Favorite Whitney Houston Song

So Emotional

My fave is Saving All My Love for You but I voted for Exhale.

Saving All My Love For You

Dancin' On A Smooth Edge. Stupidly left off her I'm Your Baby Tonight album.

None.

R5 Gay Card to be revoked, unless you're a DL Dyke or Soccer Mom, then just don't come back.

(Crack is) Whack

Didn't we almost have it all

Agree with R8 (live video version), plus possibly MIRACLE!

I'm pretty sure that's Jaye Davidson, not Whitney.

Was just listening to "How Will I Know" during my workout today. Fun song, knockout vocal.

Your last choice should have been My Name is not Vivian. You would have had the poll of the year. But you didn't did you?

Didn't We Almost Have It All, for me too. Love that song, and you don't really hear it much anymore.

4 of you were really cheap

Eternal Love. She was only 19 when it was recorded but sounded so mature.

R12 Hahahahahaha Great Idea! Dataloungers have short memories so we'll recycle this thread in a few months

Closest Whitney came to alluding to being a Lez

Thanks R15, I'm a huge Whitney fan but have never heard that before!

Any other rare recordings out there??

Lover For Life. Single worthy.

Didn't We Almost Buy a Zoo?

I really like the Thunderpuss version of "It's not right." By the time she did that her voice was no longer as clear of a tool, but at various points in this song, so much raw power in her voice.

Gotta echo R4. But in close second for me is Feels So Good.

A personalized, thigh-quaking, creamy cocoa cover of "Fly, Robin, Fly" could have been a big hit for her.

Fly, Robyn, fly

Fly, Robyn, fly

Fly, Robyn, fly

Fly into my pie!

LOVE thsi live version of Where Do Broken Hearts Go... she had that crowd in the palm of her hands

The poster who liked Eternal Love and wanted other rare recordings, here's another song from when she was in her teens.... Memories

It's funny-I like most of her hits much more than "I Will Always Love You". I don't know if it's just because that's the 1 song they played the most above the rest or what but it's 1 of my least favorite singles by her despite being her biggest hit.

My favorite songs would be "Didn't We Almost Have It All", "I Wanna Dance With Somebody", "Where Do Lonely Hearts Go?" "So Emotional" and "The Greatest Love of All"

special shout out to "Queen of the Night". That came out when I was an under-10 gayling. Loved it lol

Thanks R24, have never heard that... had goosebumps!!!

Didn't we almost have it all.

She was a terrible singer. She screamed, she never sang. I hated when she came on the radio, hated her screechy shrill screaming. My opinion.

I'm torn between Saving All My Love For You and All the Man That I Need.

Thanks, R24. First time seeing that performance of WDBHG. Wonderful vocal. I didn't care for that song but she certainly sang the hell out of it.

Another rare one. She recorded this in 1994 for a Curtis Mayfield tribute album.

Saving All My Love for You followed by So Emotional.

You Give Good Love is perfection.

Just The Lonely Talking

Goodness, no love for "All The Man That I Need"?

Or "One Moment In Time?"

Here's my gay card, since I was never a fan. However, I love "Heartbreak Hotel" and it's one of my all time favorite songs. Absolutely beautiful.

Damn she was so lovely at one point. One of the loveliest creatures I've ever seen.

Another vote here for that song r36. A superb power ballad!

Fuck that list!

SHOW YOU RIGHT! HUH!!!!!

YEAH, YOU WORK ON ME... WORK ON ME... HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saving All My Love For You

Drugs.......Such a pathetic waste of a good life.

The most talented and beautiful people seem messed up and broken on the inside. Quite sad.

You call that coked out no talent screamer a singer? Screaming is NOT singing.

I love All The Man I Need, So Emotional, My Love is Your Love and I Believe in You and Me. I love her performances of many more songs too, because I love Whitney Houston.

This is a poor quality video but perhaps the best she ever sang this song. Her voice is all gorgeous resonance, soulful trills and piercing power and her beauty lights the night.

These all suck. My favorite is "Queen of The Night" followed by "So Emotional" and "Whatchulookinat."

This little clip shows the superhuman quality of Whitney's voice in peak form. Streisand? Are you kidding. The power, resonance, range, tone and clarity of Houston's voice are unmatched in popular singing.

