"Higher Love" is a 1986 song by English singer

Steve Winwood Stephen Lawrence Winwood (born 12 May 1948) is an English musician, singer, and songwriter whose genres include blue-eyed soul, rhythm and blues, blues rock, and pop rock. Though primarily a keyboard player and vocalist prominent for his disti ...

. It was the first single released from his fourth solo LP, ''

Back in the High Life ''Back in the High Life'' is the fourth solo album by English singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Steve Winwood, released on 30 June 1986. The album proved to be Winwood's biggest success to that date, certified Gold in the UK and 3� ...

'' (1986). It was written by Winwood and

Will Jennings Wilbur H. "Will" Jennings (born June 27, 1944) is an American lyricist. He is popularly known for writing the lyrics for the songs "Tears in Heaven" and "My Heart Will Go On". He has been inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame and has won s ...

and produced by

Russ Titelman Russ Titelman (born August 16, 1944, Los Angeles, California) is an American record producer and songwriter. He has to date won three Grammy Awards. He earned his first producing the Steve Winwood song " Higher Love", and his second and third f ...

and Winwood. The female vocals on the song were performed by

Chaka Khan Yvette Marie Stevens (born March 23, 1953), better known by her stage name Chaka Khan (), is an American singer. Her career has spanned more than five decades, beginning in the 1970s as the lead vocalist of the funk band Rufus. Known as the " Qu ...

, who also appeared in the music video. "Higher Love" was Winwood's first ''Billboard'' Hot 100 number-one song, topping the chart for one week. "Higher Love" also spent four weeks atop the US ''Billboard'' Album Rock Tracks chart and earned two

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

s, for

Record of the Year The Grammy Award for Record of the Year is presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without reg ...

and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. It also peaked at number 13 in the United Kingdom, Winwood's highest charting solo entry there, and reached number one in Canada for a week.

Whitney Houston Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer and actress. Nicknamed "The Voice", she is one of the bestselling music artists of all time, with sales of over 200 million records worldwide. Houston in ...

covered the song in 1990 and it was included as a bonus track on the Japanese edition of her third studio album ''

I'm Your Baby Tonight ''I'm Your Baby Tonight'' is the third studio album by American singer Whitney Houston released on November 6, 1990, by Arista Records. The album has been certified quadruple platinum in the US by the RIAA. Background By 1989, Whitney Housto ...

''.

James Vincent McMorrow James Vincent McMorrow is an Irish singer and songwriter. Career McMorrow's debut album, ''Early in the Morning'', was released in Ireland in February 2010, and in the United States and Europe in 2011, to widespread acclaim. He made his UK te ...

covered the song in 2011, on his first album '' Early in the Morning''. In 2016, Winwood made a version with his daughter Lilly Winwood, performing a duet for a Hershey commercial. Norwegian DJ

Kygo Kyrre Gørvell-Dahll (born 11 September 1991), known professionally as Kygo (), is a Norwegian DJ and music producer. He garnered international attention with his December 2013 remix of the track "I See Fire" by Ed Sheeran and his December 201 ...

reworked Houston's cover into a tropical house track in 2019, which was released as a single worldwide and hit number one on ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' magazine's Dance Club Songs chart, making it Houston's highest-charting posthumous release to date.

Background

Music engineer

Tom Lord-Alge Tom Lord-Alge (born January 17, 1963) is an American music engineer and mixer. He began his career at The Hit Factory in New York. Subsequently, he was the resident mixer at what used to be known as "South Beach Studios", located on the ground f ...

had suggested moving one of John Robinson's impromptu drum fills to the beginning of "Higher Love", by assigning a timing offset to one of two tape machines such that they first played the drum fill followed by the song coming in on the beat. Titelman was happy with the result and decided to open the album with this drum fill. JR used a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

rimshot A rimshot is a percussion technique used to produce an accented snare drum backbeat. The sound is produced by simultaneously hitting the rim and head of a drum with a drum stick. The sound and various techniques The sound of rimshots can be ...

technique across the top of his classic seamless brass Ludwig Black Beauty

snare SNARE proteins – " SNAP REceptor" – are a large protein family consisting of at least 24 members in yeasts, more than 60 members in mammalian cells, and some numbers in plants. The primary role of SNARE proteins is to mediate vesicle fu ...

, unmuffled, with its snare wires disengaged, to emulate the sound of a timbale. He said, "it's one of the best drum intros I've ever played." Producer Russ Titelman remembered the fill being played ''

ad lib In music and other performing arts, the phrase (; from Latin for 'at one's pleasure' or 'as you desire'), often shortened to "ad lib" (as an adjective or adverb) or "ad-lib" (as a verb or noun), refers to various forms of improvisation. The ...

'' by JR while his friend Chaka Khan was preparing to sing her background vocals on "Higher Love", causing Khan to exclaim "What is that shit? It sounds like voodoo shit!" Tom Lord-Alge agreed that the drum fill was played as a lark after JR completed his drum overdubs for "Higher Love". Tom said, "It was one of those happy accidents, and it happened because Chris always taught me that if the tape is rolling and there's a musician in the studio, make sure the tape machine is in record!"

