Giving You the Best That I Got

Released by Elektra on 18 October 1988, with Powell producing, Baker as executive producer and Barney Perkins engineering. It was her first number one album on the Billboard 200 and her second on the R&B chart. It was certified triple platinum in March 1989 and has sold over five million copies worldwide, three million of them in the United States. The title song reached number three on the Hot 100, Just Because was an R&B number one that reached number 14 on the pop chart, and Lead Me into Love reached number four on the R&B chart. The album earned three Grammys and three Soul Train Music Awards. Alex Henderson of AllMusic rated it four out of five and said it was not on a par with her earlier albums but better than most R&B albums of 1988. Encyclopedia.com reports that several reviewers thought the songs inadequate vehicles for her voice, though the album sold well and she toured for three months with Luther Vandross.