(Who Loves Me)" (1987), "Whitney herself is spectacular [on 'I'm Your Baby Tonight'] [...] She manages to hit big notes without ever sounding like she's trying to flex [...] [Her] voice brings more and more urgency, and she sounds like she's having more and more fun." In a more critical review, Entertainment Weeklys David Browne opined that the song "tries too hard to follow in the footsteps of Michael Jackson's 'The Way You Make Me Feel', [...] but at least it has a discernible melody". Less favorable was Duncan Holland from Music Week, who said that "['I'm Your Baby Tonight'] fails to rescue [Houston's] crown from Lisa Stansfield and Mariah Carey. Weak to the point of little return, only safe airplay policies will save this. A belting ballad is what's required." The song received a nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 33rd Grammy Awards. Retrospective reviews have been positive; Paul Grein from Billboard considered "I'm Your Baby Tonight" Houston's 12th best song, deeming it a "stylish smash". A poll conducted of Rolling Stone readers found the song to be Houston's eight best. Alexis Petridis from The Guardian placed "I'm Your Baby Tonight" at number seven of his ranking of Houston's songs, praising its "catchy as hell" refrain. The staff of Entertainment Weekly concluded that, despite having a "grittier, more street-oriented" sound, Houston's voice "remained a technical marvel"; they named it her 18th best song. Slant Magazines Andrew Chan deemed it Houston's second best song, saying the track was a "relentless whirligig of rhythm, drenched in synths [...] a vocal tour de force, one that demonstrates how much pleasure Whitney could wring out of doing battle with a sick beat". Also from Slant Magazine, Eric Henderson named it the best Babyface single. For BET, the song is one of Houston's "funkier, harder-edged" as well as her 23rd best. "I'm Your Baby Tonight" was included on Bruce Pollock's Rock Song Index: The 7500 Most Important Songs for the Rock & Roll Era (2014). Commercial performance On October 20, 1990, "I'm Your Baby Tonight" debuted at number 42 on the Billboard Hot 100. By November 17, after the single reached the Hot 100's top five, it tied "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" as Houston's fastest-rising top five hit. "I'm Your Baby Tonight" reached the chart's first position on December 1, 1990, and received a gold certification by