ALBUM BY ALBUM
WHITNEY HOUSTON
WHITNEY’S POWERFUL PIPES AND MODEL LOOKS SAW HER BECOME A TRUE MUSIC ICON
MARK LINDORES
© Getty
THE THEN 18-YEAR-OLD TEEN MODEL HAD GROWN UP SINGING IN CHURCH – AND IT SHOWED
When you consider that Whitney Houston’s discography contains some of the greatest love songs of all time, it seems only fitting that her 1985 self-titled debut album was released on Valentine’s Day. Two years in the making, the record took 13 months to hit No.1 in the US, where it sporadically spent a total of 14 non-consecutive weeks and not only launched Whitney’s career but redefined the meaning of the term pop idol, introducing mainstream audiences to a vocal style more in tune with gospel music than the charts.
Discovered supplying backing vocals for her mother – revered gospel singer Cissy Houston – in a Manhattan nightclub in 1983, the then 18-year-old teen model had grown up singing in church – and it showed.
With the ability to deliver standards, ballads and pop songs, Whitney encapsulated everything that Arista Records boss Clive Davis was looking for as a figurehead for the label. He signed her on the spot after hearing her rendition of George Benson’s The Greatest Love Of All.
Ploughing thousands of dollars into the project, Davis enlisted the cream of writing, production and session musician talent to ensure that the material was equal to his protégé’s immense gifts. When songwriters were reluctant to give their work to a new artist, he chose covers, confident that Whitney could take any song and make it her own.
Aside from the aforementioned Greatest Love Of All (Whitney’s personal favourite of all her songs), the smoky, jazzy ballad Saving All My Love For You had previously been buried on a 1978 album by married duo Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr and Hold Me, a tender duet with Teddy Pendergrass, originally appeared as In Your Arms on Diana Ross’ Silk Electric LP in 1982. Even dancefloor anthem How Will I Know was originally written for and rejected by Janet Jackson.
Those songs, along with her debut solo single You Give Good Love and majestic ballad All At Once, form the basis of this timeless debut. Shifting more than 22 million copies and spawning three US No.1 hits (Saving All My Love For You, How Will I Know and The Greatest Love Of All), this remains one of the most successful LPs of all time.
WHITNEY HOUSTON
Released 1985
Label Arista
Chart Positions US No.1 UK No.2
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