So Emotional

(pictured in 1984) was the inspiration behind the composition of "So Emotional". "So Emotional" was written by rock songwriters Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly. Prior to composing the song, the team of Steinberg and Kelly had composed the number one hits, "Like a Virgin" and "True Colors" by Madonna and Cyndi Lauper respectively, which led to Arista head Clive Davis contacting the duo to compose an uptempo song for Houston. Up until then, Davis had assembled ten songs for Houston's upcoming second album, Whitney, but told the duo he needed one more uptempo song. Steinberg explained to Songfacts: "A lot of songwriters get together and the first question they ask each other is, 'Who do you want to write for?' Tom and I had never done that because I find it restricting and we both like to write a song for the song's sake and not try to aim at a particular recording artist. In the case of 'So Emotional,' Tom and I had a regular dialogue with Clive Davis and he advised us that he was looking for an uptempo song for Whitney Houston, so we really tried to write for that." Steinberg and Kelly recorded a demo of the song with musician Prince in mind as they were huge fans of his, with Kelly singing in falsetto. The production Steinberg and Kelly gave in the demo sounded like most of Prince's Minneapolis sound productions at the time. The song was Houston's first venture into rock music. It would also be one of her first songs where she recorded all the background vocals herself. Houston was credited with vocal arrangement on the song as she would for all of the songs featured on her sophomore album. Although the recording became a number-one hit, the production was bittersweet for the songwriters. As Steinberg explained in an interview, "If you fall in love with (your) version of the song, and you're used to hearing it the way you conceived it ... it's always hard to get used to." Still, the songwriters were proud of the song and of Houston's recording of it, with Steinberg stating that while it wasn't "as revolutionary a song as "Like a Virgin" or as meaningful a song as "True Colors", it is still a strong pop song." ==Critical reception==

AllMusic editor Ron Wynn highlighted this track. In their "Feature Picks" section on its October 31, 1987 issue, Cashbox called the song "a playful dance/pop tune will undoubtedly follow in Houston's radio and chart success. Headed straight for the top." Vince Aletti of Rolling Stone wrote: "Walden covers all these bases, out-hopping Kashif (but not Jellybean) with "So Emotional." In their St. Petersburg Times review of the album, Eric Snider and Annelise Wamsley wrote of the song: "So Emotional," the record's token rock offering, is hollow and contrived, as if the trumped-up power guitars are supposed to give the song some guts." Zodiac Mindwarp of Smash Hits considered "So Emotional" "a good record" that he liked and which was likely to "put [him] in a good mood for the day". ==Chart performance==

for the most consecutive number one singles by a solo artist on the Billboard Hot 100. "So Emotional" made its debut at number 47 as the Hot Shot Debut on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week of October 31, 1987. Six weeks later, on the December 5 issue, it entered the top ten at number 8, becoming her third top ten single to be released in the same year, the first time Houston had accomplished such a feat. Five weeks later, it became the first new number-one single of 1988, reaching the pole position on January 9, replacing George Michael's "Faith" where it stayed for a week, eventually receiving gold certification in the US seven years later in 1995. In January 2023, nearly 28 years after its last certification, the song was certified platinum for sales of one million copies in the US alone. It became Steinberg and Kelly's fourth composition to top the Billboard Hot 100 after "Like a Virgin", "True Colors" and "Alone" by the rock band Heart. "So Emotional" spent eight weeks inside the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 while spending fourteen weeks inside the top 40 and spent a cumulative total of nineteen weeks on the chart altogether. Houston broke a 27-year chart record held by Elvis Presley for the most consecutive number-one singles by a solo artist; Presley had held the record with five major singles — "A Big Hunk O' Love", "Stuck On You", "It's Now or Never", "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" and "Surrender" — each topping the charts between 1959 and 1961. With six consecutive number one singles at the time, it put her in a three-way tie with the Beatles and the Bee Gees for most consecutive number one singles, a record she'd later break with the ballad, "Where Do Broken Hearts Go", on April 23 of the same year. It also put her in another three-way tie with artists Michael Jackson and Madonna for the most number one singles of the 1980s. The single also reached number one on Billboard's Hot Dance Club Play chart as well as the Crossover Top 30 chart. Due to Houston's crossover appeal, the dance-rock track reached number eight on the adult contemporary chart and number five on the Hot Black Singles chart, with the latter position marking the first time since "Thinking About You" where Houston had a song peak below the top three of the R&B charts but was still her ninth consecutive top ten record on the chart. It was Houston's third single to reach the top ten on four major Billboard charts after "How Will I Know" and "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)". It is Houston's sixth best charting song of all time on the Billboard Hot 100. In the United Kingdom and France the song was remixed by Shep Pettibone when released as a single and peaked at number five on the UK Singles Chart in November 1987, remaining on the chart for 11 weeks. In Canada, the song peaked at number nine, giving Houston her seventh consecutive top ten hit in the country. Elsewhere, the single performed moderately well, peaking inside the top ten in Finland and Ireland where it peaked at number three. It topped the charts in Luxembourg. It also reached the top 20 in Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands and South Africa, number 21 in France, 26 in Australia and 30 in Switzerland. It reached number 20 on the Eurochart Hot 100. Since its release, the song has sold more than 1.7 million copies worldwide. ==Music video==

