| "Fine" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Whitney Houston | ||||
| from the album Whitney: The Greatest Hits | ||||
| B-side | "Love to Infinity Megamix" | |||
| Released | September 19, 2000 | |||
| Studio | The Record Plant (Los Angeles) | |||
| Genre | R&B | |||
| Length | 3:34 | |||
| Label | Arista | |||
| Songwriter(s) |
| |||
| Producer(s) | ||||
| Whitney Houston singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Music video | ||||
| "Fine" on YouTube | ||||
"Fine" is a song by American singer Whitney Houston, and was released as the fourth single from her 2000 compilation album, Whitney: The Greatest Hits , in September 2000.
"Fine" is a mid-tempo R&B tune, written and produced by Raphael Saadiq and Kamaal Fareed. According to Billboard , it features "languid retro-funk guitars" and a "sneaky hook", brought to life by "richly layered harmonies". [1] It was described as having "a sleek lite-funk sound" by The Star-Ledger . [2]
Billboard wrote that "Fine" is "perhaps her most convincing crack at urbanized pop music to date. [Houston] seems to have eased into the chilled soul that propels a street-wise track. She wisely does not give into the temptation to belt and wail her way through the song [...]. Instead, Houston works the more sultry lower register of her voice, saving the big, beautiful notes as a dramatic accent toward the end of the cut." [1] LA Weekly in its review for Whitney: The Greatest Hits wrote that "Only on the stellar R&B track 'Fine' does Whitney stand out. [...] 'Fine' is soulful, funky and tight as hell. And the vocal performance ranks among Whitney's best." [3] The Baltimore Sun wrote that of the new tracks on Whitney: The Greatest Hits, "only the sultry, soulful 'Fine' manages to convey any of the strengths that made Houston a star", and that, "hearing [Houston] work the tune's insistent, retro-funk groove, there's no doubting that she still has what it takes to make hits". [4] CANOE reviewer Jane Stevenson felt that the song "falls flat". [5] The Star-Ledger wrote that the song "grows tiresomely repetitious". [2] According to New Nation the song takes Houston "to even greater heights, changing [her] vocals to a much lower tone, with an added hip-hop bassline". [6] The St. Louis Post-Dispatch called it "a wonderful composition". [7]
"Fine" appeared on the singles charts only in the United States, Sweden, and Canada. [8] [9] [10] The song peaked at number 51 on the US Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart. [8] In Sweden, it debuted and peaked at number 50, but spent only one week on the chart. [9] In Canada, it peaked at number 39 the week after it debuted and spent a total of four weeks on Nielsen SoundScan's Canadian Singles Chart. [11]
The music video, directed by Kevin Bray, features Houston at a rooftop cocktail party. In the US, a DVD single was released. It includes the videos for "Fine" and the Houston-George Michael duet "If I Told You That", plus behind-the-scenes footage from the "Fine" video shoot. Houston's then-husband Bobby Brown also appears in the video.
Credits [17]
| Recording and mixing [17]
|
| Chart (2001) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Canada (Nielsen SoundScan) [18] | 39 |
| Sweden (Sverigetopplistan) [9] | 50 |
| US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs ( Billboard ) [8] | 51 |
| Region | Date | Format(s) | Label(s) | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | September 19, 2000 | Arista | [19] | |
| September 26, 2000 | Rhythmic contemporary radio | [20] [21] | ||
| Sweden | December 11, 2000 | CD |
| [22] |
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