"So Emotional" is a song by American singer and actress 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 after Arista head Clive Davis requested one more uptempo song for the album. The song's musical composition was inspired by the Minneapolis sound funk productions of Prince and would be produced by Narada Michael Walden, who then edited the song to give it more of a hard rock sound.
Commercially, it peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, where it became her sixth consecutive number one, breaking a record originally set by Elvis Presley two decades earlier as the solo artist with the most consecutive number-one singles in Billboard Hot 100 history. A remixed version by Junior Vasquez and Shep Pettibone later sent the song to number one on the magazine's Dance Club Play chart, giving Houston her second number one dance hit. It was also successful in its R&B and adult contemporary charts, reaching the top ten in both. In doing so, it became Houston's third single to reach the top ten in four successive Billboard charts after "How Will I Know" and "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)".
It would become the sixth best-charting song of 1988, and was the fourth most played song on the club charts according to Billboard; it is her sixth biggest hit on the Hot 100 chart.[3]
In the UK, the song became Houston's fifth top ten hit, peaking at number 5.[4] It would also reach the top ten in Canada, Finland and Ireland, peaking at number 3 in the latter chart, its highest peak outside the United States.
Initially producing mixed reviews upon its release, the song later received retrospective accolades by magazines such as Slant and Entertainment Weekly as well as the website About.com and the channel BET, all of whom ranked the song as one of Houston's best songs in her catalog.
Composition and recording
Prince(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 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.[5] The song centers on a woman who falls in love with one of her "old flames" despite the fact that she has another man, and admits "get[ting] so emotional" thinking of him.[5] The recording was overseen by producer Narada Michael Walden at Manhattan's Right Track Studios in March 1987. According to Kelly, the synthesized hard rock sound produced by Walden differed from their production.[5]
The day of the recording, Houston was scheduled to make minor changes to existing tracks for the album. Upon arrival, Walden advised Houston to record "So Emotional" first, before she had warmed up, resulting in a fresh, edgy sound. During its recording, rock singer and Rolling Stones front man Mick Jagger entered the studio upon hearing the song and danced along to Walden and Houston's delight.[6] 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 Kelly 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."[7] Still, the songwriters were proud of the song and of Houston's recording of it, with Kelly 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."[5]
Considered a dance-pop and rock song with R&B and medium funk influences according to Musicnotes.com under Sony Music Publishing, the song is mostly played to the key of E minor, with Houston's vocal range going from B3 to F♯5.[8]
Critical reception
AllMusic editor Ron Wynn highlighted this track.[9] Vince Aletti of Rolling Stone wrote: "Walden covers all these bases, out-hopping Kashif (but not Jellybean) with "So Emotional."[10]St. Petersburg Times Eric Snider and Annelise Wamsley wrote: "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."[11] 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".[12]
Chart performance
"So Emotional" broke a 27-year chart record set by Elvis Presley for the most consecutive number one singles by a solo artist on the Billboard Hot 100.
"So Emotional" made its debut at number 47 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.[13] 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.[14] 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.[15] 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.[16] 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. 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)". "So Emotional" 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. It is Houston's sixth best charting song of all time on the Billboard Hot 100. Since its release, the song has sold more than 1.7 million copies worldwide.
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.
The music video for "So Emotional" was directed by Wayne Isham during a brief break in Houston's Moment of Truth World Tour.[17] 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.[17][18] The singer reportedly rehearsed for 17 days in preparation for the video.[17][18]
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 on October 26, 1987 and quickly attained heavy rotation, achieving similar success on both VH1 and BET via a remixed version by Junior Vasquez and Shep Pettibone on the latter channel due to its house sound. The video was uploaded on Houston's official YouTube channel in October 2009 and has since accumulated 29 million views on the platform.
Legacy, accolades and uses in popular culture
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.[19]
Since its release, the song has made several of best-of songs lists in relation to Houston. About.com ranked it as the 10th best Houston song.[20]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."[2]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."[21]BET ranked the rocker the tenth best song among 40 of Houston's songs, comparing it to Michael Jackson's "rock-soul mashups".[22]The A.V. Club ranked it as the "sixth most essential" Houston song (that wasn't "I Will Always Love You"), writing that the song was like many of Houston's songs that was "rooted in themes of overpowering love and breathless excitement".[23] 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."[23]
The site TV80s wrote that the song "showcased her unmatched ability to channel raw feeling into radio-ready perfection."[24]
In the music video for Childish Gambino's 2018 promo single, "Feels Like Summer", Houston depicted in animated form - appears along with several other famous and iconic figures/people. Her look is based on the single cover for the 1987 single.[26]
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.[27]
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.[28]
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.[29] Pop-rock musician Jon McLaughlin recorded a ballad version of the song and released it as a single in 2019.
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
1 2 Breihan, Tom (April 5, 2021). "The Number Ones: Whitney Houston's "So Emotional". Stereogum. Retrieved November 9, 2023. So Emotional" is at least a little bit of a rock song...Whitney Houston's "So Emotional" is by-the-numbers late-'80s dance-pop.
1 2 "The 15 Best Whitney Houston Singles". Slant. July 18, 2017. Retrieved August 12, 2025. Though some critics turned their noses up at the rock-inflected "So Emotional" when it was released in 1987, the track is animated not by its scorched-cheese electric guitars, but by Whitney's elated performance.
↑ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (Illustrateded.). Sydney: Australian Chart Book. p.143. ISBN0-646-11917-6. N.B. The Kent Report chart was licensed by ARIA between 1983 and 26 June 1988.
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