"Something to Talk About" is a song written by Canadian singer-songwriter

Shirley Eikhard Shirley Rose Eikhard (7 November 1955 – 15 December 2022) was a Canadian singer-songwriter. Although moderately successful in Canada as a performer in her own right, she had her greatest Canadian and international success as a songwriter for ...

and recorded by American singer

Bonnie Raitt Bonnie Lynn Raitt (; born November 8, 1949) is an American blues singer and guitarist. In 1971, Raitt released her self-titled debut album. Following this, she released a series of critically acclaimed roots-influenced albums that incorporated ...

for her 1991 album '' Luck of the Draw''. It was released to US radio on June 3, 1991. Two single versions were released: a 7-inch single with 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 ...

"One Part Be My Lover" and a 12-inch single with these two songs and "I Ain’t Gonna Let You Break My Heart Again". In turn, this song was included on the EP version of Raitt’s 2000 single of "The Fundamental Things" taken from her 1998 album '' Fundamental''. It was also included in 2003’s greatest hits compilation ''

The Best of Bonnie Raitt ''The Best of Bonnie Raitt'' is a 2003 compilation album by Bonnie Raitt, released by Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group th ...

''. Live versions appear on 1995's '' Road Tested'' and 2006's ''Bonnie Raitt and Friends''.

Background

Anne Murray Morna Anne Murray (born June 20, 1945) is a retired Canadian singer. Her albums, consisting primarily of pop, country, and adult contemporary music, have sold over 55 million copies worldwide during her over 40-year career. Murray was the fir ...

wanted to record this song in 1985, but her producers did not think it would be a hit. She still called the album that she released that year '' Something to Talk About'' even though it did not include this song.

Chart performance

The song was popular on multiple formats of radio: it peaked at number 5 on the US ''

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 adverti ...

Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

chart, number 12 on the

Album Rock Tracks Mainstream Rock is a music chart in ''Billboard'' magazine that ranks the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the United States, a category that combines the formats of active rock and heritage rock. The chart was launched in Ma ...

chart, and number 5 on the

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...

, become highest-charting hit and is her only single to reach the top 10 on the chart. It was also a success in Canada, where it rose to number 3 on the '' RPM'' Top Singles chart, and in New Zealand, where it reached number 33.

Music video

The video for the song was directed by

Matt Mahurin Matthew S. Mahurin (born January 31, 1959) is an American illustrator, photographer and film director. Mahurin's illustrations appear in ''Time'', ''Newsweek'', '' Mother Jones'', ''Rolling Stone'', ''Esquire'', ''Forbes'', and ''The New York Tim ...

. It features Raitt with two guitarists performing the song at a community event, while other scenes show older couples dancing, people in silly wardrobe acting goofy for a film crew, and many people in a swimming pool.

Nominations and awards

Raitt won the

Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance The Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance was a Grammy Award recognizing superior vocal performance by a female in the pop category, the first of which was presented in 1959. It was discontinued after the 2011 Grammy season. The awar ...

at the

Grammy Awards of 1992 The 34th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 25, 1992, recognizing accomplishments by musicians from the previous year (1991). Natalie Cole won the most awards (three), including Album of the Year. Paul Simon opened the show. Performers ...

for her recording of this song (

Oleta Adams Oleta Adams (born May 4, 1953) is an American singer and pianist. She found limited success during the early 1980s, before gaining fame via her contributions to Tears for Fears's international chart-topping album '' The Seeds of Love'' (1989). He ...

, Mariah Carey,

Amy Grant Amy Lee Grant (born November 25, 1960) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. She began in contemporary Christian music (CCM) before crossing over to pop music in the 1980s and 1990s. She has been referred to as "The Queen of Christia ...

and

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 i ...

were the other finalists). The track also received a nomination 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 ...