Oh, and "Why Does It Hurt So Bad?" Even her live version "Why Do I Sweat So Bad?" is amazing.

Damn,I loved me some Whitney. One of the few times a "celebrity" death truly affected me.

"I'm Every Woman"

I don't know why I like it...I just do.

Anyone else like 'My Heart is Calling'? From TPW

You Give Good Drugs

Saving All My Coke For You

The Greatest Line of All

1997 and 98 were peak years for Houston's crack use and her voice let her down repeatedly - but she still had her original confidence and so much sweetness to her singing. She would sing better than this again, but never the same as before.

I Believe In You And Me

She SCREAMS I tell you, are yall tone deaf???

Google Whitney Houston's VOICE R56. Read some objective commentary about her vocal abilities, singing style and cultural significance. She married the call and response of gospel with darker remembrance of the blues to her own rhythmic, propulsive and soulful POP sound. She infused ordinary pop music with aspirational greatness. She made vocal artistry personal. There is no denying the beauty and perfection and power of peak Houston's voice. To say she screamed is simply not true. She shouted like a church girl sometimes and her upper chest belts are legendary. She could sing an entire song from that powerful place in her instrument - with soulful phrase endings and thick operatic head voice transitions. What Houston could sing technically was not even as great as the quality of voice she was given. As in not EVEN as great. The sound production of her voice was a thrill closer to Leontyne Price than any pop star/ screamer. Amazing that you have such bad ears R56. The people who call Houston a screamer are usually very old Streisand fans. Not even racists call Whitney a screamer. People know she was the best, like her or not. Her vocal prowess was insanely, grandly and preposterously great and the quality of her voice was both thrilling and very beautiful. Her heart was right there with it, for a long time. Peace.

One Moment in Time, I Have Nothing and I believe in YOU and Me. Those three. No way can I pick one over the others. I love most of her music, but these three are top of the list.

It wasn't just her range or the clarity and power of her voice. It was this incredible control she had. Her vocal control was incomparable. No one I've every hear could do what she did.

I Belong To You

She was always better live than on an album, because she was a real performer and interpreter.

Same script, different cast. The duet she did with Deborah Cox was amazing.

Sad story, her family killed her, Cissy and Pat did her in.

[quote]The people who call Houston a screamer are usually very old Streisand fans.

Streisand got nothing on Whitney Houston. She is a very mediocre singer. Very telling that she refused to sing 'Enough is Enough' with Donna Summer live on stage because Donna would have murdered her.

I wish she had done more torchy stuff like Saving All My Love.

Her voice was wasted on dumb crap like I Wanna Dance With Somebody.

Here you go R63. I was only 3 years old when this song came out, but I know perfect singing. Hear that long note sung with added vibrato through a smile at the end? She was more spectacular than people knew then. Beautiful, of course.

I Get So Emotional might be dance music, but it's far from dumb crap,

My favourite was written by Annie Lennox: Step By Step. If you *really* listen to the vocals in the back, you can pick out Lennox's very distinctive voice.

R57 you nailed it- I even got goosbumps reading what you wrote because her voice does that to me-- nothing compares to it, and so sad she threw it all away. I know. MARY!

[quote]Streisand got nothing on Whitney Houston. She is a very mediocre singer. Very telling that she refused to sing 'Enough is Enough' with Donna Summer live on stage because Donna would have murdered her.

Not to hijack the thread, but Donna Summer was one of the most underrated singers, ever. She had an incredible voice and could sing beautifully in any genre. She never got her due.

Her vocal on "If You Say My Eyes are Beautiful" was just lovely. It was the first time I heard her, and halfway through the song when her voice starts to soar past the cheese I knew she was going to be a big star.

Her voice was supernatural. I have to go with I Will Always Love You because of the performance. Her voice had power and purity. For some reason once in a while I think of how she died and realize her young daughter died exactly the same way and I just lose my shit. The voice + the tragic life makes this woman hyperreal.

Donna Summer had a beautiful voice and is far superior to Whitney, who still is nothing more than a screamer. People who really know music undertsand this. Not a Streisand fan here.

I voted for I Wanna Dance but it's really a multi tie with Where Do Broken Hearts Go, The Lonely Talking Again and So Emotional.

I also love Be My Baby Tonight.

Broken Hearts always gets me So Emotional though.

