Whitney Houston is one of pop music’s most popular and successful entertainers. Over the course of a decade and a half, this internationally renowned singer and actress amassed album sales of nearly 100 million copies.
Whitney was born on August 9, 1963, in Newark, New Jersey. She was part of the second generation of a famous family of gospel and soul singers, and followed family tradition by starting her career in gospel singing. Her mother, Cissy Houston, sang in the family gospel group, the Drinkard Sisters, before leading a backing group that included her niece, Dionne Warwick, and Judy Clay. Cissy formed the Sweet Inspirations, who backed Aretha FRANKLIN and Elvis PRESLEY, and then went on to have their own rhythm-and-blues (R&B) hits. Whitney began performing in church as a child, and as a teenager graduated to backing stints for soul/funk groups such as Chaka Khan and Michael Zager Band. She also acted on the television show, Gimme a Break.
Houston’s self-titled debut album was released in March 1984 on Arista Records. Clive Davis, who was the head of Arista, skilfully engineered all aspects of the project. Houston’s remarkable voice, outfitted with material from ace songwriters, polished by some of the industry’s most successful producers, combined to make a sure-fire hit. Houston was also helped by her attractive appearance. The first single, “You Give Good Love,” climbed to No. 3 on the pop charts, while “Saving All My Love for You” made it to No. 1.
From then on, Houston would repeatedly lay claim to the top slot with hits such as “How Will I Know,” and “Greatest Love of All.” Houston’s second album, Whitney, released in 1987, continued the trend. It was the first album by a female artist to debut at No. 1 on both the U.S. and the U.K. album charts. The album Whitney included “I Know Him so Well,” sung as a duet with her mother, and four consecutive singles—“I Want to Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me),” “Didn’t We Almost Have It All,” “So Emotional,” and Where Do Broken Hearts Go,”—all topped the singles charts, breaking a record previously shared by the BEATLES and the Bee Gees. Her third album, I’m Your Baby Tonight, was a relative disappointment sales-wise; despite more chart-toppers with the title track and “All the Man that I Need,” the album itself peaked at No. 3.
Although Houston’s next single “Love Will Save the Day” only reached No. 9 in the charts, her recording of the title track to the 1988 Olympics tribute, “One Moment in Time,” was received very well, and her next single, “I’m Your Baby Tonight,” restored her to the top of the singles chart. The positive response from the American public when she performed “The Star Spangled Banner” at the Superbowl in Miami in 1989 ensured that her version was recorded as a single shortly thereafter.
In 1992, Houston married R&B singer Bobby Brown and, in the same year, resumed her acting career in the film The Bodyguard, and continued starring in films into the late 1990s. The soundtrack album was a huge success, with her cover of Dolly PARTON’S “I Will Always Love You” staying at No. 1 for 14 weeks.
While no one could claim that Houston’s vocal abilities were anything less than phenomenal, many critics lamented the formulaic blandness that seemed the hallmark of her work. Music writer J. D. Considine remarked in the Rolling Stone Album Guide, “Imagine if Andrew Wyeth had abandoned oil painting on the assumption that there was more money to be had drawing Garfield cartoons, and you’ll have a sense of the waste in Houston’s career.”
Greg Bower
SEE ALSO:
GOSPEL; POP MUSIC; SOUL.
FURTHER READING
Bowman, Jeffery. Diva (London: Headline, 1994);
Savage, Jeff. Whitney Houston (Parsippany, NJ: Dillon Press, 1998).
SUGGESTED LISTENING
I’m Your Baby Tonight; Whitney, You Sing Whitney Houston.