Music video

The

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 ...

for the song was Winwood's first. It uses the shorter single version and was shot in June 1986 by directors Peter Kagan and Paula Greif. Kagan and Greif shot an almost identical video for

Duran Duran Duran Duran () are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1978 by singer and bassist Stephen Duffy, keyboardist Nick Rhodes and guitarist/bassist John Taylor (bass guitarist), John Taylor. With the addition of drummer Roger ...

's " Notorious" in November of that year; coincidentally, both videos were nominated for several awards at the 1987

MTV Video Music Award The MTV Video Music Awards (commonly abbreviated as the VMAs) is an award show presented by the cable channel MTV to honour the best in the music video medium. Originally conceived as an alternative to the Grammy Awards (in the video category) ...

s though neither won. Chaka Khan appears in the video, as does

Nile Rodgers Nile Gregory Rodgers Jr. (born September 19, 1952) is an American musician, record producer and composer. The co-founder of Chic, Rodgers has written, produced, and performed on records that have sold more than 500 million albums and 75 million ...

, who plays guitar with the backing band.

Track listings

* 7-inch: Island / IS 288 United Kingdom # "Higher Love" – 4:14 # "And I Go" – 4:12 * 7-inch: Island / 7-28710 United States # "Higher Love" – 4:14 # "And I Go" – 4:12 * 12-inch: Island / 12 IS 288 United Kingdom # "Higher Love" (remix) – 7:45 # "Higher Love" (instrumental) – 6:05 # "And I Go" – 4:12 * Tracks one and two remixed by

* 12-inch: Island / PRO-A-2507 United States # "Higher Love" (edit) – 4:08 # "Higher Love" (LP version) – 5:45 * US promo 12-inch

Personnel

– lead and backing vocals, synthesizer, sequencer programming, and Oberheim DMX programming *

– backing vocals *

– rhythm guitar * Robbie Kilgore – synthesizer and sequencer programming * Andrew Thomas –

PPG Wave The PPG Wave is a series of synthesizers built by the German company Palm Products GmbH from 1981 to 1987. Background Until the early 1980s, the tonal palette of commercial synthesizers was limited to that which could be obtained by combining ...

term synthesizer programming * David Frank – synthesizer horns and synth horn arrangement *

Philippe Saisse Philippe Saisse is a French jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, record producer, and arranger. Career He was born in Marseille and raised in Paris. After studying at the Conservatoire de Paris he won a scholarship to the Berklee College of Mus ...

– synthesizer bass * Eddie Martinez – lead guitar * John Robinson – drums * Jimmy Bralower – Oberheim DMX programming * Carole Steele – congas, tambourine

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Kygo and Whitney Houston version

A cover of "Higher Love" was released as a single by Norwegian DJ and record producer

and late American singer

on 28 June 2019. The song was released to

streaming Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...

and digital download formats on 28 June 2019 by the label

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...

. The song is the lead single from Kygo's third studio album, '' Golden Hour''. The song marks Houston's first posthumous release in two and a half years, following the song "

Memories Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered, ...

", which was released as a duet with Malaysian singer

Siti Nurhaliza Dato' Sri Hajah Siti Nurhaliza Tarudin ( Jawi: سيتي نورهاليزا بنت تارودين ; IPA: ; born 11 January 1979) is a Malaysian singer, songwriter, actress and businesswoman with more than 300 local and international awards. ...

in December 2016. It was also featured in a

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

Summer Sales Event commercial in 2020. Houston's cover of the Winwood track was originally included on the Japanese edition of her third studio album, ''

'' (1990). This version of the track was produced by American musician Narada Michael Walden, and therefore Walden is credited as a producer of "Higher Love" alongside Kygo. Houston performed her rendition of "Higher Love" at the 14 dates of her 1990 ''Feels So Right Tour'' in Japan. In the UK, "Higher Love" was a commercial success, surpassing the Winwood version in terms of chart performance. It peaked at number two in 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 ...

, making it Kygo's third top ten song there and first to reach the nation's top five, and Houston's eighteenth to peak within the top ten. It is also Houston's first posthumous top 10 track. She had last reached the top ten with "

Million Dollar Bill "Million Dollar Bill" is a song performed by American recording artist Whitney Houston from her seventh studio album, '' I Look to You'' (2009). It was released as the official worldwide lead (second in the US) single from the album on August 1 ...

" charting at number five in October 2009. Therefore, "Higher Love" became her highest-charting single in the UK since 1999 when "

My Love Is Your Love ''My Love Is Your Love'' is the fourth studio album by American singer Whitney Houston, released worldwide on November 17, 1998. It was Houston's first studio album in eight years, following ''I'm Your Baby Tonight'' (1990) although she had parti ...

