Babyface Brings Decades of Hits to the ‘Tiny Desk’

Babyface squeezed several decades worth of hits and classics into his career-spanning set on the latest installment of NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series. While the legendary singer, songwriter, and producer took the lead on a few songs, he also got some help from an all-star trio of vocalists, Chanté Moore, Tank, and Avery Wilson.

Babyface opened his set with a pair of early gems: 1987’s “Two Occasions,” a song he co-wrote and co-produced for his R&B outfit the Deele, followed by 1990’s “Whip Appeal,” the hit second single from his second album, Tender Love. Moore then took the lead on a rendition of Karyn White’s 1989 single, “Superwoman,” as well as two songs that defined Babyface’s dominance in the 1990s: Madonna’s “Take a Bow” and Mary J. Blige’s contribution to the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack, “Not Gon’ Cry” (Babyface also recalled meeting Blige, and how she referred to him as “Mr. Face”).

Next up was Tevin Campbell’s “Can We Talk,” with Wilson singing lead (to Tank’s mild chagrin). Tank got his chance to shine next, however, as he joined Babyface for “Change the World,” the country tune originally released by Wynonna Judd, but which Babyface and Eric Clapton turned into a Grammy-winning smash for the guitarist’s 1996 album, Phenomenon. 

Then, on a dime, Babyface switched from swooning R&B to palm-muted pop punk, delivering one of the most unique songs in his catalog, “Thnks fr th Mmrs,” the 2007 track he produced with Fall Out Boy. It was back to the wheelhouse after that, with Babyface closing out the performance with three of his biggest blockbusters: Boyz II Men’s “I’ll Make Love to You” and “End of the Road,” and then the grand finale, Whitney Houston’s “Exhale (Shoop Shoop).”

Before that, though, Babyface shared an amazing story about writing “Exhale” and Houston’s initial reluctance to do any singing on the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack.  “She said, ‘I don’t know if I wanna do this, Face. You do the music, we’ll see what happens,’” he said. “And so, for the longest time, I hadn’t even started to write this song, because I didn’t know whether she was going to sing it. And then finally she said she was going to sing, so I started trying to put it together. And that kind of explains why on the chorus, there’s no real lyrics, because I hadn’t got to that part yet!”

The kicker: When Babyface finally played the song for Houston, she quipped, “You finally ran out of words, Face.” But, Babyface added, “It felt so good, and I have to tell you, the only reason it felt so good, was because it was Whitney Houston.”