It was written by George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam, of the band Boy Meets Girl, the songwriters of Houston's previous hit, "How Will I Know", and produced by Narada Michael Walden.

Upon its release, the song initially received mixed reviews from music critics, who praised Houston's vocal performance but critiqued its musical arrangement comparing it to "How Will I Know" and Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun", Despite its initial mixed critical response, the song became a worldwide success, reaching number one in eighteen countries including Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Noting the success of "How Will I Know", written by George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam, of the band Boy Meets Girl, Davis sought the songwriters again to compose the next big pop hit for Houston, with the producer and fellow co-writer of "How Will I Know", Narada Michael Walden again brought in to produce the song.

[7] The producer took a little more persuading with regard to the song's potential, and at first was not too keen on having Houston record it, as he felt it was too "country and western sounding.

[9] The Baptist-reared Houston got more creative with the song, producing vocal ad-libs and adding additional lyrics on the bridge and ending vamp.

[10] Vince Aletti of Rolling Stone magazine, in a review of the album Whitney, criticized the song, commenting that "not taking any chances, the songwriters [Merill Griffith and Shannon Rubicam] have simply come up with a clever anagram of their original hit [How Will I Know], and [Narada Michael] Walden has glossed it over in an identically perky style.

"[11] Los Angeles Times's pop music critic, Robert Hilburn described the song as "a deliciously raucous tune with a bit of the synthesizer underpinning and giddy zest of Cyndi Lauper's 'Girls Just Want to Have Fun.

'"[12] In his review of Whitney, Jon Pareles of The New York Times gave a negative comment, writing that listening to "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" and "You're Still My Man," another track on the album was like "watching television while someone fiddles with color controls.

[16] Additionally, Houston won the Grammy award for "Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female" with the song at its 30th ceremony on March 2, 1988, where she received a total of three nominations.

[21] In 2021, Rolling Stone ranked "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" at number 231 on their updated list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

[23] "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" was released as the first single from Houston's second studio album on radio stations on April 28, 1987.

[35] Six weeks later, it reached the top spot of the chart, making it Houston's fourth number-one single in the United States, the issue date of June 27, 1987 ― the same day that Houston's album Whitney debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 (known at the time as "Top Pop Albums") the first time ever by a female artist.

[50] According to The Official Charts Company, it has sold 760,000 copies in the United Kingdom[51] and was the first number one hit to be released with a CD single in the UK.

She premiered its usage during the later shows of The Greatest Love World Tour in 1986, before its official release of the following year, introducing the song, along with "Didn't We Almost Have It All", as new tunes from her upcoming album.

[68] During her European promotion for a new album from April–May 1987, Houston performed the song on various television series such as Domenica In (an Italian entertainment programme), the Montreux Golden Rose Rock Festival: IM&MC Gala (May 15, 1987), and Top of the Pops (May 21, 1987), where she sang live, unlike some other performers who lip-synched on the programme.

[70] The second was taken from one night of nine sold-out Wembley Arena concerts, aired by Italian channel Rai Uno on a special program for her in 1988.

[71] During the European leg of the tour, she participated in the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute Concert and performed the song in front of about 72,000 people at Wembley Stadium on June 11, 1988.

[72][73] Houston also performed "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" as part of her set on fourteen-date Feels So Right Tour in Japan.

On March 17, she sang the song live on That's What Friends Are For: Arista Records 15th Anniversary AIDS Benefit Concert, televised on CBS on April 17, 1990.

Three different performances of the song were taped and broadcast: the first was in Yokohama, Japan on March 15 and the second was in Norfolk, Virginia, the concert itself entitled Welcome Home Heroes, televised live on HBO on March 31 and later released as the video of the same name; the third was in A Coruña, Spain on September 29, broadcast on a Spanish television channel and later featured on the select set-list on This Is My Life, her first hour-long special which aired on ABC, May 6, 1992.

Houston also performed the song at a 25-minute pregame show of the 1994 FIFA World Cup Final at Rose Bowl in Los Angeles, broadcast in more than 180 countries on July 17, 1994.

One performance of the song on the tour was recorded in Sopot, Poland and broadcast live on Polish channel TVP1 on August 22, 1999.