in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The music video for "So Emotional" was directed by Wayne Isham during a brief break in Houston's Moment of Truth World Tour. According to an article by the Morning Call, 2,500 fans of the singer were admitted by free tickets given away at area record stores in the days leading up to the shoot. Houston came with her own wardrobe, which consisted of a black leather jacket, white tank top, blue denim jeans and boots in the rehearsal portion and a gray metallic blazer and black miniskirt ensemble during the live performance; the look and the video itself differed from Houston's more glamorous and colorful music videos such as "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" and "How Will I Know". The song's producer Narada Michael Walden participated in the video playing drums. The video had its world premiere on MTV in November 1987 and quickly attained heavy rotation a couple weeks later, achieving similar success on both BET and Night Tracks via a remixed version by Junior Vasquez and Shep Pettibone on the latter channels due to its house sound. The video was uploaded on Houston's official YouTube channel in October 2009 and has since accumulated more than 30 million views on the platform. ==Live performances==

Houston performed the song in three of her world tours and three of her territorial tours. The song was not performed on the 1987 North American leg of her Moment of Truth World Tour but was performed throughout the global legs of the tour throughout its 1988 itinerary. During the performances of the song on the tour, Houston often performed it with a higher pitch and faster hard rock tempo, with Houston performing it while backed by dancers performing choreography. The song would be the fourth song performed on the setlist after "Didn't We Almost Have It All", "Love Will Save the Day" and "You Give Good Love". For the Feels So Right Japan tour (1990) and I'm Your Baby Tonight World Tour (1991), the song was performed in its original pitch but under a slower hip-hop arrangement with Houston and her male dancers doing more elaborate choreography with Houston wearing a catsuit and headpiece. This time, the song was performed after "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)". For the second North American and South African legs of The Bodyguard World Tour in 1994, the song was given a funk rock arrangement including horns with Houston avoiding the choreography but still surrounded by female dancers. This arrangement would be performed for the Pacific Rim Tour (1997) and the European Tour (1998). Houston performed the song live on television as well. Houston gave a performance of the song alongside "Didn't We Almost Have It All" on Power Hits 1987. For the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute on June 11, 1988, she performed the song live in an eight-song set. For her 1990 and 1991 Yokohama Arena concerts that were broadcast on Japanese television, she performed the song live. It was also performed live in Spain for her ABC-TV special, This Is My Life in 1992 and the Whitney: The Concert for a New South Africa HBO-TV concert special in November 1994. It was also performed live at the Whitney: Brunei The Royal Wedding Celebration concert in 1996. ==Legacy==