Someone For Me and Thinking About You from her debut album are great songs.

r57 I love you.

Anybody since that comes close? I loved Aguilera when she first hit the scene and had high hopes for her. She also has a tremendous instrument and can sing with emotion but she uses her voice badly and her giant ego gets in the way of constructive criticism. She has had some moments of real artistry.

This is the live version of "Why Does It Hurt So Bad" from the MTV Movie Awards circa 1996. It is thrilling and heartbreaking. Thrilling because her vocal is electrifying and she deftly executed every vocal run. The enormity of her gift is apparent. This live version is 100x better than the studio recording.

It's sad because her struggle is also in evidence. She is dressed plainly and still looks dishevelled. She is seated on a stool for the entire performance yet in just 4 minutes she is DRENCHED in sweat. A monumental talent but also a painfully tragic figure.

Love the dance stuff. Hate the overblown ballads. Really REALLY hate "I Will Always Love You".

r72 Donna's voice and Whitney's voice are very different. No one would ever mistake them for the other and I'm not seeing that they are comparable in any way except that you want one to be better than the other.

I love both women's voices. So unique and transcendent. They could never sing each others catalogue and make much of a sensation so why compare them?

If I ever have to choose out of the two it's always Whitney first. But I have seen Donna Summer live and I got chills. There is a quality in Donna's voice that can pierce me. Whitney's voice though, she sings my soul.

What r57 said.

[quote] Streisand got nothing on Whitney Houston. She is a very mediocre singer. Very telling that she refused to sing 'Enough is Enough' with Donna Summer live on stage because Donna would have murdered her.

MARY! They are all great! Streisand is uniquely, extraordinarily gifted. As is Donna Summer. It is not a contest. As soon as we started comparing, the trolls will come and ruin this lovely celebration of Whitney Houston (The Voice!)

[quote]It wasn't just her range or the clarity and power of her voice. It was this incredible control she had. Her vocal control was incomparable. No one I've every hear could do what she did.

Ariana Grande outsings Whitney and she does it LIVE and while dancing.

To those who say Barbara is greater than Whitney or Whitney is greater than Donna Summer or...any of that. Is it at all possible that you'll never convince one another because a) each of these singers is of a certain generation, as each of you in all likelood is as well, and your favorite is "the best" because your favorite reminds you of the best time of your life; b) even if you focus on technical ability, technical ability in singing is also subjective, with far too many factors to make "the best" too narrow a suggestion; c) they're all unique to themselves and may or may not be your taste but possssssssssibly all are talented and earned their recognition? There's no way to win an argument of whether Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet or Rembrandt was "the best." Why do we even do this? Dead people don't care about trophies.

they were all fantastic !

All right then, this is Whitney at her best. A master class in singing and performing. She tore this song up and broke it down. Her beautiful tone is consistent throughout, from the softest of moans to piercing exclamations. Unique to her was that mindblowing resonance that makes you wonder how the RING of her own voice didn't make her back up ?!? Power, beauty, and incredible skill. Soul aria. She had open-hearted masterful communication with this audience, from seduction to full on "how do you like me now" vocal assault. We can also see glimpses of the internal connection to her own gift. You can't be this great and not know it. But not everyone shared it and lived it like this. The sax player ain't bad either.

Like I said, I think the only way you can really compare singers is to take their catalogue into account. If they sang each others music would they have had the same hits or would they just be some Streisand or Summer or Houston song that's nice but no hit.

Whitney probably could have done some great stuff with some Streisand songs but I'm not hearing Streisand doing any of Whitney's songs much justice. But Celine COULD sing Streisand. They are more similar types of singers. Whitney might have been able to do some Summer songs but I don't think they would have been hits. Summer could have sung some Whitney songs and she might have gotten a hit or two out of them but they would be very different sounding tracks. Whitney versions would still stand on their own and be popular.

Unless they are in some way vocally similar you can't compare them like you can compare sopranos that sing the same parts in operas. That you can compare, you are talking about similar vocals types and material. With these popular singers you are talking about really distinctive voices that stand out and are immediately recognizable and in no way interchangeable.

She's not a mainstream pop star like all the other divas, but I'm a bit bewildered that Tori Amos's voice isn't better appreciated. In addition to producing, composing and writing her own music and lyrics, she averages over 200 days a year of live tour dates and sings without autotune, without backup dancers. Just an incredible voice (which she admittedly does weird things with sometimes).

