainment industries will put these female artists through the wringer
to extract what will be most entertaining and profitable, but Tensley provided many
different examples and reminded readers of the ways in which Whitney Houston
sought to reclaim her own identity rather than be controlled by record labels.
For Tensley, this started with the album I’m Your Baby Tonight and
proceeded to future decisions from marrying Bobby Brown to her later work on recording
breaking Waiting to Exhale and The Bodyguard soundtracks and starring
in The Bodyguard and The Preacher’s Wife. This is a fascinating look
at one of the most important and beautiful voices in music from the 80s and 90s.
A few years ago, I heard an acapella version of “I Wanna Dance with Somebody,”
and I was amazed at how beautiful and joyous Houston’s voice was. It gave me
chills, but it also brought about a sense of sadness since I realized she was
no longer going to sing new songs. Although I’m not as much of a Whitney fan as
Tensley, like a lot of 80s and 90s kids, I can say that her music was definitely
a part of my early musical awareness. Even in high school, songs like “I Will
Always Love You” were always on at dances. Even now, if I hear her voice, I get
so emotional (pun intended). She possessed an extraordinary voice, and while
artists like Brandy, Miss Lauryn Hill, and even Beyonce have forged their own
place in popular music, they might not have made it this far without Houston’s
trailblazing work.
I love the 33 1/3 books because they highlight the importance of an album, even if that album might not always be the most well-known or best achievement by an artist. While some writers highlight the creation of the album, others provide historical, background, or contextual information about the album’s significance. Some of my favorite 33 1/3 entries provide personal connections, with authors exploring how the album connected with or serves as an important marker in their own lives. I was so glad that author Brandon Tensley adds in his own personal experiences and connections with this album, not only making the argument for why it’s Whitney Houston’s best and most personal album but also making the case for why I’m Your Baby Tonight is his favorite album. His own personal connections, memories, and discussions with friends highlight how important Whitney Houston’s artistry is and why she remains a complicated but important artist who needs to be celebrated. Many thanks to Bloomsbury Academic and NetGalley for sharing an advanced copy of this wonderful addition to the 33 1/3 series. Highly recommended!
