"It's Not Right but It's Okay" | ||||
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Single by Whitney Houston | ||||
from the album My Love Is Your Love | ||||
A-side | "Heartbreak Hotel" | |||
B-side | "Get It Back" | |||
Released | February 15, 1999 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length |
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Label | Arista | |||
Songwriter(s) |
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Producer(s) | Darkchild | |||
Whitney Houston singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"It's Not Right but It's Okay" on YouTube | ||||
Audio | ||||
"It's Not Right but It's Okay" (album version) on YouTube | ||||
"It's Not Right but It's Okay" (Thunderpuss Club Mix) on YouTube |
"It's Not Right but It's Okay" is a song recorded by American Whitney Houston for her fourth studio album, My Love Is Your Love . It was written by LaShawn Daniels,Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins,Fred Jerkins III,Isaac Phillips,Toni Estes and produced by Darkchild. The song was released as the third single from the album on February 15,1999,by Arista Records. "It's Not Right but It's Okay" examines a woman confronting her lover about his infidelity.
Houston won the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for this song. In 2003, Q Magazine ranked "It's Not Right but It's Okay" at number 638 in their list of the "1001 Best Songs Ever". [1] In 2019, Billboard listed it as one of the Greatest Songs of 1999. [2] In 2022,the Thunderpuss club mix was listed in the list of the 200 greatest dance songs of all time on Rolling Stone . [3] The single reached number one in Spain and the top five in Canada,Iceland,the United Kingdom,and the United States.
The original Rodney Jerkins production was released,but mainstream radio airplay and sales were given for the Thunderpuss Remix. The remixed version was released on Houston's 2000 Whitney:The Greatest Hits collection,and the original album version appears on 2007's The Ultimate Collection .
The Johnny Vicious remixes were included on the domestic CD maxi-single of "Heartbreak Hotel" as well as the on the import single and are currently available as iTunes downloads. The KCC remix was included on the US version of the "My Love Is Your Love" maxi-single and is also available as an iTunes download. Rodney Jerkins' remixes are the closest to the album version;Club 69 (Peter Rauhofer) also remixed the track for play in the UK. In the US,when it was released as a stand-alone single,the versions that appear are the Rodney Jerkins,Thunderpuss,and Club 69 remixes. There is also a ballad version,entitled "Smooth Mix".
"It's Not Right but It's Okay" is a R&B and neo soul song. [4] According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com,it is written in the key of C minor with a tempo of 130 beats per minute. Houston's vocals span from G3 to A♭5 in the song. [5]
Bill Lamb from About.com noted that the song is a "hard-hitting anthem for women on the way out of relationships that sounds great on the radio and on the dance floor." [6] J.D. Considine from The Baltimore Sun wrote,"So when we hear her telling her abusive,less-than-faithful lover off in 'It's Not Right But It's Okay',we're not to imagine the lyrics have anything to do with the rumored infidelity of her real-life husband,Bobby Brown." [7] Billboard magazine highlighted the song on Houston's album. [8] Birmingham Evening Mail commented,"Houston,we have a problem. We loved your leather-limbed performance on the Brits of Rodney Jenkins' standout track from your new album 'My Love Is Your Love' and we know you should be cutting contemporary R&B - we just reckon you deserve better songs. Still,as a chart cert this'll do nicely,it's not great but it's okay." [9] Matt Stopera and Brian Galindo from BuzzFeed noted on the Thunderpuss Remix,that "aside from being a essential gay dance floor classic,this track proves how a good remix can elevate a song from good to ICONIC." [10] Daily Record stated,"Soul diva Whitney sounds streetwise with her biggest single since I Will Always Love You." [11]
It became the album's third single,peaking at number four on the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart on July 3,1999. [12] The single also peaked at number one on Billboard's Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart,No. 7 on the top 100 Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles &Tracks chart,and was certified platinum by the RIAA. The song reached No. 3 in Canada,Iceland and the United Kingdom —in March 1999,where it stayed in the chart for 15 weeks,becoming a hugely popular radio hit in the country. In Spain,it peaked at No. 1.
The music video was directed by Kevin Bray.
