Comments on: 1988 Countdown #80: Whitney Houston, “Where Do Broken Hearts Go” http://rulefortytwo.com/2008/09/25/1988-countdown-80-whitney-houston-where-do-broken-hearts-go/ The Self-Aggrandizing Website of Gavin Edwards Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:43:04 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Chris M. http://rulefortytwo.com/2008/09/25/1988-countdown-80-whitney-houston-where-do-broken-hearts-go/#comment-403 Chris M. Thu, 25 Sep 2008 22:47:51 +0000 http://rulefortytwo.com/2008/09/25/1988-countdown-80-whitney-houston-where-do-broken-hearts-go/#comment-403 Your video description is the first time I've really experienced the plot of this video, because whenever it appeared on MTV back in the day I instantly flipped the channel or left the room. I didn't exactly love Houston when she started, but by ’88 I full-on hated her, and this song (whose chorus, unfortunately, I can still sing thanks to checkout-line radio and <i>American Idol</i>) is just about the worst of her late-’80s generic ballad schmaltz. (I softened on her a bit two years later on "I'm Your Baby Tonight," still one of her few good songs.) For the record, she broke that Beatles/Bee Gees record only if you don't count a single she released from the first album that was only promoted to R&B radio; it never made the Hot 100. A technicality, to be sure, but as a bigger fan of the Fabs and the BGs I've always retained it. <i>She leaves the room and walks down the hallway past flight cases stenciled “Whitney,” just in case we forgot her name.</i> That's just Arista/Clive doing some branding: <i>Whitney</i> was the name of the album from which this song emanated. It followed the equally creatively titled debut album <i>Whitney Houston</i>. (All in, including the debacle 2002 album <i>Just Whitney</i>, Clive has gone to the eponymous well three times in naming Houston's albums.) I think this is the last we'll hear from Houston on this countdown, thank Jeebus: "So Emotional" straddled 1987 and 1988, but it topped the charts so close to New Year's Day ’88 that I suspect MTV would have counted it down in their New Year's Eve ’87 show. Fingers crossed... Your video description is the first time I’ve really experienced the plot of this video, because whenever it appeared on MTV back in the day I instantly flipped the channel or left the room. I didn’t exactly love Houston when she started, but by ’88 I full-on hated her, and this song (whose chorus, unfortunately, I can still sing thanks to checkout-line radio and American Idol) is just about the worst of her late-’80s generic ballad schmaltz. (I softened on her a bit two years later on “I’m Your Baby Tonight,” still one of her few good songs.)

For the record, she broke that Beatles/Bee Gees record only if you don’t count a single she released from the first album that was only promoted to R&B radio; it never made the Hot 100. A technicality, to be sure, but as a bigger fan of the Fabs and the BGs I’ve always retained it.

She leaves the room and walks down the hallway past flight cases stenciled “Whitney,” just in case we forgot her name.

That’s just Arista/Clive doing some branding: Whitney was the name of the album from which this song emanated. It followed the equally creatively titled debut album Whitney Houston. (All in, including the debacle 2002 album Just Whitney, Clive has gone to the eponymous well three times in naming Houston’s albums.)

I think this is the last we’ll hear from Houston on this countdown, thank Jeebus: “So Emotional” straddled 1987 and 1988, but it topped the charts so close to New Year’s Day ’88 that I suspect MTV would have counted it down in their New Year’s Eve ’87 show. Fingers crossed…

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