"Hold Me" is a ballad duet performed by American singers Teddy Pendergrass and Whitney Houston. The song was originally recorded solo by Diana Ross for her 1982 album Silk Electric under the title "In Your Arms", with slightly different lyrics.[1] The Pendergrass and Houston version appears on Pendergrass's eighth studio album Love Language (1984) and Houston's self-titled debut album (1985). It was written by Linda Creed and Michael Masser and production overseen by Masser. "Hold Me" was the first single release of Houston's career.
In the US, the song became a top ten hit on both the R&B singles chart and adult contemporary singles chart and peaked at number 46 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1984 and number 44 on the UK OCC Singles Chart in 1986.[2][3] It was a top thirty hit in Ireland, the Netherlands, and the Flemish region of Belgium, making it Pendergrass' most successful international single. Houston delivers the song with both soft and soaring vocals. Ron Wynn of AllMusic highlighted this song when reviewing Pendergrass's album in 1984 and called it a good duet.[4] With this song being released in 1984, Houston was ineligible for the nomination of Grammy Award for Best New Artist at the 28th Grammy Awards in 1986, the year after her own debut album was released.[5] The success of the song on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart gave Houston her first rank on a Billboard list, landing at number 41 in the magazine's year-end adult contemporary list.[6]
