Readers of That Grape Juice know what avid music lovers we are – especially of hits past.

So, as our retrospective segments, ‘From the Vault’ and ‘TGJ Replay,’  allow us the chance to re-spin the gems and jams of yesterday of one artist, our latest feature –  Chart Rewind – serves as a variation of our Retro Rewind assay to salute an entire era of music history.

This week we’d like to give attention to ‘You Give Good Love’ – the official debut single of Pop icon Whitney Houston.

Join us inside:

Although Whitney Houston kicked off 1985 by being inaugurated to R&B audiences via her introductory tune, ‘Thinking About You,’ the song was not traditionally shopped to top 40 radio stations across the U.S.  For her big launch, Clive Davis – the then-newcomer’s musical mentor and leader at her record label ARISTA – tapped the Kashif Saleem-produced ‘You Give Good Love’ to serve as her official intro to music lovers at large.

A move that quickly proved lucrative, by the time the song’s Karen Bellone-directed music video made its TV rounds alongside her appearances on late nite talk shows (including an unforgettable showing at ‘The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson’), ‘Love’ was zooming up the Hot 100.  Eventually peaking at #3 on the tally (where it was found this week that year), the Platinum-certified tune would serve as the launching pad that helped its parent album – her self-titled debut LP – climb to the Billboard 200’s summit and ultimately become one of the best-selling debut albums of all time.

A critical knockout, ‘Love’ landed two Grammy nominations – Best R&B Song and Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female – at the next year’s ceremony.

On this side of history, despite joining a list chockfull of other classic Houston hits, ‘Love’ stands as an important entry.  Not only for jumpstarting one of Pop history’s most prized careers, but for setting the bar very high for debut singles among vocalists who followed.

Hot 100 This Week in 1985

Hot 100 This Week

Click here to see this week’s full ‘TGJ Chart Check: Hot 100.’

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