Whitney Houston sold over 200 million records worldwide during her 25-year career and won six Grammy‘s, 16 Billboard Music Awards and two Emmys before her death on this day February 11th in 2012.
Whitney Houston was signed to Arista Records by Clive Davis in 1983. Her self-titled debut album, “Whitney Houston,” was released in 1985, yielded a string of hits including “You Give Good Love” and three consecutive #1 singles, “Saving All My Love For You,” “How Will I Know,” and a song that has become a veritable anthem, “The Greatest Love of All.” Not only did the album establish her as an important new recording artist, but it has went on to sell over 14 million copies in the U.S., plus several million abroad. The album sets the record as the biggest selling debut album by a solo artist.
With the highly anticipated release of her second album “Whitney” in 1987, she made history as the first female artist to enter the Billboard album charts at #1.
“Whitney” featured a new stream of #1 chart-toppers, “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me),” “Didn’t We Almost Have It All,” “So Emotional,” and “Where Do Broken Hearts Go” — this established Whitney as the only artist ever to have seven consecutive #1 hits, surpassing a record previously set by The Beatles and The Bee Gees.
Whitney’s third powerhouse solo album “I’m Your Baby Tonight,” released in 1990, displayed her versatility on a new collection of tough rhythmic grooves, soulful ballads and up-tempo dance tracks. With back-to-back #1 hits for the title tune and “All the Man That I Need,” followed by “Miracle” and “My Name Is Not Susan,” sales records were set once again, as the album became an international multi-platinum best-seller, to the tune of 10 million copies worldwide.
Whitney’s fourth studio album “My Love Is Your Love,” is the R&B album she always wanted to make. Released 25 years ago today on November 17th, 1998, the album is certified 4x-platinum in the U.S., with global sales in excess of 9 million units. The album includes four platinum singles.
(Photo: Marc Bryan-Brown)
It was Whitney’s seventh career album, coming after the 8-year period that brought the original motion picture soundtrack albums for “The Bodyguard,” “Waiting To Exhale,” and “The Preacher’s Wife.” “My Love Is Your Love” found Whitney collaborating with some of pop and R&B’s hottest producers.
The result was a string of solid crossover hits: the two-time Grammy-nominated “Heartbreak Hotel” featuring Faith Evans and Kelly Price, the Grammy-winning “It’s Not Right But It’s Okay,” “When You Believe” (a duet with Mariah Carey, from The Prince Of Egypt), the title cut “My Love Is Your Love” and the final hit, “I Learned From the Best” (written by Diane Warren, produced and arranged by David Foster), released in early 2000.
“Today’s music is basically youth-oriented. It’s lots of beats and rhythm. Sometimes in today’s music, the lyric doesn’t really play a major part,” Whitney stated to Billboard in 1998. “There are some great lyrics in these songs I’ve selected to do. That alone, I think, is going to be a surprise, just to hear the groove with somebody saying something, a story line. That’s very important to me.”
“I’ve experienced, I feel, I’ve gone through, I understand, I know, I can relate to, and I can interpret.” Whitney added that it would be a mistake to take all the album’s lyrics literally or assume they were autobiographical.
The 42nd Annual Grammy awards, which took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on February 23, 2000,which marked some 15 months since the release of “My Love Is Your Love.” Whitney was on-hand to receive the sixth Grammy award of her career, as “It’s Not Right But It’s Okay” took the honors for Best Female R&B Vocal.
Winning her first R&B Grammy award in a category that included Mary J. Blige, Brandy, Faith Evans, and Macy Gray was extremely gratifying for Whitney Houston.
Over the years many artists have mentioned the influence of Whitney Houston on our UB Interviews.
Today we highlight those excerpts, to celebrate the love, admiration and joy, Whitney Houston brought to our lives!
UB spoke to legendary Bobby Brown a year before Whitney passed in February of 2011 and asked him then what the relationship was like with them then? “We’re friends, we have to raise a daughter. We have a little girl that we have to raise together. I mean she’s not a little girl anymore, but she’s still our baby. So our friendship is what it is, we have to raise this daughter together. What happened in the past is in the past, but what we have to do in the future is to raise this little girl, so that’s what we’re focused on.”
UB spoke to Bobby Brown the following year, months after Whitney passed and asked him if Whitney’s death taught him anything, as far as moving forward with his own life & future? “Well it really hurt me, but I’m over 7 and a half years clean. So really I just want to stay that way and work, work, work!”
Brandy shared with us the reason she made her album “Two Eleven” a tribute to Whitney. Who passed away that year in 2012 on Brandy’s birthday. “So many of my vocals, from riffs to phrasing — I try to emulate her here and there. Of course I try to stay true to myself. But naturally because she was really the only person that I listened to non stop growing up. So naturally there are her reflections on some of the things I do on the songs. But just my behavior and my dedication to my music and really just my commitment is my tribute to Whitney.
Because that’s what I promised her that I would do and I promised her that I would stay true to myself. So that’s my whole life and behavior and how I am with my career, is my tribute to her. For some reason I just feel like…I don’t want to say she passed the torch, because clearly my voice isn’t as strong as Whitney’s and only she could do what she could do. But to pass on my birthday I feel like she passed something to me to continue to do because she’s not here anymore. So I just want to do that, whatever that thing is. I know I can’t come close to her, so I’m not saying that at all but I’m going to try my hardest to live out something that she would do if she was still here. And I say that in the most humble way, please don’t take it like oh I’m going to fill Whitney’s shoes, that’s not what I’m saying (laughs).”
