1988 · Behind the Songs
The opening track of Baker’s 1988 blockbuster argues that the best things in love can’t be bought.
Sequencing is storytelling, and Anita Baker told quite a story by opening Giving You the Best That I Got with “Priceless.” Before the title track or any single had a chance to speak, the album’s first five minutes laid out its thesis: real devotion isn’t purchased.
The song was written by Garry Glenn — a name Baker’s fans already knew, since Glenn had co-written “Caught Up in the Rapture” with Dianne Quander. Produced by Michael J. Powell, “Priceless” runs a full five minutes and leans on a first-call band: Nathan East on bass, Omar Hakim on drums, Paulinho da Costa on percussion, Vernon Fails on keyboards, and string arrangements by Paul Riser.
An opener worthy of a number-one album
The album, released October 18, 1988, became Baker’s first to top the Billboard 200, was certified triple platinum, and won three Grammy Awards. “Priceless” was never a single, yet it does the heavy lifting of setting the record’s tone — lush, unhurried, and certain. Decades later it still plays like a mission statement: everything that follows is about love, and love, the song insists, is priceless.