"Emotion" is a song written by

Barry Barry may refer to: People and fictional characters * Barry (name), including lists of people with the given name, nickname or surname, as well as fictional characters with the given name * Dancing Barry, stage name of Barry Richards (born c. 19 ...

and

Robin Gibb Robin Hugh Gibb (22 December 1949 – 20 May 2012) was a British singer and songwriter. He gained worldwide fame as a member of the Bee Gees pop group with elder brother Barry and fraternal twin brother Maurice. Robin Gibb also had his o ...

. It was first recorded by Australian singer

Samantha Sang Cheryl Lau Sang (born 5 August 1951), known professionally as Samantha Sang, is an Australian singer. She had an earlier career as a teenage singer under the stage name Cheryl Gray, before adopting the stage name she is more widely known as in 1 ...

, whose version reached number three on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in 1978. The

Bee Gees The Bee Gees were a musical group formed in 1958 by brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio were especially successful in popular music in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and later as prominent performers in the disco music era in ...

recorded their own version of the song in 1994 as part of an album called ''Love Songs'', which was never released, but it was eventually included on their 2001 collection titled '' Their Greatest Hits: The Record''. In 2001, "Emotion" was covered by the American R&B girl group

Destiny's Child Destiny's Child was an American girl group whose final line-up comprised Beyoncé Knowles, Kelly Rowland, and Michelle Williams. The group began their musical career as Girl's Tyme, formed in 1990 in Houston, Texas. After years of limited ...

. Their version of the song was an international hit, reaching the top ten on the US Hot 100 chart and peaking in the top five on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. English singer

Emma Bunton Emma Lee Bunton (born 21 January 1976) is an English singer, songwriter, actress, and media personality. She rose to fame in the 1990s as a member of the girl group Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed Baby Spice. With over 100 million recor ...

also covered the song on her 2019 album ''

My Happy Place ''My Happy Place'' is the fourth studio album by British singer Emma Bunton. It was released on 12 April 2019 by BMG Rights Management. The album consists of ten tracks; eight are cover versions of some of Bunton's favourite songs and two are o ...

''.

Original version

Background

Originally, "Emotion" was recorded by Samantha Sang for the Private Stock label. The song was Sang's only hit single, reaching number 3 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. ''Billboard'' ranked her version as the No. 14 song for 1978. There is a promotional video made for this song. When Sang arrived in Miami, instead of recording " Don't Throw It All Away", Barry Gibb offered her a new song called "Emotion". On this track, Sang sticks to a breathy, Barry-like sound. Gibb himself provided harmony and background vocals in his signature

falsetto ''Falsetto'' (, ; Italian diminutive of , "false") is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous ed ...

. The B-side was "When Love Is Gone", a

Francis Lai Francis Albert Lai (; 26 April 19327 November 2018) was a French composer, noted for his film scores. He won the 1970 Oscar for Best Music, Original Score and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score for the film ''Love Story''. The so ...

composition. It was recorded around April 1977 in

Criteria Studios Criteria Studios is a recording studio in North Miami, Florida, founded in 1958 by musician Mack Emerman. Hundreds of gold, platinum, and diamond singles and albums have been recorded, mixed or mastered at Criteria, for many notable artists and ...

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

around the same time that Barry contributed writing and producing "

Save Me, Save Me "Save Me, Save Me" is a song written by Barry Gibb and Albhy Galuten in 1977. It was recorded by the group Network from New York City. The flipside was "Not Love at All". This song is the first track credited to Gibb and Galuten. George Bitzer was ...

" for the band Network.

Blue Weaver Derek John "Blue" Weaver (born 11 March 1947) is a Welsh rock keyboardist, session musician, songwriter and record producer. Career Weaver's career as a musician began as a co-founding member of 1960s Welsh rock band Amen Corner and its succ ...

identified the musicians as shown from memory. On the session, Joey Murcia plays guitar, George Bitzer on

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

, Harold Cowart on bass and Ron "Tubby" Zeigler on

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

. It was originally intended for use in the 1977 film '' Saturday Night Fever'', but ended up being featured in the film '' The Stud'' (1978) starring

Joan Collins Dame Joan Henrietta Collins (born 23 May 1933) is an English actress, author and columnist. Collins is the recipient of several accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, a People's Choice Award, two Soap Opera Digest Awards and a Primetime ...