Awards and accolades At the Garden State Music Awards in 1988 held at Atlantic City, New Jersey, the song won two trophies in the rock/pop and R&B/dance categories. The song was ranked sixth on the Billboard Hot 100 year-end charts as well as the fourth best-selling song on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play year-end charts (1988). It was ranked 46th place in the Hot Black Singles year-end list that same year. Polls and rankings Since its release, the song has made several of best-of songs lists in relation to Houston. Bill Lamb of About.com ranked it as the 10th best Houston song. In another Houston-related list, Steve Peake called the song a "genuine pop classic". Slant ranked it as the tenth best Houston song on their list, writing that the song was "animated not by its scorched-cheese electric guitars, but by Whitney’s elated performance" and that the song's catchphrase, "I get so emotional, baby", was "so nebulous as to say absolutely nothing at all. Passion transcends words, of course, and Whitney’s ecstasy practically verges on religious." Entertainment Weekly ranked it sixth in their best Houston songs list, saying the song "illuminated a naughtier, more rollicking side of the sweet-faced starlet." BET ranked the rocker the tenth best song among 40 of Houston's songs, comparing it to Michael Jackson's "rock-soul mashups". The A.V. Club ranked it as the "sixth most essential" Houston song (that wasn't "I Will Always Love You"), comparing the "lovelorn" track to similar songs by Robyn and FKA Twigs, writing that the song was like many of Houston's songs that was "rooted in themes of overpowering love and breathless excitement". It further stated that her look in the music video of her belting while "spinning in a leather jacket" was comparable to Gene Kelly "elucidat[ing] that 'glorious feeling' of singin’ in the rain." MTV included the song among Houston's ten best songs ever. The site TV80s wrote that the song "showcased her unmatched ability to channel raw feeling into radio-ready perfection." Uses in popular culture and covers In the music video for Childish Gambino's 2018 promo single "Feels Like Summer", Houston is depicted in animated form, appearing along with several other famous and iconic figures/people. Her look is based on the cover for the 1987 single. In season 9 of ''RuPaul's Drag Race'', Sasha Velour gave a memorable performance of the song during the show's lip sync battle between her and Shea Coulee in which she removed her wig to reveal a series of rose petals falling out of her head, which she later won. Allison Shoemaker of The A.V. Club named Velour's lipsync to "So Emotional" as the best TV performance of 2017. In a 2022 CNN article on Houston's influence on gay culture, Velour explained that her performance of the song was her way of [capturing] the feeling of isolation, among other things, telling them "I saw the rose petals as a kind of iconography or metaphor... Loneliness, heartache, love, loss, grieving – I can hear different colors of all of that in ‘So Emotional.’ I wanted to take something broad like that, and just show how it builds and builds as her (Houston’s) performance gets more intense." In S1 E2-E3 of the 2020 Netflix show Julie and the Phantoms, the character Alex Mercer (Owen Joyner) wears a "So Emotional" t-shirt. This is a play on his character being the emotional, sensitive one of the group. They were not allowed to use Whitney Houston's image. The poster for the 2022 biopic Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody, was revealed with actress Naomi Ackie depicted as Houston in her “So Emotional” look. Much like the single cover/video Ackie is donning a leather jacket, tank top, jeans & boots with socks. The song has also been covered and sampled numerous times according to WhoSampled, most notably in songs such as "Daddy" by Beyoncé on her 2003 solo debut album, Dangerously in Love. For the Glee Houston tribute episode, "Dance with Somebody" in 2012, the song was covered by Naya Rivera and Lea Michele. Pop-rock musician Jon McLaughlin recorded a ballad version of the song and released it as a single in 2019. In 2023, singer Claire Richards covered the song in a dance and house-styled production for the album, Euphoria. ==Track listings and formats==

• US, 7" vinyl single • "So Emotional" – 4:36 • "For the Love of You" – 4:29 • UK, 7" vinyl single • "So Emotional" (Edited remix) – 4:20 • "For the Love of You" – 4:32 • UK, CD maxi-single • "So Emotional" (Extended remix) – 7:51 • "Didn't We Almost Have It All" (Live) – 6:28 • "For the Love of You" – 4:32 ==Personnel==

• Narada Michael Walden – drums • Walter "Baby Love" Afanasieff – keyboards and synth bass • Corrado Rustici – guitar synth • Robert "Bongo Bob" Smith – drum sampling and percussion programming • Background vocals – Whitney Houston • Produced and arranged by Narada Michael Walden • Recorded and mixed by David Frazer • Assistant engineer – Dana Jon Chappelle • Additional engineers – Lincoln Clapp, Gordon Lyon, Jay Rifkin, Ken Kessie, Maureen Droney • Additional assistant engineers – Gordon Lyon, Stuart Hirotsu, Paul "Goatee" Hamingson, Noah Baron, Bill "Sweet William" Miranda, Ross Williams, Rob Beaton ==Charts and certifications==

Weekly charts Year-end charts Certifications ==See also==