Whitney's Life Story by Carole Portland

from "WHITNEY HOUSTON" by Carole Portland (published 1994)

Whitney Houston - the album

Whitney's eponymous debut album was released in the US on Valentine's Day 1985, and although several months passed before the young artist was truly a hit, the success of the album was historic. When the public finally sat up and took notice, the sales of Whitney Houston swiftly went through the roof to the tune of 14 million. Not only was it the all-time best-selling debut album in the US, it was also the most successful solo album by any black female artist. When it reached the Number 1 spot, it stayed there for 14 weeks, and held a position in the Top 40 for over a year. US magazine People predicted "It will take an act of congress to keep this woman from becoming a megastar."
The album really took off in 1986, to become the top-selling US album of the entire year, ahead of Madonna's True Blue. In Britain, where the album was released in December 1985, Whitney did not quite manage to outsell Madonna, but she did achieve the third best-selling album of the year. Unusually, a full eight of the ten songs on the album where romantic ballads, firmly setting Whitney's public image as a velvety-voice beauty with lovesick streak.

'Someone For Me'

Whitney received her first mention on the British press in Record Mirror under the unflattering sub-heading "Whitney Who?", in March 1985. The occasion was the low-key release of her debut single, 'Someone For Me'. "The lady can sing," the feature informed us, "but only time will tell if she's really the new Aretha Franklin or Diana Ross of US press hype." In fact, 'Someone For Me' has a crashing beat and chunky funk bass-line, but none of the fragrant charm of Whitney's ballads - it is reminiscent of great, early Prince material like 'Controversy', but is almost completely unrepresentative of her other songs.

'You Give Good Love'

The first major single release from Whitney's new album was the smooth soul ballad 'You Give Good Love'. According to Clive Davis it was selected specially to give Whitney her big break "because we wanted to establish her in the black marketplace first. Otherwise you fall between the cracks, where top 40 won't play you and R&B won't consider you their own." Not only was 'You Give Good Love' a big R&B hit in July 1985, it also made the hoped-for crossover to the mainstream pop chart. The single spent 13 weeks on the chart, peaking at Number 3, and Whitney Houston became a pop celebrity.

A heart-warming, selfless love song, 'Saving All My Love For You' was the single that made Whitney Houston a household name. Written by Gerry Goffin and Michael Masser, it first appeared as an album cut by Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr in 1978. Whitney's version was the Number 8 best-selling single of the year in Britain, easily topping the chart on both sides of the Atlantic, although the record had been in the stores for quite a while before radio stations and records buyers began to catch on.
The winning gambit that clinched the record's success was the video, which gave Whitney a major breakthrough on MTV. Whitney played a sultry, streamlined "other woman", whose sugardaddy was far away with his wife and family while she waited patiently for him to return. It was a moving little tale, in which Whitney Houston looked fresh and pure, but with a very sharp edge.

The following year, Whitney was presented with her first Grammy award, by her cousin Dionne Warwick, for Best Female Pop Vocal Perfomance for 'Saving All My Love For You'. The national US paper Herald Examiner wrote "Warwick bounced up and down with obvious delight as she read Whitney Houston's name as winner." When she took the stage to accept, Whitney simply said, "Oh, my goodness. I must thank God, who makes it all possible for me!"

"My mom says that is you keep your eyes open and look around, you can learn a lot," Whitney told Steve Dale of the Chicago tribune in August 1985 during her first national "warm-up" tour. "I've already seen people come and go in this business. I'm being very careful with my career, taking everything step by step. I'm in no hurry." Performing in support of headliner Jeffrey Osborne, Whitney got plenty of exposure, and although the audiences were sometimes less than enthusiastic, the critics were learning to love her.
"I always enjoy performing." said Whitney the following month, as her own tour began, "so it doesn't matter to me whether I'm the opening act or the headliner. But it will be fun to get to do a whole 60-minute show."

'Hold Me'