R76 posted a link to one of my favorite live performances ever. She was a mess but still delivered a great vocal.

Hey r86 why don't you start a Tori Amos thread?

R88 I don't think I am allowed and also because I would bet most people would say nasty things about her because she's not a manufacured pop star like the gays like.

they die young...

[quote]But Celine COULD sing Streisand.

Yes, dumb as a rock Celine but she had an enormous voice and also to gift of connecting to an audience.

Streisand sings as if audiences come to see her

Whitney sings as if she came to sing for the audience

Duh. The ONLY one that will last is "Greatest Love of All" because of the message.

I am feeling R91. At 39, I'm hardly young but I am too young to "get" Streisand. Her voice is nice. And that is all. I don't feel anything from her, and I get the feeling she really is impressed with the sound of her voice and feels like she deserves the applause, rather than actually appreciating being appreciated.

When Barbra holds back and doesn't bray at full blast (and when she is underproduced), nobody can touch her. As here. What a voice. My favorite Streisand performance of all time.

This is a hard one. I went with Dance, because it's, personally, my favorite song, but it'd be hard to argue most of the other choices. My favorite vocal is probably All the Man I Need, but then, as has been noted regularly upthread, this lady was the quintessential pop vocalist.

As Whitney famously said, "There will never be another Aretha, there will never be another Barbra and there won't be another me." Great artists are seldom humble - Whitney knew who deserved to be mentioned in the same sentence as her. Streisand was uncharacteristic in her praise of Houston too. You can't deny the world is round.

[quote]Whitney, who still is nothing more than a screamer

Patti LaBelle is a screamer, Whitney can belt which is what every reputable singer should be able to do.

She masterfully made a personal declaration of Greatest Love Of All

Whitney Houston was truly gifted. Music is subjective, but I'm shocked anyone would argue that she didn't have a real gift, an extraordinary vocal and performing talent.

Don't like Barbra, Celine or Whitney; Barbra doesn't scream like the other two, but she is overly dramatic. I like Sarah Brightman, some Judy, some Liza, some Patsy Kline. A lot of what you think is belting is electronic enhancement. Whitney was a horrible screechy singer. Everyone I know hated her. We always turned her off if she came on the radio. Nasty unpleasant woman too who once said to a handicapped fan, I don't do geeks. Such a bitch. Additionally, with all her $$$ and easy life, why did she turn to drugs? Loser. Many would have loved to have her advantages, just another diva lacking any talent.

I see a Mensa poster has graced DL with a pearl of wisdom at R99.

Going to add this performance of "One Song". Her live performances were so much better than the records, even her last album.

No idea what R99 is going on about, but sure. Plenty of people I know have done drugs, including myself years ago (26 years old now). I don't know why they did drugs and I don't care, but I did drugs because I was curious and then I liked them. I stopped doing drugs because I felt I was done. I wish people didn't treat drug use with such bewilderment. People do drugs because they want to; they keep doing drugs because they want to. And they stop doing drugs because they want to. What that has to do with her singing, though...

this thread makes me so sad. she was such a great singer....jesus. what a mess of a life. is this the price the great ones pay?

here.....i will give you the most incredible....... whatevers .......but........ RIP Nippy.

Whitney's haters are jealous white sissies, mostly.

i wish she had been strong enough to live what was in her heart and get away from all the leeches and assholes that lived off of her and fucked with her head.

[quote] She was more spectacular than people knew then.

Oh no--we knew. Her talent was very much appreciated at the time.

Yeah, you must have been sleeping in the 80s or else not even a fetus because Whitney Houston was a huge, huge star by the end of the mid eighties. Like, the biggest news around, and that continued until the late 90s.

The Star Spangled Banner

The 1991 single peaked at #20 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The 2001 re-release peaked at #6, making Whitney the first artist to take the national anthem to the Top 10.

I agree R104, her shitty Jesus and church obsessed family and their greed killed her. Cissy is pure evil.

She was just too good LIVE with those insane ad libs and untouchable talent - elevating even her pop princess songs into vocal tour de forces.

What a beautiful songbird she was!

Like me. Right down to the exclamation point!