. Also in 1978, "Emotion" was used as the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

Johnny Mathis John Royce Mathis (born September 30, 1935) is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standard music, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum s ...

and

Deniece Williams Deniece Williams (born June Deniece Chandler; June 3, 1951) is an American singer. She has been described as "one of the great soul voices" by the BBC. She is best known for the songs " Free", " Silly", "It's Gonna Take a Miracle" and two ''Bil ...

's single "

Too Much, Too Little, Too Late "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late" is a song performed by singers Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams. Lyrics and music were arranged by Nat Kipner and John Vallins. The single was a comeback of sorts for Mathis as his last U.S. top 10 hit was 196 ...

", which reached

number one Number One most commonly refers to: * 1 (number) Number One, No. 1, or #1 may also refer to: Music Albums * ''Number 1'' (Big Bang album), and the title song * ''No. 1'' (BoA album), and the title song * ''No.1'' (EP), by CLC * ''n.1 ...

in the US.

Personnel

– vocals *

Barry Gibb Sir Barry Alan Crompton Gibb (born 1 September 1946) is a British musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. He rose to worldwide fame as a member of the Bee Gees, one of the most commercially successful groups in the history of popul ...

–

harmony In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However ...

and background vocals *George Terry – guitar *Joey Murcia – guitar *George Bitzer – keyboards, Fender Rhodes Electric Piano *Harold Cowart – bass *Ron Ziegler – drums *Karl Richardson –

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

Track listings and format

# "Emotion" – 3:43 # "When Love Is Gone" – 3:46

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications and sales

Destiny's Child version

Recording and production

In 2001, "Emotion" was recorded by American group

for their third studio album '' Survivor'' (2001). Produced and arranged by

Mark J. Feist Mark J. Feist (born in Melbourne) is a multi-platinum producer/songwriter who has contributed to the sale of over 25 million records worldwide. Feist currently resides in Los Angeles. Early age Mark Feist began expressing himself musically a ...

, it features a slower tempo than the original, although a more uptempo

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

produced by

Neptunes The Neptunes are an American songwriting and production duo composed of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, formed in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in 1992. Williams often provides additional vocals on records and appears in the duo's music videos ...

was also produced and included on the group's

remix album A remix album is an album consisting of remixes or rerecorded versions of an artist's earlier released material. The first act who employed the format was American singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson (''Aerial Pandemonium Ballet'', 1971). As of 2007 ...

'' This Is The Remix'' (2002). Feist had previously produced the song for Filipino singer

Regine Velasquez Regina Encarnacion Ansong Velasquez ( ; born April 22, 1970) is a Filipina singer, actress, and record producer. She is considered one of the most influential figures in Philippine popular culture and is known for her vocal range and beltin ...

for her album '' Drawn'' in 1998 and used exactly the same backing track for Destiny's Child.

Release and promotion

"Emotion" was released as the third single from ''Survivor'' on 4 September 2001, by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

. The song was heavily played on radio stations during the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 attacks and eventually became a tribute song to the family of the victims. The group also paid tribute to R&B singer Aaliyah, who died in an August 2001 plane crash, at the

Soul Train Lady of Soul Award The Soul Train Music Awards is an annual music awards show which previously aired in national broadcast syndication, and honors the best in African-American culture, music and entertainment. It is produced by the makers of '' Soul Train'', the ...

s by performing the song. Several international formats of "Emotion" contain "

8 Days of Christmas ''8 Days of Christmas'' is the fourth and penultimate studio album and the first and only Christmas album by American R&B girl group Destiny's Child, released on October 30, 2001 by Columbia Records. Background The album contains twelve tracks ...

" as a

, which previously appeared on the US maxi CD single of "

Independent Women Part I "Independent Women Part I" is a song recorded by American group Destiny's Child for the soundtrack to the 2000 film adaptation of the television program '' Charlie's Angels''. It was written and produced by production duo Poke & Tone, consisti ...