Gordon Chambers shared with UB months after Whitney‘s passing, what she meant to him “I re-recorded that song [“Missing You”] for the album, I had originally wrote it for the film “Set It Off” and it was a Grammy nominated song with Brandy, Tamia, Gladys Knight and Chaka Khan. I figured it was about that time that people may want to hear that song again. So I decided to make a new version of it and dedicate it to some friends of mine in the business who have passed. So I dedicated it to Phyllis Hyman and Gerald LeVert, but now I think when I sing it I will forever dedicate it to Whitney Houston. I had no idea I would loose her in my journey, but she has been really instrumental in my career. She was the person who told me during one of my sessions with her that is was time for me to go solo.”
I’m just grateful to God and again Whitney Houston who gave me encouragement when I was producing her in 2003 for her Christmas album. She said “Baby I think you want to do what I do, I think you want to sing and if you do you should go for it!
Whitney was kind, very warm and very funny. Just a beautiful spirit, so many of the things people said at the funeral were just the exact qualities that I saw during the time we spent together. Very encouraging, Alicia Keys said it best, when you were in her presence she always made you feel strong. She lit up a room, she made people very happy and gave them joy. She kept her family with her always and was very loyal to her friends. I think she had alot of real Christian qualities, of kindness, giving, supporting and loyalty. I feel devastated that she has passed, but I have no doubt she is in heaven!”
Emerging artists at the time JoJo shared with UB her influences in her roll-out interview; “Well when I was younger and coming up I would say Aretha Franklin, Etta James and Whitney Houston. Really a diverse group of singers.”
Legendary Stephanie Mills shared with UB her biggest obstacles faced in this industry and brought up Whitney. “I’ve always been one of those types of artists that didn’t want to follow the pack. I was not one where they could easily say Stephanie do this or do that. I’ve always kind of danced to my own tone. I actually asked to get out of the business. I was being managed by Left Bank Management at the time in the early 90’s and I was tired. I’d had a record contract my entire life and I just wanted to do some normal things. I just wanted to live a normal life and I got out of my contract with MCA. Now I have my own company but I haven’t been with a record company since then. My obstacles have always been that I didn’t want to follow and do what everybody else was doing. I just wanted to do my own thing, just sing and do my shows and do it when I wanted to do it. In the business what happens to artists is you’re only looked at as a product! Sometimes that’s too painful to bare for alot of artists. I think for Whitney is was too painful for her to bare she was really a product and for Michael. That’s something that you really, really have to adjust to and kind of get it under your skin. You do realize it when you’re at that level. When I was at that level when Never Knew Love was winning the Grammys and stuff, you’re really a product and it’s too much to bare!”
Trenyce who has always stated Whitney Houston as her biggest influence, shared what it means to her to sing a Whitney song, while also celebrating the late great Michael Jackson in our 2013 interview; “The best part about me being apart of this show is being apart of the Michael Jackson legacy. You never really realize how many people he touched until you are one of the performers that are standing there singing one of his songs and watching the audiences reaction. Michael Jackson has some very special fans. Young and old generations and color, creed, sexual orientation.. like the audience is just the world. It’s a global phenomenon. The way that he really, really touched people. Michael is #1 to me when it comes to the word icon! It’s personal to me as well because my first time ever seeing him was when he put the coat on James Brown at the BET Awards.
Unfortunately we never met face to face. This also gives me a chance to sing a long to his music and step in his shoes a little bit. It’s the same feeling I get when I sing a Whitney Houston song. That’s a special moment for those that get to meet people like that. I’ve actually met the Jackson family, they came to see the show and they had actually made plans for Michael to come and see it before he passed away. So all of us in the show kind of walk around like his presence is in the building. We’re performing with his grace, we pray before the show that his spirit is in the building and is touching people. We know we can never touch him musically, but at least let his essence work through us. It’s a great show to be apart of.”
Antonique Smith who portrayed Whitney‘s good friend Faith Evans in the biopic “NOTORIOUS,” shared with UB the influence Whitney played in her life back in 2012 as well. “Whitney Houston is my biggest vocal influence, she’s from my hometown. When I heard her voice as a little girl I said that’s who I want to sound like. I literally learned how to sing by singing her music. That kind of vocalist is kind of the foundation of how I sing. I did sing in the Church, but I also grew up listening to artists like Mary J. Blige and Faith.”
(1993: Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown with David Roberts in the shot)
Recently we spoke to David Roberts, former bodyguard of Whitney Houston. For his new book, out this month. We asked him then about Whitney being called “One Take Houston!” “That was the song for the Olympics back in the day, 88, 89, whenever it was. And we went to the studio on Oxford Street with Narada Michael Walden and I’m sure he can confirm this. But we walked in there and her song was to be “One Moment in Time.” And consistent with the norm, I stayed outside in the green room, off they went into the studio to record the song. I had a coffee and probably half a donut, and here they are coming out, and I thought, yeah, what went wrong? And then we’re going downstairs, we’re in the car, we’re off back to the hotel, and I spoke to Robyn and I said, what happened? She said, they call her One Take Houston. She gets there, she sings the song, and she comes home, and that was her. And of course, you know the result of One Take Houston in time in terms of its popularity throughout the world, right?”