'Hold Me' first surfaced in 1984 on the Teddy Pendergrass album Love Language. The album marked the singer's comeback, following a very severe car accident, which left him confined to a wheelchair. 'Hold Me' is a syrupy ballad dominated well by Whitney's fresh, young sound. the single reached Number 44 in the US charts, and was finally released in UK in January 1986, also reaching Number 44.
To hear it today, the first track on Whitney's debut album, 'How Will I Know', sounds timid and girlish. Nancy Culp, writing in UK weekly Record Mirror, called it "a waste of a fair voice with such a forgettable song", adding that "the last laugh will be on good old Whitney unless the rest of her material is infinitely better than this".
It is a bounct, teenage song without much substance, but Whitney's fame was on such a high after Christmas of 1985 that her voice could surely fail to hit. 'How Will I Know' (the only track on Whitney Houston to be produced by Narada Michael Walden) became her second US Number 1 and was among the top ten best-selling singles of the year in the US. In the UK, too, fans were still hot for Whitney's vocals - the single reached Number 5, her biggest hit in 1986.
'The Greatest Love Of All' by Michael Masser and Linda Creed was originally written for George Benson as the theme for Muhammed Ali's 1977 biopic The Greatest, in which the boxer portrayed himself. At the time is reached Number 24 in the US and Number 27 in the UK. However, in 1986 it was touched by the Whitney Houston magic. originally it was the 'B' side of US single 'You Give Good Love' and UK single 'Someone For Me'. It didn't make it to an 'A' side until a full year after the release of the album in America, but immediately went to Number 1 in the States and Number 8 in Britain. It was even nominated as the Song of the year at the Grammy Awards in February 1987.

Whitney's first ever world tour was a major event, with a very ambitious presentation. The star chose to perform in the round on a huge circular stage situated in the middle of each auditorium, like a boxing match, so that the entire crowd had a clear view. The staging gave each show a dramatic yet intimate feel, and was and enormous test of her skills as a performer, as she tried to play to all "sides" at once. David Sinclair in the national UK paper The Times called it "a measure of her extraordinary status after only one solo album", saying that Whitney "looked like a shimmering hologram, but her command of such an intimidating area of space was real enough through the set".
Performing nearly all of the songs on her debut album, Whitney sang a simple set to show off her vocal talent, without any costume changes. The seven-piece band was set apart from the singer, on a small stage below her. Whitney was alone on the stage but for a cordless microphone, although she was joined by her brother, Gary Garland, for the duets 'Hold Me' and 'Nobody Loves Me Like You Do'. The show began with Whitney singing the first bars of 'The Greatest Love Of All' teasingly from behind a partition, before launching into the uptempo Michael Jackson hit 'Wanna Be Startin' Something' (which was one of her earliest recordings, on an Arista Records sampler LP).

Commenting in the Chicago Tribune, Daniel Brogan called Whitney "an uptown Tina Turner", saying that he could forgive her occasional ad libs and indulgences because: "It is easy to image just how tempting it is to cut loose when you have as much natural talent as she does." A regular highlight was the gospel standard 'I Believe' (once a hit for Frankie Laine), which David Sinclair said "swept towards the very highest of registers in waves of mounting vigour".
The tour was far more indicative of Whitney's roots than the album had been. Daniel Brogan was pleasantly surprised that Whitney seemed to be "a far bolder, far grittier performer than the MORE pop diva on Whitney Houston". "The evening's clearcut standout wasn't a Whitney song at all, "he said. "It was her passionately soulful reading of Jennifer Holliday's 'I Am Changing'. Houston sang the song with such conviction and determination that you couldn't help wondering if she was issuing a challenge to her audience to follow her in the new direction she is beginning to take."
Indeed, Whitney Houston was changing, becoming less a starlet or supermodel of the Eighties, and more a world-class entertainer. by the time of her next major tour, there would be no one to equal her success. US Billboard magazine named her their Artist of the year in 1986, and in January 1987 she won an astonishing five American Music Awards. At the time it seemed as if she had reached the peak of her career, and couldn't possibly improve on such success. But now we know otherwise.

"No surprises here," said UK magazine Smash Hits in May 1987. 'The great Whitney Houston announces her return from a long lay-off with her usual brilliant singing...Welcome back Ma'am!"
With the foot-tapping, Caribbean precussion and irresistible baritone backing vocals, 'I wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)' was the pop single of summer 1987. Everybody remembers the catchy, repetitive chorus and cute outro ("Dontcha wanna dance? Say ya wanna dance. Dontcha wanna dance?"). On the seemingly improvised bridge section Whitney gives a gorgeous giggle which spreads a brilliant ray of sunshine into the song, It is fun, classic pop, and was inevitably another Number 1 hit in the UK and US in May 1987, but that wasn't all.
'I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who loves Me)' was the Number 1 best-selling single of the year in the US, and in the UK it made Number 9 in the year-end chart-helped by Whitney having performed the song on her one and only appearance on the legendary British TV show Top of the Pops. Written by Shannon Rubicam and George Merrill (of 'How Will I Know' fame), the song had the dubious honour of being the fifth video clip ever transmitted by the satellite channel MTV Europe; but the greatest possible tribute to the classic hit was a grammy Award For Best Female pop Vocal Performance the following year.