He, I Believe

Rodger's and Hammerstein's 'There is Music in You'.

I agree with r51. She nailed "I'm Every Woman". And speaking of screamers, Chaka Khan screamed her way through that song...

She KILLED "I'm Every Woman"...and was big with that baby in her belly too, and still, no one could touch her.

Cissy is a nasty old cunt who deserves whatever misery she is feeling right now.

Why Does it Hurt So Bad gets my vote.

Thanks r113. That is a forgotten, spectacular performance. Rosie O was really pissed off at Whitney because she was previously a last minute no-show for a scheduled appearance. After that performance all was forgiven.

This is not so much a favorite song as one hell a performance. At the top of her game and her fame, displaying pure confidence in her vocal stardom and personal charisma. No wonder. Whitney's talent was overwhelming and occasionally she just showed up and showed off. DIVA. Still with that warmth in her eyes....I loved her and I don't even like this kind of thing.

I'm your baby tonight

Did she have classical or any other formal training as Mariah did, or was she purely a natural talent with the benefit of coming from a family of professional singers?

Why aren't there live albums and box sets that collect these previously unreleased gems? Is the family still squabbling which is holding up new releases?

R121 I'm sure her cunt mother will have to die first before we get to hear the girl's full repertoire

She was an amazing live performer, really could tell a story, slowly building up the personal meaning and the song's essence.

Cissy never had that gift, neither did Aretha or Chaka.

Run To You

Count on Me

Whitney & Cissy Houston - I Know Him So Well. They transformed this song. The Elaine Paige version is rather bland.

My favorite Whitney dance song: "Love Will Save the Day".

Produced by John "Jellybean" Benitez (producer of Madonna's "Holiday").

Mariah and Whitney recording When You Believe....Ms. Carey is a little shaky but Whitney looks happy and sounds great.

Clive Davis BEGGED Barbra Streisand to duet with Whitney on "I Know Him So Well" but she said "Hell to the No!"

Another from the same album r127. There's a note in there that just gets me.

Barbra Streisand never sang life with other really singers because those other singers would have blown her off the stage.

Glad she didn't r129. Insecure Barbra would've have ruined it with her ego and who sings what part. She didn't want a repeat of the Enough is Enough with Donna Summer where she got overshadowed and refused to perform it live with her.

I've watched this so many times since she died.

One of my favorites. RIP Whitney.

Celine Dion also wanted to sing with Steisand and she refused. Dion is dumb as a rock but she has an extraordinary voice, even in her peak Streisand could never do vocally what Dion could. Donna Summer was a very powerful vocalist, she made fun of Barbra occasionally when other singers sang Enough is Enough on stage with her.

R134. Dion persisted and they finally recorded a song 'Tell Him' for a Streisand rom com when Babs needed younger star power to get on the charts.

r134

Another underrated gem After We Make Love. Beautiful.

Whitney gets political with this pro-life song.

R135 it was Streisand who wanted to record with Celine, she approached her after Celine had to sing Babs dumb song at the AA awards while Streisand hid in the toilet. Barbra famously backed out of singing Tell Him LIVE with Dion too. Last minute Grammy night Babs got the flu...yeah she caught the reality flu that Celine could sing her off the stage AND had a more beautiful voice than she. She cancelled and Dion had to sing MHWGO, again.

Her fave genre remained gospel music. Came naturally to her.

They never sang live together, even in the video you do not hear them sing together, R136.

Great version of Christmas classic Do You Hear What I Hear

Who would imagine a King. Understated perfection.

This tender and emotive song is something quite different for Whitney. She caresses and whispers, let's a lot of air in her vocals but keeps the richness of her tone. Such poise and finesse and deep emotional exploration. Not everyone will like it, but it's very beautiful singing. Her sense of ornamentation was truly divine. That glissando (D5) "RAGING" at 4:04 is damn on point. From 4:22 on it's a cry to the angels. Such a vibrant, colorful, rich head voice. Hers was as perfect as it gets for a pop singer.

^^^^Barbra wasn't asked to sing live. She could have recorded her vocal in the safety of a recording studio. They could have made magic. Whitney was always respectful and never tried to outsing duet partners.

Barbra also recorded "I Know Him So Well" but her version includes a male singer on counter-vocals

Whitney didn't need Barbra to make magic. I don't like the Whitney/Mariah collaboration much but their harmonies are lovely and Whitney sounds beautiful on the recording. Same with Barbra and Celine. (Love you Celine) But I love the Whitney and Enrique squeaky Iglesias duet because it contains one of Whitney's last great vocals. She would never lose the ability to sing and move people but she lost much of her range, clarity and control in the last decade of life.

She's a bit frail but gorgeous. The latin beat and drug residue brought out the sexy in Ms. Houston. Her voice was stellar again right around 1999 - 2000.

Celine Dion doing The Greatest Love of All as a tribute to Whitney Houston.

It's interesting to see that she sings it exactly like Whitney and that the song becomes flat. There is a difference between being a good singer and being a good singer for an audience.

I cried when I saw this performance from Houston. I knew then her voice could never come all the way back. When rasp and emphysema set in, no rehab can cure that. She would regain a lot of resonance and her head voice could always hit some gorgeous perfect notes but her registers became very disconnected and she had to sing in short and shouty phrases. Voices disappear in pieces sometimes. This song would have been a huge Whitney hit 10 years earlier but she could not sing it live when the " Just Whitney " album was released. She had that hole in her sound by then, a hole in her nose, her lungs going spongy - the beginning of emphysema and the resonators in her head dried out by constant crack smoking. Bad as cocaine is for your health, most of our1980s favorite singers had a long run with it and mostly kept their voices and composure. It was the crack and cigarette smoke that destroyed Houston's voice and vocal production. She went all the way there with that lil street rebel lifestyle and stuff we don't want to know. Her shitty greedy hypocritical family and Clive Davis destroyed her only chances for happiness long before then and their greed and blind eyes to her brothers supplying her set her up for what she did next. Make no mistake, Houston the drug addict did what she wanted. She paid people to stay and she paid them to stay away too. But that lil street bitch Bobby Brown sending Whitney fucking Houston down Clifton Avenue to score on street corners from her limousine hindered any effort she made towards lasting recovery. He sold her out in Atlanta too and she became someone permanently different. They cleaned her up and put her on the road and she gave all she had left for a comeback. It was successful and very sad. People loved Whitney Houston and they rooted for her. This was not Judy Garland gay pity. She had hundreds of millions of fans around the world. Whitney might not show up but she never cheated an audience of what she had to give. She didn't make as much effort as she could. but she prayed. She prayed all the damn time. SMH.

She would sing better later than this but she had fallen far and had another 8 years to live...."I look to You" is a beautiful song, movingly performed - but it is totally autotuned. Whitney's last album needed a lot of production help. It still sold 3 million copies in 2009, unheard of. She had some good days clean but she knew her voice was never coming back and her mental poise and beauty were affected too. Everyone says this only increased her returns to drugs. She knew what she had lost and what was expected of her....drugs feel good and she was barely shielded from being a joke. She fell and hit her head. Mercifully. Unanswered prayers.

The performance at r148 was tragic. It was only included i the live broadcast of "Divas Duets." All subsequent airings of that show omitted Houston's solo performance. In the same show she came out later and killed Stevie Wonder's "I Was Made To Love Him".

Celine's voice has a brittle, unnerving quality to me. Love Whitney's "I'm Every Woman", but she was all but outsung by CC Wynans when they sang together....

Yes R149, I was being overly emotional and l o n g in my post. It was a tragic performance and I stated that she came back and sang better many times. But that performance is still the moment when I knew that the VOICE of Whitney Houston was never coming back. And it never did.

R150. I don't agree with you about Celine but if you listen to her French recordings you might not find her so unnerving. She is of a different calibration. Celine has a very beautiful voice and different way of projecting, very special gifts. Her voice is pure soprano, nothing mezzo about it, so that alone is not for everyone. The sounds are thinner and sharper and more piercing, but so much is exceptional. She has a real 4 octaves for starters and her runs sound like laser pointers instead of church singing. She creates many overtones in her singing and they are rich and orchestral. Overtones are hard to explain but monks and yodellers produce them. (Bobby McFerrin did an amateur version with them) There are many threads about Celine and lots of negativity about her singing. Most agree she is far superior in her first language. I don't think Americans realize just how successful Celine is in her French recordings or what a huge star she is in the international world. I include this modest song from her, beautifully sung.

I think the audience is just clapping to say to her she should 'get it together dammit!'. There always was an enormous sympathy for Whitney Houston otherwise she would have been booed off the stage.

I would love it if Robyn Crawford wrote her story one day. Maybe after Cissy dies she'll do a book and tell the real saga.

Business insiders knew her family enabled Whitney Houston's drug escapades and were unwilling to intervene. One has to wonder whether they were speculating on her early death so they could inherit her money.

Saving All My Love

She had a gorgeous voice, but a lot of her songs were crap.

No favorites. I loathed her voice.

Lately, I've been listening to "Run To You" but I hated it way back when it was first released. I thought it was worst track on TBG soundtrack.

Run to You is Whitney's Mariah track. Just to prove she could traverse all those E5's and do it over and over again without constant belting or operatic head voice. She gives a breathy vocal and weaves in and out of the melody and doesn't climax where she usually would. She rounds out notes and puts the full cry on the right words and then birds it into the pretty stratosphere. It's a very difficult song to sing and she does beautifully on the recording. Less soulful and bombastic than many of her recordings, it's a pretty showcase. Funny you think it's bad because it is always rated as one of Houston's most wow vocals. The cassio is there but the singing is beautiful, just not quite like her. On the "I Wish You Love" release this Christmas there is a gorgeous LIVE performance of Run To You from the Bodyguard Tour. It's darker and more resonant, soulful and flawed. But it's thrilling because she hits it harder in different places and she has that breaking cry in her runs instead of Mariah light. It's not on Youtube but the live versions of the Bodyguard songs ARE worth buying. Yeah, I'm a fan. My favorite Whitney song is most of them.

Im your baby tonight is her only great song.

I always respected her voice but she never wrote or helped write any of her songs she was just a great voice and live performer.

As were Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan and many of the greatest singers in history. She was an interpreter of song, not a writer. And that's fine.

Amen r162. (Billie Holiday wrote lots of songs though)

The greatest voice and the greatest of them all: Whitney Houston - All The Man That I Need

She simply stuns.

All I can say about Whitney Houston is I'm glad she decided to take a bath that night instead of a shower...

The Clive Davis Grammy Awards Party is going on again this year.

I'm going as Whitney Houston. Only I'm going to pour a bucket of water over my head and go soaking wet.

It's kind of a tribute, y'know?

Whitney Houston - I Have Nothing; Live performance in 1993

She is the greatest ever. She takes the audience's breath away. If you don't watch the entire video, watch from 3:48 on. The audience couldn't stay in their seats. Whitney was so overpowering with her dramatic vocal talent.

Whitney's live performances make me want to cry. She was so mega-talented. Her ability to sing, interpret and deliver a song the way she does comes along once in lifetime. So sad she's gone. No one has taken her place. If her voice had held up, it would have been thrilling and an enormous gift to see her into middle age and her senior year age singing for the ages. Her talent superseded everyone.

In Brunei.

R168. Whitney singing "I Have Nothing" in Brunei in 1996 is sadly a shadow of her former self.

R166. This is the premiere version of Whitney singing "I Have Nothing" in 1993. She was sensational then. However, three years later in 1996 she had sadly and heartbreaking declined. I thought her decline came much later.

I remember when Jermaine Jackson appeared on As The World Turns (!) with a new female singing partner named Whitney Houston. No one had ever head of her, but she did a wonderful duet with JJ that made you take notice: "Nobody Loves Me Like You Do".

Another underrated gem: "All At Once".

Whitney didn't blog her own decline R169. But her fans saw and heard the difference in her voice when The Preacher's Wife came out. Her voice was still phenomenal at that time but it was Whitney 3.0. Her gift was so great, her vocal prowess so unexpected and beautiful that she could be called diminished when she was still the best. She later said that from 1996 on that cocaine (crack) was part of everyday life. Her voice never recovered. She had better and worse days as a performer and it took a long time for her magnificent voice to sundown forever. She probably gave her last great "Whitney Houston" vocals in 2000 to 2002. She lost her sweet perfect mind bending voice before then but she had many other vocal tools and every singer has good and bad days. She lost the perfection of her tone and placement and people noticed. Her resonance and power and pretty pretty head voice made her sound for a long long time after her perfect voice was gone. Just not as good as herself. Folks don't understand the destruction of crack. Most every singer of the time did cocaine, only Whitney and Bobbie were down on the corner buying rock. Smoking her lungs dead.

