"How Will I Know" is a song recorded by American singer Whitney Houston for her self-titled debut studio album. The song was released on November 22, 1985, by Arista Records as the album's third single. Originally written and composed by George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam, the song was originally intended for R&B singer Janet Jackson, but she passed on it. Houston then recorded the song with altered lyrics and production from Narada Michael Walden. The lyrics speak about the protagonist trying to discern if a boy she likes will ever like her back.
"How Will I Know" received mostly positive reviews from music critics. It became Houston's second number-one single on the US Billboard Hot 100 in February 1986, spending two weeks atop the chart and also became her first chart topper on the Canadian RPM Top 100 Singles chart. It also reached top 10 positions in Australia, Sweden, Ireland, Norway and the United Kingdom, and top 20 positions in the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland.
The accompanying music video for "How Will I Know" features scenes of Houston dancing in a setting of video screens and colored partitions. The music video gave Houston exposure to the teenagers and MTV. It received two nominations at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards; Best Female Video and Best New Artist, winning the former category. The song was performed on many of her tours including Greatest Love Tour (1986) and her Nothing but Love World Tour (2009–10). "How Will I Know" is also featured as a remix on Houston's compilation album Whitney: The Greatest Hits (2000), whereas the original single version is featured on The Ultimate Collection (2007) and I Will Always Love You: The Best of Whitney Houston (2012).
Background and recording
Initially, songwriters George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam had written the song's demo in 1984 for R&B singer Janet Jackson, employed by A&M Records executive, John McClain. However, after hearing the song, Jackson's management passed on the song, feeling it was too weak in comparison to her other material. In an interview with Fred Bronson, Merrill expressed his feelings after learning of Jackson's decision. "We were pretty upset because we thought it was perfect for her at the time. We had written it with her completely in mind." During this period, Brenda Andrews, at Almo-Irving Music, Merrill and Rubicam's publisher, played the song for Gerry Griffith, the director for R&B music at A&M and Arista Records. Griffith, who was compiling material for Houston's debut album at the time, felt the song perfectly matched her sound. He soon contacted Andrews and the song's two writers and prompted that they should give up the song to him for Houston's debut album. Griffith described his discovery of the song and what he and Clive Davis thought of it:
"We had a lot of R&B-based tunes, we had a few ballads, but we didn't have a pop crossover song. So when I heard 'How Will I Know,' I said 'this is absolutely perfect.' I played it for Clive [and] he fell in love with it. I wasn't very familiar with her family background; I didn't realize that, even at that time, there was a pretty big industry buzz about her future."
After getting permission to use the song from Merrill, Griffith quickly turned to Narada Michael Walden, who was producing for Aretha Franklin, material for her album Who's Zoomin' Who?, at the time. After getting in touch with Walden, Griffith frantically prompted him to produce the song, describing how important the song would be for Houston's upcoming album. After hearing the song's demo, Walden agreed to fly down to San Rafael, California, to arrange it. He was not much impressed with the demo and requested permission to change some of the song's lyrics and chord progression. Distracted by his request, Merrill and Rubicam denied him the right to their song. After a lot of back-and-forth with Griffith, they compromised and allowed Walden to de-construct the song and change the key and tempo. After completing the song, Houston came into the studio to record her vocals in late 1984. Cissy Houston, Whitney's mother, joined her daughter to perform the song's background vocals. Griffith stated: "I asked Whitney to sing on the background session. She was reluctant because she wanted to enjoy hearing her mother sing. I said, 'No, get out there and sing,' so she did. The background sounded incredible...Clive Davis heard the mix and immediately gave it a 10, which is outrageous for him, because he doesn't like anything!"
The tenor saxophone is played by Premik Russell Tubbs.