Song:Hold Me
Album:Bedroom Classics Vol. 1
Hold Me is an interesting song because it was Whitney Houston's first chart appearance. I'll get into the significance of that in a minute. Hold Me is from Teddy Pendergrass' 1984 album Love Language. It was his first album on his new label Asylum. Pendergrass was one of the most successful singers of the 70s. And I think as most fans know, he suffered injuries in a 1982 car crash that made him a paraplegic. This is detailed in the Showtime documentary If You Don't Know Me which I reviewed on the blog. So Love Language was his comeback album. Hold Me was the first single from the album. It reached #5 on the R&B Singles chart and #46 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album was certified Gold. It's also notable as one of two appearances Whitney made before her debut album was released. Hold Me was written by Michael Masser and Linda Creed. Masser produced most of Love Language. He had previously produced the 1982 Diana Ross album Electric Silk. Hold Me is a reworking of In Your Arms from that album. Masser also wrote and produced several songs for Whitney's 1985 debut album Whitney Houston including Saving All My Love For You and Greatest Love of All. We all know how big that album was. But Whitney was ruled ineligible for the Best New Artist Grammy because she made her recording debut on Hold Me and Take Good Care of My Heart a duet with Jermaine Jackson. Arista Records owner Clive Davis complained that Whitney was an unknown singer making a guest appearance and this rule should not be applied literally when in the past it had been applied liberally to past Best New Artist winners like Cyndi Lauper and Luther Vandross. NARAS stuck to their guns but they are inconsistent in applying it. So that was the big story that came out of the success of Hold Me. Here's a video for Hold Me by Teddy Pendergrass featuring Whitney Houston. This is pretty good for a fan made video.
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