Saturday, February 11, 2012

The Whitney Houston Post

I originally planned on writing about Jeremy Lin and the craze involving him...and I will, assuming that circumstances still warrant in about a week. However, that all changed when news broke tonight that Whitney Houston died.

In the last two and a half years we've lost the two biggest black musical voices of the 80s (I'm only using race as a divider because Madonna would likely be the biggest female voice). I'm not going to write about the parallels between Michael Jackson and Whitney, even though there are quite a few. This is going to be all Whitney - well, it'll be all Whitney as far as my memories.


 

I think the first Whitney song I ever heard was How Will I Know. Liked it instantly, even though I didn't have a real interest in the subject matter. She just had that upbeat, vibrant sound that any elementary schooler would like. Even though I didn't know a thing about love when I was seven, I sure liked her songs that had 'love' in the title: Greatest Love of All (which I actually sang as part of a choir in middle school), You Give Good Love, and Saving All My Love For You. They weren't as uptempo, obviously, as How Will I Know; but they held my attention and simply were pieces of good music.

Then came the Whitney album. By this time, everyone knew who she was...and we all know what that means: spotlight's on and you have to deliver. Did she ever. On my ninth birthday she released that album, and the first release was I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me). I probably saw that video more than I've ever seen any video on BET (and it's probably only behind Thriller overall). "Don't you wanna dance, say you wanna dance, don't you wanna dance - dance...and my cousins and I always knew when the video would be on: right at the end of every Friday's Video Soul because it was #1 for a long time. Video Soul used to come on twice a day, so we usually saw it more than once. By this time, I was a little more hip to her subject matter so I kind-of got where she was going with Didn't We Almost Have It All. And then there was that next release: So Emotional. That song is quite prominently featured on my 80s pop mix CD. This album also had that Where Do Broken Hearts Go: and that title, when viewed as simply a phrase, has a much different meaning with regard to Whitney than it did.

People remember Whitney's Super Bowl performance, as well they should. However, it wasn't the first time she performed something that has aligned with a sporting event. Three years earlier, there was One Moment In Time. Between Carl Lewis and Ben Johnson and FloJo and Jackie and Roy Jones and Park Si-Hun, there was that song. I think this was the song that really showed everyone the difference between Whitney and Madonna: Whitney could seriously sing. Some of us already knew, but this left no doubt.

*There's a reason I haven't called any song a favorite yet, by the way. You'll see it at the end.

I'm not going to lie: I didn't quite like I'm Your Baby Tonight as much as I did the first two albums. The title track and first release just seemed to say "this song is a hit because I'm Whitney"...and it was. It just didn't pack the power of How Will I Know or I Wanna Dance With Somebody. That song also gets points deducted for the "I'm your baby tonight" gesture/dance/whatever. No, that's not the 33-year-old talking: I didn't like it then either. Next up was All The Man That I Need. Two points to anyone who remembers the guy who we all thought she was talking about back then (if you need a clue, he was a pro athlete). The only other song I remember from that album was My Name Is Not Susan: which, like the title track, seemed more like a Whitney song than a Whitney song.

While All The Man That I Need was on the charts, she gave the one performance that wasn't on the album, but that just about everyone remembers: that Super Bowl performance. Yes, I know it was pre-recorded. However, the pre-recorded voice was hers. I think everyone remembers how popular she became after that. She was so popular that her version of the national anthem became the one we heard in middle school for the rest of my time there (it was my science teacher's idea). She then filmed her first major movie, The Bodyguard. Now, no one is going to call that movie a classic. However, it gave us some of Whitney's best work.

"If...I...should stay"....don't think I need to go on. Dolly Parton should have given up all rights to that song before the instrumental even hit. As everyone knows, the song spent athen-record 14 weeks at the top of the Billboard charts and won just about every award imaginable. She sang that song. Seriously: listen to it (again). Yes, by this time I was fully cognizant of what she was talking about. Even went through my first bit of heartbreak at the time...that doesn't relate to the song, but I just thought I'd throw it in there. I'm Every Woman was alright, but it wasn't I Have Nothing or Queen Of The Night. When I heard Queen, I thought "okay, Whitney: starting to talk some stuff". Run To You was a nice little song, and Jesus Loves Me got a lot of play during gospel sets. Funny how half her hits - and probably the three biggest - weren't original Whitney songs.

Something really bad happened right between I'm Your Baby Tonight and The Bodyguard soundtrack, though: Whitney got married. It wasn't to Randall Cunningham (the trivia answer from earlier) or even Eddie Murphy, who she dated. It was to Mister My Prerogative. Sigh.

She got with Bobby and then she got on that stuff and that was it. She did some movies and made a couple songs, most notably her efforts with Waiting To Exhale. She was funny, if not overly convincing, in the movie. Exhale (Shoop Shoop) and Why Does It Hurt So Bad were good efforts, particularly the latter (which I didn't fully appreciate at first). Her work in The Preacher's Wife included a performance I Believe In You And Me...you know, she sang a lot of covers from Bodyguard on...and then she finally got back to recording "official" Whitney Houston stuff.

My Love Is Your Love - which is actually the only Whitney album I ever bought (not counting Bodyguard) - came in 1998. Heartbreak Hotel...yawn. Sorry, but...yawn. It's Not Right (But It's Okay) was alright. Title track was okay...but there were two songs on that album that I absolutely loved. The first was When You Believe. Whitney and Mariah on the same track? For you young folks out there, that's like Otis or Paris...if Kanye were a better rapper. That song was great. The other song, not nearly as many people will agree with...but I loved it: Oh Yes, with Missy. It just had a flow (not a rap flow) that I'd never heard in a Whitney song before.

I can't really talk about any Whitney past that point, as I barely remember her last two albums. She had a crazy and destructive ex-husband, and by most accounts a daughter to match. She had her issues. She also had arguably the greatest voice any of us have ever had the pleasure of hearing, and now she finally has her peace.

Top 10 Whitney Houston Songs (To Me)...with video links

(I could have said "favorites", but the alliteration was too good to pass up)



9. I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH3giaIzONA&ob=av2e




5. I Will Always Love You - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14ivtcelIo0




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