"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. 195 ...

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, 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 Gibb, Barry, Robin Gibb, 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 ...

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 also covered the song on her 2019 album '' My Happy Place''.

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 ligamentou ...

. 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 coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

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 ...

around the same time that Barry contributed writing and producing " Save Me, Save Me" for the band Network. Blue Weaver identified the musicians as shown from memory. On the session, Joey Murcia plays guitar, George Bitzer on keyboards, Harold Cowart on

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

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 auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

. It was originally intended for use in the 1977 film ''

Saturday Night Fever ''Saturday Night Fever'' is a 1977 American dance drama film directed by John Badham and produced by Robert Stigwood. It stars John Travolta as Tony Manero, a young Italian-American man from the Brooklyn borough of New York. Manero spends h ...

'', 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 Primeti ...

. 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'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 in the US.

Personnel

* Samantha Sang – 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 popula ...

–

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. Howeve ...

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 principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

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, 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 200 ...

'' 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 Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. It was founded on January 15, 1889, evolving from the A ...

. The song was heavily played on radio stations during the aftermath of the

11 September 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...

and eventually became a tribute song to the family of the victims. The group also paid tribute to R&B singer

Aaliyah Aaliyah Dana Haughton (; January 16, 1979 – August 25, 2001) was an American singer and actress. She has been credited for helping to redefine contemporary R&B, pop and hip hop, earning her the nicknames the "Princess of R&B" and " ...

, 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 pro ...

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 track ...

" 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, consisting ...

" (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 promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devic ...

, directed by Francis Lawrence, 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's Nu Soul mix) – 7:55 # "Emotion" (video) UK CD2 # "Emotion" (The Neptunes main mix) – 4:15 # " Bootylicious" ( Rockwilder 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

Emma Bunton covered the song on her 2019 album '' My Happy Place''.

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