How Will I Know

When you dive into How Will I Know, you encounter an energy that invites you to move. It's one of those songs that, from the first note, makes you think of dance floors and lights. What's interesting is that this piece, which became a huge hit for Whitney Houston, wasn't originally conceived for her. Songwriters George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam had imagined it for Janet Jackson. However, Jackson's team felt it didn't quite fit with the material they were already preparing, and the song became available. It was Gerry Griffith, R&B music director at Arista Records, who heard it while looking for tracks for Houston's debut album. He and Clive Davis saw in it the pop touch that was missing from an album filled with R&B and ballads.

The recording of How Will I Know had its own journey. Originally, Merrill and Rubicam had created a demo in 1984. When Narada Michael Walden took over production, he wasn't entirely convinced by the initial demo and asked for changes to the lyrics and harmonic structure. After some back and forth, an agreement was reached for Walden to reinterpret the song, adjusting its key and tempo. Whitney Houston recorded her vocals in late 1984, and her mother, Cissy Houston, contributed to the backing vocals. The result was a track released on November 22, 1985, as the third single from her self-titled debut album, Whitney Houston, released in February of the same year. This single stood out by reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1986, staying there for two weeks, and also topping the Canadian charts. The accompanying music video, featuring Houston dancing among screens and colorful panels, exposed her to a young audience through platforms like MTV, and earned her a nomination and an award at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards.