"Where Do Broken Hearts Go" is the fourth single from
Whitney Houston's second album,
Whitney. The ballad was released in March 1988. The song
was written by Frank Wildhorn and Chuck Jackson.
Initially, Houston did not want to record the song, feeling
there was no special message to convey. However, Arista Records
CEO Clive Davis 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 Beatles and
the Bee Gees; 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 Airplay 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 Kingdom
and fared moderately in Australia, reaching number
forty-eight.
The music video (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.
"Where Do Broken Hearts Go" has been covered by punk rock
group Me First & The Gimme Gimmes on their 2003 album,
Take a Break..and more recently by Joe McElderry on The
X Factor 2009. The song has also been covered by Tracy Miller,
a Broadway theatrical actress-singer, who performed the song at
a "Frank Wildhorn & Friends" concert.
"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 record-setting
seventh consecutive 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.