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Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
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Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
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New Zealand (RMNZ) [55] | Gold | 15,000‡ |
United Kingdom (BPI) [56] | 2× Platinum | 1,200,000‡ |
United States (RIAA) [57] | Platinum | 1,000,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. |
Region | Version | Date | Format(s) | Label(s) | Ref(s). |
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Sweden | "It's Not Right but It's Okay" | February 15, 1999 | CD | [58] | |
United Kingdom | February 22, 1999 |
| [59] | ||
Japan | "Heartbreak Hotel" / "It's Not Right but It's Okay" | February 24, 1999 | CD | Arista | [60] |
United States | "It's Not Right but It's Okay" | April 19, 1999 |
| [61] [62] | |
May 25, 1999 |
| [57] |
The song was covered by Darren Criss on the hit Fox TV show Glee . Criss' character, Blaine, was confronting his own 'cheating' lover in the Whitney Houston tribute special, "Dance with Somebody". It was also covered on the "Lies" single and The Mother We Share EP by Chvrches. The song was heavily sampled in Mak & Pasteman's "It Ain't Right" and Shane Codd's "Rather Be Alone".
My Love Is Your Love is the fourth studio album by American singer Whitney Houston, released worldwide on November 17, 1998. The album is one of the best-selling female albums of all time, having been certified four times platinum in both the United States and Europe. As of May 2000, My Love Is Your Love sold over 10 million copies worldwide. It was Houston's first studio album in eight years, following I'm Your Baby Tonight (1990) although she had contributed to three movie soundtracks during that period. Musically, My Love Is Your Love is a hip hop and R&B album that is composed of elements of pop, gospel and dance music, produced by musicians such as Whitney Houston herself, Rodney Jerkins, Soulshock & Karlin, Missy Elliott, Wyclef Jean, David Foster, Lauryn Hill, and Babyface.
Whitney: The Greatest Hits is the first compilation album by American singer Whitney Houston. It was released on May 15, 2000, by Arista Records. Anticipation over a greatest hits album from Houston arose as far as 1995, when Billboard first announced the album's release. However, it was continuously postponed as Houston focused on film projects, before deciding to record several new tracks for the belated collection in 1998. The effort was quickly expanded into her fourth studio album My Love Is Your Love, released in November 1998 to widespread success, which effectively postponed Whitney: The Greatest Hits again.
"How Will I Know" is a song recorded by American singer Whitney Houston for her self-titled debut studio album. It was released on November 22, 1985, by Arista Records as the album's third single. Written and composed by George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam, it was originally intended for pop singer Janet Jackson, who passed on it. Houston then recorded the song with altered lyrics and production from Narada Michael Walden.
"I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" is a song recorded by American singer Whitney Houston, released on April 28, 1987 by Arista Records as the leading single from her second studio album, Whitney. It was written by George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam, of the band Boy Meets Girl, the songwriters of Houston's previous hit, "How Will I Know", and produced by Narada Michael Walden. The song's lyrics depict a woman seeking a special person to "dance in the life with" forever.
"So Emotional" is a song by American singer Whitney Houston. It was released as the third single from her second studio album Whitney (1987) on October 12, 1987, by Arista Records. The song was written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly and produced by Narada Michael Walden.
"I'm Every Woman" is a song by American singer Chaka Khan, released in September 1978 by Warner Bros. as her debut solo single from her first album, Chaka (1978). It was Khan's first hit outside her recordings with the funk band Rufus. "I'm Every Woman" was produced by Arif Mardin and written by the successful songwriting team Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson. The single established Chaka's career outside the group Rufus, whom she would leave after their eighth studio album, Masterjam, was released in late 1979.
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"My Love Is Your Love" is a song by American singer Whitney Houston. It was written and produced by Wyclef Jean and Jerry Duplessis for Houston's fourth studio album of the same name (1998). Released on May 31, 1999, as the album's fourth single, it received positive reviews and was successful worldwide, hitting the top 10 in 23 international markets. The song peaked at number four on the US Billboard Hot 100, number two in the United Kingdom, and number one in New Zealand and Poland. It was later certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
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American singer Whitney Houston, known as "The Voice", released 57 singles as a leading artist and 4 as a featured artist. Houston is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with over 220 million records sold worldwide. In the United States, Houston amassed 11 Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles, all of whom have been certified either gold, platinum, multi-platinum or diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America and was one of a selected group of artists to have a top ten single in the Billboard Hot 100 in four different decades. She is currently ranked in seventh place of the artists with the most number one singles in the history of the Billboard Hot 100. Prior to the introduction of digital singles, Houston sold 16.5 million physical singles in the country, the most ever by a female recording artist. In October 2012, the Official Charts Company claimed Houston was the fourth biggest-selling female singles artist of all time with a sales total of 8.5 million singles in that country.