" peaked at number two. In Scotland, the song peaked at number one. Since its release, "Higher Love" has reached the top five in Croatia, Flanders, Ireland, Israel, Latvia, Norway, Slovakia, and Slovenia, plus the top ten in the Netherlands, Hungary, Sweden, and Switzerland. It also hit the top twenty charts in Australia, Austria, China, Czech Republic, and Wallonia. In the U.S., "Higher Love" debuted at number 63 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, with 6.6 million US streams in its first week; it was also its peak position. The song topped ''Billboard'''s

Dance Club Songs Dance Club Songs is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. It is a national look over of club disc jockeys to determine the most popular songs being played in nightclubs across the country. It was launched as t ...

chart in the US, becoming Kygo's third number one on the chart and Houston's fourteenth. In 2019, this version of the song was covered by South African choral group

Ndlovu Youth Choir The Ndlovu Youth Choir is a South African musical group founded in 2009. Their debut studio album ''Africa'' (2019) debuted number one in South Africa. History Ndlovu Youth Choir was formed in January 2009 by Ndlovu Care Group childcare co ...

in the semifinals of the 14th season of ''

America's Got Talent ''America's Got Talent'' (often abbreviated as ''AGT'') is a televised American talent show competition, and is part of the global ''Got Talent'' franchise created by Simon Cowell. The program is produced by Fremantle (as well as distribut ...

'', as well as on the group's debut album, ''Africa''. In September 2020, the song was nominated at the

Billboard Music Award The ''Billboard'' Music Awards are honors given out annually by '' Billboard'', a publication covering the music business and a music popularity chart. The ''Billboard'' Music Awards show has been held annually since 1990, with the exception of ...

s for Top Dance/Electronic Song. The

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

would certify the single Platinum in the USA also. Notably, "Higher Love" was used immediately following Joe Biden's victory speech after his election as the 46th

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...

on 7 November 2020. Writing for ''

'', Katie Bain described the song's use in a political setting, writing "Indeed, after Biden shared his vision of 'a nation united, a nation strengthened. A nation healed, 'Higher Love' backed up the message, particularly for those who know all the words. ... Few sentiments could so effectively summarize the weary travails of the American collective consciousness during the past four years." The song also appears on the US and European vinyl edition of Houston's hits compilation album, '' I Will Always Love You: The Best of Whitney Houston'' released in October 2021 on RCA Records.

Music video

The official video, directed by

Hannah Lux Davis Hannah Lux Davis (born May 17, 1986) is an American music video, commercial and film director. She's known for her work especially with female artists, such as Ariana Grande, Katy Perry, Demi Lovato, Nicki Minaj, Miley Cyrus, Avril Lavigne, Christ ...

, was made available on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

on 26 August 2019. It begins with a group of men in modern clothing walking through seemingly abandoned warehouses. They are impressed to see a 1980s

aerobics Aerobics is a form of physical exercise that combines rhythmic aerobic exercise with stretching and strength training routines with the goal of improving all elements of fitness (flexibility, muscular strength, and cardio-vascular fitness). It ...

class led by an instructor played by Canadian actress

Vanessa Morgan Vanessa Morgan Mziray (born March 23, 1992), known professionally as Vanessa Morgan, is a Canadian actress. She is known for her roles as Beatrix "Bird" Castro in the MTV teen drama series ''Finding Carter'', as Amanda Pierce in the Family teen ...

. After initially being shooed away, the male lead walks into the room and suddenly wears a 1980s aerobics outfit. He starts dancing with the female lead and is eventually joined by his male companions. The video has brief snippets of Whitney Houston's "

I Wanna Dance with Somebody "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" is a song recorded by American singer Whitney Houston for her second studio album, ''Whitney (album), Whitney'' (1987). It was released as the lead single from the album on May 2, 1987, by Arista Reco ...

" music video showing on a TV along with posters of her from the 1987 ''

Whitney Whitney may refer to: Film and television * ''Whitney'' (2015 film), a Whitney Houston biopic starring Yaya DaCosta * ''Whitney'' (2018 film), a documentary about Whitney Houston * ''Whitney'' (TV series), an American sitcom that premiered i ...

'' album on the wall. In the end, the instructor is accidentally kicked in the face by one of the dancers and wakes up in a present-day outdoor café, revealing that the 1980s aerobics class was just a dream and that the male lead is actually her waiter.

Personnel

* Whitney Houston – lead vocals, backing vocals/arrangement, vocal production * Narada Michael Walden – backing vocals arrangement, producer, arranger * Kygo – producer, remixer, arranger * Claytoven Richardson, Jeanie Tracy, Anne Stocking, Larry Batiste, Skyler Jett, Kitty Beethoven, Cynthia Shiloh, Greg "Gigi" Gonaway, Raz Kennedy, Cornell "CC" Carter, Lydette Stephens, Renee Cattaneo, Tina Thompson, Sylvester Jackson – backing vocals

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

External links

Steve Winwood website album detailsSongfacts - Back In The High Life Again entry
{{Authority control 1986 songs 1986 singles Steve Winwood songs British soft rock songs Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles Cashbox number-one singles RPM Top Singles number-one singles Grammy Award for Record of the Year Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance Songs with lyrics by Will Jennings Songs written by Steve Winwood Song recordings produced by Russ Titelman Island Records singles Whitney Houston songs Song recordings produced by Narada Michael Walden 2019 singles Kygo songs Music videos directed by Hannah Lux Davis Number-one singles in Scotland Tropical house songs RCA Records singles Song recordings produced by Kygo Songs released posthumously