" (2000).

Commercial performance

"Emotion" continued Destiny's Child's streak of top-ten hits in the United States, peaking at number ten on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 on 1 December 2001 thought it became their first to miss the top 3. It was also a hit in the United Kingdom, where it peaked at number three on the

and sold over 145,000 copies. Internationally, it reached the top ten in several major music markets, including New Zealand, Ireland, and the Netherlands.

Music video

The song's accompanying

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

, directed by

Francis Lawrence Francis Lawrence (born March 26, 1971) is an Austrian-born American filmmaker and producer. After establishing himself as a director of music videos and commercials, Lawrence made his feature-length directorial debut with the superhero thrille ...

, featured a triple split-screen effect. Rowland appears on the left, Knowles in the center, and Williams on the right. Rowland is seen saying goodbye to her boyfriend before he leaves in a taxi. Knowles catches her boyfriend with another woman and runs around the house in tears. Williams is with her grandmother, who has died in her bed. At the end of the video Williams calls the other group members to her home. The three girls meet there and comfort each other. The screen then returns to normal. The music clip is featured as an enhanced video on the European editions of the CD single and on the 2004

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

-exclusive DVD titled '' Fan Pack''.

Track listings

UK CD1 # "Emotion" (album version) – 3:56 # "

" (album version) – 3:29 # "Emotion" (

Maurice Maurice may refer to: People * Saint Maurice (died 287), Roman legionary and Christian martyr * Maurice (emperor) or Flavius Mauricius Tiberius Augustus (539–602), Byzantine emperor *Maurice (bishop of London) (died 1107), Lord Chancellor and ...

's Nu Soul mix) – 7:55 # "Emotion" (video) UK CD2 # "Emotion" (The Neptunes main mix) – 4:15 # "

Bootylicious "Bootylicious" is a song recorded by American group Destiny's Child for their third studio album ''Survivor (Destiny's Child album), Survivor'' (2001). It was written and produced by Rob Fusari, Beyoncé and Falonte Moore. The song contains a pro ...

" (

Rockwilder Dana Stinson (born February 2, 1971), better known by his stage name Rockwilder, is an American hip hop record producer and rapper. A long term friend of Def Jam rapper Redman, Rockwilder got his start producing for East Coast hip hop artist ...

remix) – 4:13 # "Emotion" (Jameson full vocal remix) – 6:19 # "Bootylicious" (Rockwilder remix video version) UK cassette single # "Emotion" (album version) – 3:56 # "Emotion" ( Calderone AM mix) – 10:13 European CD1 # "Emotion" (album version) – 3:56 # "8 Days of Christmas" – 3:29 European CD2 # "Emotion" (album version) – 3:56 # "8 Days of Christmas" – 3:29 # "Emotion" (Calderone dub mix) – 6:55 # "Emotion" (video) – 3:56 Australian and New Zealand CD single # "Emotion" (Maurice's Nu Soul mix edit) – 4:00 # "8 Days of Christmas" (album version) – 3:29 # "Emotion" (The Neptunes remix) – 4:15 # "Emotion" (Erroll McCalla remix) – 3:58 # "Emotion" (Calderone AM mix) – 10:13 Japanese CD single # "Emotion" (album version) # "Emotion" (Maurice's Nu Soul mix) # "Emotion" (instrumental) # "Emotion" (a cappella)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

Emma Bunton version

covered the song on her 2019 album ''

''.

References

External links

DestinysChild.com
— official site * {{authority control 1977 singles 1978 singles 2001 singles Destiny's Child songs Samantha Sang songs Bee Gees songs Music videos directed by Francis Lawrence Songs written by Barry Gibb Songs written by Robin Gibb Song recordings produced by Barry Gibb Pop ballads 1970s ballads 1977 songs Private Stock Records singles Columbia Records singles Song recordings produced by Albhy Galuten Cashbox number-one singles RPM Top Singles number-one singles Number-one singles in New Zealand Song recordings produced by Beyoncé