On this day in 1998, ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ was released as the second single from Whitney Houston’s ‘My Love Is Your Love’ album, featuring Faith Evans and Kelly Price.
The song was originally offered to TLC for their FanMail album, however they turned it down. Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes later stated that she wasn’t happy that the group had rejected the song, considering it ended up being such a big hit.
‘Heartbreak Hotel’ peaked at #2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, behind Cher’s ‘Believe’, and was a #1 hit on both the Dance Club Songs chart and the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. In the US, it has been certified Platinum by the RIAA. It was also moderately successful internationally, charting within the Top 20 in a number of countries including Australia, Canada and France.
‘Heartbreak Hotel’ earned Whitney an NAACP Image Award for ‘Outstanding Female Artist’, and the song was recognised with a BMI Pop Award in 2000 for being one of the year’s Top 50 most-performed pop songs on radio and television. The song was performed live by Whitney, Kelly and Faith together a number of times, including at the Billboard Music Awards and on The Rosie O’Donnell Show, however there were mostly solo performances over the years by both Whitney and Kelly.
The stunning music video was filmed in Miami, and it was the first Whitney music video to be directed by Kevin Bray, who went on to direct another seven music videos for Whitney in her career.
Watch the music video: