"
Where Do Broken Hearts Go" is the fourth single from
Whitney HoustonWhitney Elizabeth Houston is an American recording artist, actress, and former fashion model. A relative to several prominent soul singers, including her mother Cissy Houston, cousins Dee Dee and Dionne Warwick, and godmother Aretha Franklin, Houston began singing at her New Jersey church as a...
's second album,
WhitneyWhitney is the second studio album by American pop/R&B singer Whitney Houston, released on June 29, 1987 by Arista Records.-Album details:...
. The ballad was released in March 1988. The song was written by
Frank WildhornFrank Wildhorn is an American composer known for his musicals and popular songs.-Early years:Wildhorn was born in New York City and moved with his family to Hollywood, Florida at age 14. He attended Miami University for one year and transferred to the University of Southern California...
and
Chuck JacksonChuck Jackson is an R&B singer who was one of the first artists to successfully record material by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. He has performed with moderate success since 1961...
.
Initially, Houston did not want to record the song, feeling there was no special message to convey. However, Arista Records CEO
Clive DavisClive Davis is an American record producer, executive and a leading music industry executive. He has won multiple Grammy awards and is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. From 1967-72 he was the President of Columbia Records, was the founder and president of Arista Records in the late...
believed the song would go to number one if she recorded it, so she agreed. The single became Houston's seventh consecutive number one.
Houston was already in a three-way tie with
The BeatlesThe Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960 who became one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands in the history of popular music...
and the
Bee GeesThe Bee Gees were a singing trio of brothers — Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The group was successful for most of its forty years of recording music, but the trio had two distinct periods of exceptional success: as a harmonic "soft rock" act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and as the foremost...
; all three acts with six consecutive number-one singles in the U.S.
"
Where Do Broken Hearts Go" is the fourth single from
Whitney HoustonWhitney Elizabeth Houston is an American recording artist, actress, and former fashion model. A relative to several prominent soul singers, including her mother Cissy Houston, cousins Dee Dee and Dionne Warwick, and godmother Aretha Franklin, Houston began singing at her New Jersey church as a...
's second album,
WhitneyWhitney is the second studio album by American pop/R&B singer Whitney Houston, released on June 29, 1987 by Arista Records.-Album details:...
. The ballad was released in March 1988. The song was written by
Frank WildhornFrank Wildhorn is an American composer known for his musicals and popular songs.-Early years:Wildhorn was born in New York City and moved with his family to Hollywood, Florida at age 14. He attended Miami University for one year and transferred to the University of Southern California...
and
Chuck JacksonChuck Jackson is an R&B singer who was one of the first artists to successfully record material by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. He has performed with moderate success since 1961...
.
Initially, Houston did not want to record the song, feeling there was no special message to convey. However, Arista Records CEO
Clive DavisClive Davis is an American record producer, executive and a leading music industry executive. He has won multiple Grammy awards and is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. From 1967-72 he was the President of Columbia Records, was the founder and president of Arista Records in the late...
believed the song would go to number one if she recorded it, so she agreed. The single became Houston's seventh consecutive number one.
Chart information
Houston was already in a three-way tie with
The BeatlesThe Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960 who became one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands in the history of popular music...
and the
Bee GeesThe Bee Gees were a singing trio of brothers — Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The group was successful for most of its forty years of recording music, but the trio had two distinct periods of exceptional success: as a harmonic "soft rock" act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and as the foremost...
; all three acts with six consecutive number-one singles in the U.S. "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" gave her a record-breaking seven consecutive number-one singles, holding down the top spot for two weeks from April 23 to May 7, 1988.
The song also topped both component charts, the Billboard Hot 100 Single Sales and
Hot 100 AirplayThe Hot 100 Airplay is a chart released weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States. It measures radio airplay, and is one of the three component charts, along with the Hot 100 Singles Sales and the Hot Digital Songs charts, that determine the chart positions of singles on the Billboard Hot...
and remained in the top forty for thirteen weeks. On other Billboard charts, the song fared well, reaching number one for three weeks on the Adult Contemporary chart and number two on the R&B chart. The song was ranked #33 on Billboard's year end chart in 1988 and #2 on its year end Adult Contemporary chart.
The song also became a top twenty hit in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
and fared moderately in
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
, reaching number forty-eight.
Music video
The
music videoA music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music/song. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Although the origins of music videos go back much further, they came into their own in the...
(directed by Peter Israelson) features Houston breaking up with a boyfriend and reflecting on happy memories; asking herself the title question, "where do broken hearts go?" At the conclusion of the music video, the couple reunites.
Covers
"Where Do Broken Hearts Go" has been covered by punk rock group Me First & The Gimme Gimmes on their 2003 album,
Take a BreakTake a Break is the fourth album by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, released on July 1, 2003, on Fat Wreck Chords independent record label.The album consists entirely of cover versions of R&B songs...
.
Charts
"Where Do Broken Hearts Go" was ranked thirty-third on The Billboard Hot 100 Year-End Charts (1988), and stayed on the chart for seventeen weeks. It was Houston's seventh number-one single on The Billboard Hot 100, sixth on the Hot 100 Single Sales chart, fifth on the Hot 100 Airplay chart, and sixth on Adult Contemporary chart.
| Chart (1988) |
Peak
position |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 |
1 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Black Singles |
2 |
| U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary |
1 |
| Australian Singles Chart |
48 |
| UK Singles Chart |
14 |