Whitney Houston - "I’m Your Baby Tonight"

75azabache wrote: thecdguy wrote: Hi Eric! The Discogs page for the UK Version of the IYBT CD lists the running time of the song as 4:09 (obviously way shorter than the 5 Minute version on the US CD) and among the credits for the song there is a specific notation that says, "Producer [Additional], Remix - Yvonne Turner". So I'd say it's a safe bet that the Turner remix is what's on the UK CD. The UK CD Singles may still be the only place where you could find the Extended Remix on CD, though (the same Yvonne Turner mix, only longer and running over 6 minutes). I'm curious about what Arista did for the UK Version of her second album, "Whitney" and what version of "So Emotional" they used on it. I believe there's another thread here somewhere in which it was stated that the "Edited Remix" was the hit version in the UK, but that version runs somewhere around 4:30 and the Discogs listing for the UK CD has the song at 4:53, longer than even the US Album Version. Hi! I have my original discs purchased here in the UK! The UK album version does have the Yvonne Turner Remix and it's the 4.09 version which was also released as the single version here. I think the single ran a couple of seconds over that but the mix is the same. My original 1987 release of Whitney has So Emotional running at 4.35, I know the 7" single release here was the edited remix. Hope this helps!

Thanks for the confirmation! So I guess it's safe to
assume that the version of "So Emotional" on the UK
Version of
the "Whitney" album is the same as the US Album Version,
it's just the single that used the remix?

Edited by thecdguy

Scanner wrote: Wow, I never knew there was a remixed version of this song that was the hit version outside the US. (This board both fascinates and flusters me sometimes simultaneously when I learn how many versions of a song exist that I have never been aware of for all these years!)

Yes, I'm amazed, too, by what people find and report here. I found this European "I'm Your Baby Tonight" hit/album mix by accident. I try to get music videos and TV performances of all my favorite songs (not what this board is about, though I know there's one other video collector on this board!) Anyway, for the past month or more, I've been researching on YouTube (I'm up to the letter "H"), and was surprised by 2 Whitney Houston things. First, there's a music video for "All At Once" (a very simple one!) done in 1985 and that this was the breakthrough single for her in at least one country (top 5 in ... Netherlands maybe?) but also first single elsewhere in Europe. There are also a LOT of 1985 TV performances of this song in Europe, which surprised me, until I realized it was a single. In many places in the US, it got a lot of radio play on pop and AC stations (like Washington DC where I lived) after "Greatest Love of All" peaked, but I'd heard Clive didn't want to release it because it was (A) too close to the release of Whitney's second album, and (B) too close to the melody of the second album's first ballad single "Didn't We Almost Have It All". (Both composed by Michael Masser.) Well actually, it's just me making the (B) observatrion - though I really think that was a reason they held off on releasing "All At Once" here. But I did hear through some music business source that (A) was the reason Clive wouldn't release the single, when it was becoming a radio hit without one ounce of radio promotion! Too bad - I think it would have been another #1 for her, giving her a string of 8 consecutive #1s instead of 7. (It's also my favorite WH song).

Anyway, I noticed that that video was on YouTube's "Whitney Houston" channel, so I clicked that, and that's how I found out about the European mix of "I'm Your Baby Tonight" (when I was going through the videos on the channel). I was shocked I never knew about it - a little more shocked to find out now it's never managed to make its way onto any US CD - and surprised that so many other people on this board are just finding out about it now. (Everyone except people living in the UK I guess :)

So ... if I want the long and short version of the European mix, I guess the only place is on certain UK CD singles (and maybe Japan). Is that correct?

Edited by EdisonLite

EdisonLite wrote: In many places in the US, it got a lot of radio play on pop and AC stations (like Washington DC where I lived) after "Greatest Love of All" peaked, but I'd heard Clive didn't want to release it because it was (A) too close to the release of Whitney's second album, and (B) too close to the melody of the second album's first ballad single "Didn't We Almost Have It All". (Both composed by Michael Masser.) Well actually, it's just me making the (B) observatrion - though I really think that was a reason they held off on releasing "All At Once" here. But I did hear through some music business source that (A) was the reason Clive wouldn't release the single, when it was becoming a radio hit without one ounce of radio promotion! Too bad - I think it would have been another #1 for her, giving her a string of 8 consecutive #1s instead of 7. (It's also my favorite WH song).

It's funny that you should mention (B). At about the time that "Didn't We Almost Have It All" was a hit, one of the Top 40 stations here in town played a parody of it (on their morning show, IIRC) with a woman who sounded similar to Whitney singing the line, "Don't My Songs All Sound The Same". The first thing I thought is that it must have been referring to "All At Once", because it sounded very close to "Didn't We...". So apparently, we weren't the only people to notice the similarities. Sometimes, even to this day, I still get the two confused on occasion.

I'd also heard about reason (A) for "All At Once" not being released as a single (or I should say as an A-Side, because it was the B-Side of the "Saving All My Love For You" single). Clive was probably worried about Whitney burnout at the time. It was less than a year between the time "Greatest Love Of All" fell off the chart and "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)" debuted. Also, for as great of a song as "All At Once" is, I'm not sure it would have made it to #1. I know I had only ever heard the song on AC Stations when it was getting airplay, not on Top 40 stations, so I don't know if it would have had enough airplay to make the chart. I assume it didn't make the Hot 100 Airplay chart, because I remember reading that Bon Jovi's "Never Say Goodbye" was the first Album Cut to make the Airplay Chart, and that was a year later in 1987. But I look at "All At Once" the same way as Madonna's "Into The Groove" - two classic 80's songs that we'll never know for sure how they would've performed on the charts if they had been singles.

Dan (CDGuy), I remember hearing "Don't My Songs All Sound the Same", the parady of "Didn't We Almost Have It All" and remember thinking the same thing - that it was inspired by the "All At Once"/"Didn't We ... " similarities (even though one wasn't even a real single). The last line before the chorus of "Didn't We Almost Have It All", is melodically note-for-note the exact same melody as the last line of the VERSE in "All At Once". Its composer Michael Masser (my favorite composer, as I mentioned) had a style that worked for him for 17 years ('73 to '90), but even I must admit that all the songs had a very similar sound - these 2 plus, "Miss You Like Crazy", "Greatest Love of All", "Someone That I used to Love", "If Ever You're In My Arms Again", "Do You Know Where You're Going To", "Tonight I Celebrate My Love For You", "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You"... "Saving All My Love For You" actually had a different vibe but still ended the title with "My Love For You"! And the only other unique hit was "Touch Me in the Morning". That didn't really sound like anything else. Whitney had recorded a song for her 3rd album that didn't make it that also sounded like every other Michael Masser song :)

True, but "Greatest Love of All" was a B-side of an earlier single (pretty sure "Saving All My Love"), albeit an acoustic piano mix. Even with "Saving" reaching #1 and having massive sales, it didn't stop people from buying "Greatest Love of All", which sold arguably more.

So I figured it wouldn't be different if they released "All At Once" as a later A-side. They could have done the same thing and replaced the piano with another sound.

I wonder how many people there were that bought "Saving All My Love", then later bought "Greatest Love" when it became a hit, having no idea they already owned the song as a B-side.

The 3:50 "previously unreleased version" is identical to the U.S. radio/video version except with the chorus from around 1:45 to 2:03 edited out.