Mike Tyson Made a Cameo in a Whitney Houston Music Video
Whitney Houston has dozens of singles that charted on the Billboard Chart, some better than others. One that performed only moderately well was “My Name Is Not Susan.” The song was part of her fourth full-length studio album. The music video featured a quick appearance from Mike Tyson.
Mike Tyson appeared in Whitney Houston’s ‘My Name is Not Susan’ music video
“My Name Is Not Susan” was released as the fourth single from Houston’s I’m Your Baby Tonight, her third full album. It was a hard detour from her pop/crossover sound on her first two albums, featuring more R&B and New Jack Swing-infused music. Much of the album was produced by Kenneth “Babyface” Evans.
Lionel C. Martin directed the music video for the single. The “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” singer is featured playing both herself and a character named “Susan,” mirroring the song’s message about a man dating a new woman but he’s still held up on his ex named Susan. The visual is takes elements from Alfred Hitchcock’s film Vertigo, with women playing different characters.
The former heavyweight champion makes a brief cameo in the video when Houston. In one shot within the first few seconds of the video, he sits beside her as Houston is in a blonde wig and orange dress taking a photo. Tyson wears a white t-shirt with some sort of logo and blue shorts. There is also an alternate version of the music video featuring British rapper Monie Love.
The song performed OK commercially, but not as big as her other singles
“My Name Is Not Susan” was released in July 1991. It debuted at No. 67 on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 20 and remaining in the Top 40 for six weeks. At the time, it became The Bodyguard star’s shortest charting single of her career.
It fared better on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart, peaking at No. 6. The song did better internationally, peaking at No. 29 on the UK Singles Chart, and a No. 57 in Germany.
She performed the single live during her I’m Your Baby Tonight world tour. She also performed it during the A Concert for A New South Africa and on her special Welcome Home Heroes special for the troops.
Mike Tyson is a close friend of Whitney Houston’s ex-husband, Bobby Brown
It probably wasn’t a difficult task to get Tyson to agree to appear on the video, considering his close ties to Houston’s family at the time. Houston’s then-husband Bobby Brown and Tyson were close friends. In fact, Brown credits himself for ruining one of Tyson’s biggest fights. Houston was also a big boxing fan.
In an interview for Brown’s A&E biography documentary, he revealed: “We used to do crazy s–t. “Me and Mike are friends to this day, but there was a time when we partied in Japan right before his fight with Buster Douglas,” he explained. “We partied like really, really, really hard. “There must have been two dozen girls in the room with me and Mike…we partied. And I was trying to tell him to get some sleep. Eventually, he got some sleep [in the ring]!” The fight ended Tyson’s winning streak as the champion.
