Giving You the Best That I Got

Skip Scarborough had offered the song to several singers, among them Howard Hewett, without success. Before recording it Baker changed the original, improvising a scat opening and asking for a faster tempo. Elektra released it as the lead single on 27 September 1988, produced by Michael J. Powell. The video was filmed inside the 109th Field Artillery in Kingston, Pennsylvania. It peaked at number three on the Hot 100 in December 1988, her highest placing there, after two weeks at number one on the R&B chart in November and a week on top of the adult contemporary chart in December. Each was her first number one on those tallies.

At the 1989 Grammys it won Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female and Best R&B Song, and it was also nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Nathan East played bass, Omar Hakim drums, Paulinho da Costa percussion and Vernon D. Fails keyboards, with Dean Gant on acoustic piano. It appeared on Knots Landing, All My Children, Guiding Light and Pose. Michael Jordan would often sing it to opponents as trash talk.