Thank God It's Toby: Highlights

George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam AKA Boy Meets Girl have given 'How WIll I Know' a bubbly new twist in celebration of Whitney Houston's incredible career - a story that is being told in the forthcoming biopic 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody' - released globally in cinemas on 21 December. 

This brand new mix will be available as one of the bonus tracks on the vinyl release of the 2021 EP 'Five' released under their famous moniker Boy Meets Girl. The EP is unmistakably THEM, and on the B side, it includes instrumental and alternate mixes of the tracks.  Their prolific style produced some of the biggest global hits ever, including Boy Meets Girl's #1 song 'Waiting For A Star To Fall' and of course Whitney's #1 hits  'How Will I Know' and 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)'.  Chiming throughout, it's this sound that made them one of the most sought after songwriting duos of the 80s and 90s.

George and Shannon's influence on Whitney's career cannot be understated. Her 1995 release 'How Will I Know' written by the duo, was the song that sent Whitney Houston's career stratospheric and helped make her the global superstar that we know and love today. Then in 1997, when her star could not rise any higher, or so it was thought, a second song written by George and Shannon was released - 'I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)' - hitting the top of the charts all over the world, it ripped up dance floors, sent kitchen discos into overdrive and this song, alongside 'How Will I Know' and Dolly Parton's 'I Will Always Love You' - unquestionably became tracks that are synonymous with Whitney's career and her incredible voice.

In their own words, George and Shannon share the incredible lives of these tracks and how they felt when they first saw the Whitney biopic...

"'How Will I Know' was written in our funky little Venice, California garage, roughly 1984. Written for Janet Jackson (she passed on it as she was about to release her groundbreaking Control album), Brenda Andrews at Irving Music played the demo for A&R icon Gerry Griffith who was songhunting for a "new young singer". Gerry convinced Clive Davis, and Clive chose the song as one of the featured tracks for Whitney's first album; he chose as producer Narada Michael Walden. Narada made significant musical additions to the song and took it to new heights with his punchy bright production. Soon after, a phone call came from friends Alan and Preston Glass, in the studio with Narada after Whitney's vocal session. "You gotta hear this!", and they held the phone up to the speakers and blasted the opening bars of 'How Will I Know'... I think we about fell on the floor! The track and Whitney's voice were SO powerful. It was one of the great moments, and still is a thrill to hear our song over the sound system in a grocery store or being sung by generations of contestants on American Idol or The Voice, and we are forever grateful to Fate for aligning so perfectly!

"As a follow up, Clive requested that we write another song for Whitney's second album. 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)' was the song that emerged. By that time, of course we understood the soulful and joyous impact of Whitney's voice and were better able to tailor something for her. Clive liked the demo straight off, and again Narada was the producer. And Whitney the unmatchable singer, so we knew everything was in the best hands. It's hard to explain the feeling of having written such time-tested hits, because once a song leaves the studio and goes out into the world, it belongs to the performer and the listeners and fans; and you as songwriter have to let go. If you're lucky, and we were, it has a life and momentum all its own as it rolls through the world becoming more"

Highlights from Toby Gribben's Friday afternoon show on Shout Radio. Featuring chat with top showbiz guests.