What makes Whitney Houston's first collection of hits great is her. Not the songs.

Some of the most insultingly simple lines to ever come out of an incredibly gifted vocalist's mouth -- "I want to run to you/Oooh-hoo" -- have roared out of hers. And yet when the daughter of Aretha Franklin's back-up singer and cousin of classic song stylist Dionne Warwick wraps those genes around innocuous lyrics like "Shoop, shoop, shoop, shoo be-doop" they become shimmering anthems, fleetingly meaningful reflections of our emotions, and more than 15 times over her 15-year career, No. 1 hits.

On the first CD there's her masterfully manipulated big pop confections ("I Will Always Love You"), the occasional, really soulful R&B tunes ("Saving All My Love for You") and new radio-ready duets with Whitney-in-training Deborah Cox and Latin smolderer Enrique Iglesias.

The second CD of dance remixes is an appropriate nod to an artist who has held sway over so many genres. But without a gospel single from "The Preacher's Wife" soundtrack -- some of her most emotive work -- this isn't Whitney at her best.