Every Little Step – Bobby Brown | Top 40 Chart Performance, Story and Song Meaning

Chart Performance: Pop (#3) & R&B (#1); 1989

Story Behind The Song By Ed Osborne

When Bobby Brown’s first two solo singles and debut album turned in lackluster pop chart performances, naysayers speculated that his departure from hitmaking act New Edition may have been a bad move.

As a result, expectations for Bobby’s sophomore LP weren’t very high. Thus, Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds and Antonio “L.A.” Reid were thrilled when two of the tracks they contributed to Don’t Be Cruel – the title tune and Roni – were stone cold crossover hits.

Reid’s lyric contribution to a third single, Every Little Step, was inspired by his wife-to-be, Pebbles, of Mercedes Boy fame. As for Babyface, he originally pegged Every Little Step for himself, yet, wasn’t thrilled with the demo and offered it to Midnight Star, who rejected it. L.A. and Babyface then gave it to Bobby, whose energized performance powered Step to #1 R&B, #3 Pop, and grabbed him a Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance.

This content and all Song Meaning articles were created and written by Top 40 Contributing Editor Ed Osborne. © 2024 Ed Osborne. All Rights Reserved. In addition to these song meaning articles, Ed has written our “Year in Music 1960s-1990s” articles.

Produced by:

• Babyface
• L.A. Reid

Lyrics Written by:

• Kenneth Edmonds
• Antonio Reid

Awards:

• “Every Little Step” won Bobby Brown’s first career Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance at the 32nd Grammy Awards in 1990
• The music video for “Every Little Step” was nominated for Best Male Video, Best Dance Video, and Best Stage Performance in a Video at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards