To help you power through the rest of the week, here's the one and only Whitney Elizabeth Houston.
I remember growing up in a time when her voice was everywhere and her hits were inescapable, coming one right after another. It seemed like every singing contestant on the Philippine TV variety shows was doing "The Greatest Love of All." "One Moment in Time" was one of my go-to confidence boosters for when I faced a challenging day. And Whitney's "I Will Always Love You" was the first version I heard, years before I discovered Dolly Parton's equally sublime (but decidedly not Whitney-esque) original.
"I Wanna Dance with Somebody" is just sheer fun, and the neon-colored music video seems to have captured the 80s in a bottle. I love the way it never takes itself seriously; a video from a decade later might have taken the obvious route of showcasing beautiful bodies tangled in hot-and-heavy dance moves, but Whitney here is just goofing off with her dancers (some of them with lousy moves), throwing in a quick homage to Flashdance, reveling in a rain of confetti. Enjoy:
BONUS: "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" also seems to be one of the most covered songs from the era. Interestingly, most of the covers are relatively recent; after a drought in the 90s and a smattering in the early 2000s, there's been a Cambrian explosion of covers in the past few years, by everyone from post-punk band Fall Out Boy to Nashville singer Ben Rector to the cast of Glee. Most delightful to me is this one, below, by David Byrne. I wouldn't have thought that Byrne's quirky Talking Heads sensibilities would be a perfect match for Whitney's mainstream dance-pop, but in fact they are. How about that.
Shout-out to Daniel for letting me know about the video. May we all find time this week to dance with someone we love—including with ourselves. After all, as Whitney reminds us, that may well be the greatest love of all.
-----
Listen to the Spotify playlist here.
Watch the YouTube playlist here.