Before getting to this week’s featured Throwback Weekend selection, I have to note that I missed by one week my chance to highlight what is perhaps my all-time favorite song: A-Ha’s ‘Take On Me.’ That track enjoyed its one and only week atop the Billboard Hot 100 on the week ending October 19, 1985.

Of course, ‘Take On Me’ has already shown up on the blog in many different forms, so I would have ended up writing about the #2 song anyway. And that happens to be the song that replaced ‘Take On Me’ at #1 the following week — Whitney Houston’s ‘Saving All My Love For You.’

This was the fourth single from Houston’s self-titled debut album, and her first song to reach #1. It was soon followed by a run of six straight #1s on her way to 11 total (the seventh most by any artist in history). Houston’s run of seven consecutive #1s is the most by any act. Even The Beatles managed only six.

‘Saving All My Love For You’ was first recorded by Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. in 1978. One of the song’s writers, Michael Masser, heard Houston sing another of his compositions (‘The Greatest Love of All’) and offered her this one for her debut album.

Of course Houston sings the hell out of the track, earning her first Grammy for the recording (Best Female Pop Vocal Performance). It was the first of six Grammy wins out of 25 nominations for the star.

Lyrically, the song is rather icky, told from the perspective of a mistress who is committed to her married-with-children lover.