Whitney Houston’s Early Years
Whitney Houston was born in New Jersey in 1963. She became a backing vocalist while still in high school and signed to Arista Records at age 19. Her 1985 self-titled debut hit #1 and sold 14 million copies. Two years later, she sold ten million copies with Whitney. The two albums spawned seven consecutive chart-toppers on the Billboard Hot 100. 1990’s I’m Your Baby Tonight peaked at #3, sold another four million copies, and gave her two more #1 songs.
First Film Role
Clive Davis, the music mogul who signed Houston to Arista, said Houston really wanted to make a film. “’It was a very specific and determined decision on her part.’ I asked, ‘Well, can you afford to? You're making literally $20 to $50 million an album — a movie will probably take a year of your time. And can you get a part that you feel comfortable with that does justice to your talents?” GR “Houston met and exceeded Davis’ challenge to find a film role that could make her an even bigger star.” GR
She took a starring role in 1992 in The Bodyguard playing a famous – surprise, surprise – singer and actress who receives death threats from a stalker. Her manager hires a bodyguard (Kevin Costner) to protect her. They have an affair but go their separate ways in the end.
Costner, who co-produced the film, said Houston “was his first and only pick to portray his female co-lead.” GR He said, “We just needed a world-class voice, a world-class beauty in a sense and a world-class presence, and…I didn’t see anybody on the landscape that actually matched up with what we needed in a contemporary way and a musical way.’” GR “It would be difficult to argue with Costner's point. Houston, a stunning former model, was already a pop star of the magnitude of a fictional character.” GR
Commercially, the film “was a healthy success, due not only to Houston, but to her co-star Kevin Costner’s drawing power.” AM It earned $411 million in 1992, making it the year’s second highest-earning film globally. GR
Houston’s performance received praise from Robert Ebert, who said she was “at home in the role, she photographs wonderfully, and has a warm smile, and yet is able to suggest selfish and egotistical dimensions in the character.” GR However, the movie was generally panned by critics and received seven nominations for the Golden Raspberry Awards, including Worst Picture, Worst Actor, and Worst Actress. Not surprisingly, “Houston’s singing is much better than her acting.” AZ
The Soundtrack
The soundtrack, however, was a runaway success. It spent 20 weeks at #1 and sold more than 45 million copies worldwide to become the best-selling soundtrack of all time. GR It also won the Grammy for Album of the Year. “Like many phenomena of that magnitude, it’s hard to see, in retrospect, what triggered such a massive public response.” AM Of course, the album is “a testament to the production of Babyface who, through the mid-1990s, actually was the mainstream of contemporary hit music.” AZ There’s also the fact that the soundtrack is frontloaded with Whitney Houston songs.
However, the “second half is filled with the flotsam and jetsam typical for a big-budget soundtrack – an excerpt from Alan Silverstri’s score, some flavorless but pleasant Kenny G instrumentals, dated pop and dance numbers, and a cover (Curtis Stigers’ take on What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace, Love and Understanding, which is notable in some circles as the recording that made the song’s author, Nick Lowe, a millionaire).” AM “Nothing unpleasant…but not what you would expect to find at the top end of a list of all-time big-selling albums.” TB
“I Will Always Love You”
Then again, Houston’s “jaw-dropping version” GR of Dolly Parton’s 1974 ballad I Will Always Love You that opens the album and serves as the lead single became one of the most iconic songs of all time. It was “a lighting-in-a-bottle pairing of the right song with the right voice .” GR It spent a record-shattering 14 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 and ranks as one of the top-10 songs of the rock era, according to the DMDB book The Top 100 Songs of the Rock Era, 1954-1999. Grammy.com’s Billy Johnson Jr. goes so far as to say it is “arguably the best female pop vocal performance of all time.” GR
Interestingly, the song wasn’t the first choice as “the soundtrack’s pivotal song.” GR Costner wanted a cover of “What Becomes of the Broken Hearted” by Jimmy Ruffin but a cover of the song was featured in the movie Fried Green Tomatoes, which was released while The Bodyguard was in production. GR Costner then pitched “I Will Always Love You” to Houston, Davis, and producer David Foster, using Linda Ronstadt’s 1975 version as a reference. They loved it. GR
The Other Whitney Songs
The other Whitney songs “rank among Houston’s best efforts…It’s not startling enough to justify the phenomenon, but…[they] are all first-rate urban pop songs that skillfully capture Houston at her best. In a sense, the album is no different than any other album Houston recorded.” AM I Have Nothing and Run to You were “power pop ballads” GR in the same vein as “I Will Always Love You.” There’s also “an R&B dance cover of Chaka Khan’s I’m Every Woman, a rock-fueled crossover hit in Queen of the Night, and the pop/gospel offering Jesus Loves Me.” GR
“It may seem odd that a soundtrack is Houston's biggest-selling album to date but consider this – even her best records had five or six great songs surrounded by well-constructed filler; the same is true here, only the filler is recorded by other artists.” AM
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