, losing to " Unforgettable" by

Nat King Cole Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American singer, jazz pianist, and actor. Cole's music career began after he dropped out of school at the age of 15, and continued f ...

and

Natalie Cole Natalie Maria Cole (February 6, 1950 – December 31, 2015) was an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She was the daughter of American singer and jazz pianist Nat King Cole. She rose to success in the mid-1970s as an R&B singer with the h ...

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Cover versions

"Something to Talk About" was utilized as the theme for the 1995

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...

Women of the House ''Women of the House'' is an American sitcom television series and a spin-off of ''Designing Women'' that aired on CBS from January 4 to August 18, 1995, and the last four episodes airing on Lifetime on September 8, 1995. The series starred De ...

'' ( CBS-TV): this version was sung by the song's composer Shirley Eikhard. In 2007, the

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

group

SHeDAISY SHeDAISY () was an American country music vocal group from Magna, Utah. The group consisted of sisters Kristyn Robyn Osborn (born August 24, 1970), Kelsi Marie Osborn (born November 21, 1974), and Kassidy Lorraine Osborn (born October 30, 1976). ...

recorded a cover of "Something to Talk About" for the soundtrack to the film ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''. The song has been performed numerous times on ''

American Idol ''American Idol'' is an American singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It aired on Fox from June 11, 2002, to Ap ...

'', including by

Kimberly Caldwell Kimberly Ann Caldwell-Harvey is an American singer, actress and television hostess. She rose to fame when she was a finalist on the second season of ''American Idol''. After her American Idol stint, Caldwell was an entertainment correspondent ...

season 2 Season 2 may refer to: * ''Season 2'' (Infinite album) * '' 2econd Season'' See also

* {{disambig ...

Fantasia Barrino Fantasia Monique Barrino-Taylor (born June 30, 1984), known professionally by her mononym Fantasia, is an American R&B singer and actress. She rose to fame as the winner of the third season of the reality television series ''American Idol'' in ...

season 3 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In tempera ...

Kellie Pickler Kellie Dawn Pickler (born June 28, 1986) is an American country music singer, songwriter, and television personality. Pickler gained fame as a contestant on the fifth season of ''American Idol'' and finished in sixth place. In 2006, she signed ...

in season 5 and Sanjaya Malakar in

season 6 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...

. Sanjaya changed "how about love" from the chorus to "other than hair" during his farewell performance.

David Cross David Cross (born April 4, 1964) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, director, and writer known for his stand-up performances, the HBO sketch comedy series '' Mr. Show'' (1995–1998), and his role as Tobias Fünke in the Fox/Netflix si ...

and Jon Benjamin perform a live duet on the 2007 DVD ''The Comedians Of Comedy: Live at the Troubadour''. It was sung by

Will Ferrell John William Ferrell (; born July 16, 1967) is an American actor, comedian, and producer. He first established himself in the mid-1990s as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show '' Saturday Night Live'', where he performed from 1995 to 2 ...

in the 2008 film '' Step Brothers'' and also featured in the 1995 film '' Something to Talk About'' starring

Julia Roberts Julia Fiona Roberts (born October 28, 1967) is an American actress. Known for her leading roles in films encompassing a variety of genres, she has received multiple accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and th ...

and

Dennis Quaid Dennis William Quaid (born April 9, 1954) is an American actor known for a wide variety of dramatic and comedic roles. First gaining widespread attention in the late 1970s, some of his notable credits include '' Breaking Away'' (1979), '' The ...

. Also, in 2008, the song was covered by

Daryl Hall Daryl Franklin Hohl (born October 11, 1946), known professionally as Daryl Hall, is an American rock music, rock, rhythm and blues, R&B and soul music, soul singer and musician, best known as the co-founder and principal lead vocalist of Daryl ...

on his video podcast show, ''Live From Daryl's House'' with special guest, KT Tunstall. In August 2017, Britney Spears covered the song during her

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

residency show Britney: Piece of Me.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Something To Talk About (Song) 1991 singles 1991 songs Bonnie Raitt songs Capitol Records singles Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance Song recordings produced by Don Was Songs written by Shirley Eikhard