Secrets is the second studio album by American R&B singer–songwriter Toni Braxton, released in the United States on June 18, 1996 by LaFace Records. After selling eight million albums domestically of her debut album, earning a bevy of awards—including Best New Artist at the 1994 Grammy Awards—, and having consecutive top ten singles on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, a lot was riding on this project. Nearly three years after her eponymous debut, Secrets was released on June 18, 1996. The album was nominated for Best Pop Album at the 1997 Grammy Awards and has sold eight million copies in the U.S.
The first single released, "You're Makin' Me High", became a smash success earning Braxton her first number-one single on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts. Its B-side, "Let It Flow", was another radio airplay smash and was featured on the multi-platinum 1995 Waiting to Exhale soundtrack.
The second single, "Un-Break My Heart", became a monumental hit peaking at number one on the Hot 100 for eleven consecutive weeks, number one on the Hot Dance Club Play, and number two on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, besides topping the singles charts in several other countries.
After the triumph of two consecutive number-one singles, Braxton offered her third single, "I Don't Want To", during the spring of 1997. The R. Kelly-written and -produced single made the top twenty of the Hot 100 and the top ten of the R&B chart. Its B-side, "I Love Me Some Him", was a major radio airplay hit domestically.
The fourth official single, "How Could an Angel Break My Heart", which features Kenny G on the saxophone, became another top forty hit in the United Kingdom while failing to dent the charts in the U.S., but propelled Secrets to eight-time platinum status.
The album was well-received both critically and commercially. Braxton also added more awards to her mantle, which included another two Grammy Awards for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.
"You're Makin' Me High" is the lead single from Toni Braxton's second studio album, Secrets (1996). A joint collaboration between the Grammy Award-winning producer Babyface and Bryce Wilson resulted in this mid-tempo song. The song was issued in the United States as a double A-side with "Let It Flow", the airplay hit from the 1995 motion picture Waiting to Exhale.
It became Braxton's first number-one single on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts; it remained atop for one week on the former and for two weeks on the latter, eventually going platinum by the RIAA. A dance remix by Morales allowed the single to also top the Hot Dance Club Play chart for two weeks in August 1996. Another remix for urban markets was created featuring rapper Foxy Brown.
The song earned Braxton her third Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance in 1997. The success of "You're Makin' Me High" would later be continued with the release of "Un-Break My Heart". The song was sampled for Method Man & Redman's 2001 song "Part II", from the How High soundtrack.
The song became Braxton's second consecutive number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It stayed at number one for eleven weeks in a row during late 1996 and early 1997, becoming Braxton's biggest hit to date. It also rose to number two on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. Background vocals were performed by R&B singer Shanice Wilson. In the United Kingdom, the single was held off the number-one spot by the charity band Dunblane's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door"/"Throw These Guns Away", who were raising money in the light of the Dunblane massacre. After falling before peaking again at number two it was held off by the Spice Girls' "2 Become 1". In total "Un-Break My Heart" spent twelve weeks inside the UK top ten.
The music video was directed by Billie Woodruff[3] and featured Braxton mourning the death of her lover, played by model Tyson Beckford. Braxton won a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1997. She also won Best Female R&B Vocal Performance in the same year for the song "You're Makin' Me High". In a 2006 poll for Channel Five's program "Britain's Favourite Break-up Songs", "Un-Break My Heart" was voted twenty-seventh. The song also appeared as one of the official songs for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany on the Voices from the FIFA World Cup album.
The music video was shot during a hectic time in Braxton's career. After the commercial success from the preceding singles and co-headlining a tour with Kenny G., Braxton was exhausted. The time schedule for a video was roughly one day for director Billie Woodruff. A simple video featured Braxton wandering around in a white room wearing a white tanktop and blue jeans.
The original treatment for the video was a one-take version. Woodruff told MTV News that he shot multiple takes and at the end of the day, the best version would be picked. The video had Braxton walking around a house, trying on various wigs and scrubbing her feet in a bathtub. Oddly enough, this was the controversy when creating the video. This video remains unreleased but MTV aired a short "making of" during editions of MTV News.
The fact that the single did not manage to chart on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts was a surprise for fans and observers. However, it was potentially influenced by the fact that two of the three singles released from Secrets prior to "How Could an Angel Break My Heart" were double A-sided and their flipsides had also turned into essentially huge airplay hits. This means that at the time this single was released, Braxton had already dominated the charts with five songs from the same album, therefore radio programmers put very little emphasis on the sixth.
The music video, directed by Iain Softley, followed the lyrical content of the relationship between Braxton and her lover. He has left her for a Caucasian woman and she is left to pick up the pieces.
The remix version of the song has the storyline laid out a little differently, with Babyface singing back to her and duetting with her from the second verse. Babyface's vocals replace Kenny G's saxophone parts.
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