R171. Whitney was beyond great. I loved your line, "Her gift was so great, her vocal prowess so unexpected and beautiful that she could be called diminished when she was still the best." But such a sad decline. Crack kills. So does the closet.

Yes.

I’d forgotten how many of her songs I love until I read through this thread. Another one I love, though it breaks my heart when I hear it, is “ I Learned From the Best.”

When Whitney had a bonafide cold....this is so pretty and joyful. She has to shorten the phrases like she would later in her life but her real voice comes through....

Whitney was talented beyond description. Words couldn't do her justice. You could just watch in awe.

Miracle was her anti abortion song.

I rather doubt Whitney would do an “anti abortion” song. She struggled with miscarriages, but the woman was the furthest thing From judgmental you could imagine. She picked songs for the way she could interpret them, how they would sound to her. She was very pro woman in every sense of the word. I dont see it.

Don’t Cry For Me. Her voice is unchallenged. Supreme vocalist.

R175, thanks. That was great. Puts the current auto-tuned bots to shame.

My former dentist in NY said she was his patient and he liked her a lot. When I asked him how she could be in such bad shape for so long without help, he said people wanted to get all they could out of her.

You're welcome R180. I loved her. I still do. For her beautiful gorgeous gift and how much she gave of herself. She was magnificent.

Rare B Side- Dancing on a Smooth Edge. Would love to know why it was left off I'm Your Baby Tonight.

[quote] She later said that from 1996 on that cocaine (crack) was part of everyday life.

What was the point of parenthetically inserting "crack"? According Houston she smoked marijuana laced with cocaine. But does it really even matter? We know she used cocaine. She admitted to it.

Because Whitney and Bobby smoked crack. And crack has a very different effect on your lungs and body than doing lines of cocaine. Everyone knows that crack was her drug. She lied about it, that's all. Crack is the rock form of cocaine and that was her drug. You can cook it yourself of buy it as rock. You smoke it in a pipe and you always want more. It destroyed her lungs and her vocal chords. Cocaine doesn't do that. You think Whitney was smoking weed all day laced with some powder? Child you don't know anything of life. Whitney was a crack addict.

Ariana is an example of true vocal agility. The ability to anchor on notes outside of the traditional tonic triad, which produces an unearthly sound.

Did Bobby Brown contribute to Whitney doing drugs, or was she already into drugs before him? This is still so tragic what happened to her every time I hear her sing. She was the greatest of them all.

When you hear who you think might be the greatest singer of all, you've got to know that the bar was set even higher by the even greater Whitney Houston who truly was at the top of the mountain. So sad she's gone.

Honey, she was doing more drugs than me when she guest starred on Gimme A Break!

I love her singing Lionel Richie's "Love Will Find A Way."

R185 please go start an Ariana Thread and quit trying to hijack this one. This is the second time you are being asked nicely.

Whitney and Natalie Cole shared a deep, sisterly friendship. Love this clip, because it showed the playful side of both women.

[quote]Did Bobby Brown contribute to Whitney doing drugs, or was she already into drugs before him?

Whitney had been a recreational cocaine user for years before she met Bobby (like pretty much everybody in the music business in the 80s), but once they got together her drug use escalated into full-blown addiction. That's also when she began freebasing/smoking crack. Bobby was the worst thing that ever happened to her.

The best version I ever heard, hands down. The only time it moved me.

r187, I had completely forgotten about Whitney's appearance on "Gimme a Break". It was Whitney's first credit as an actress. That episode aired in March 1984, one year before Whitney's debut album was released (February 1985).

"That does it! No more Black friends for you girls!"

I'm surprised You Give Good Love didn't make it to the choices in the poll. It dropped in 1985 - I was a DJ on WDOM and member of the Soul Patrol - back when vinyl still had the market. We played this one on request so much it wore a hole through the album. Great song.

[quote]We played this one on request so much it wore a hole through the album.

Directly in the center?

How much blow did Whitney and Nell Carter do on the set of Gimme A Break?

Thank you R193 that was hysterical. She had such great poise. Is there a link to the whole episode?

I wonder what would've happened if Whitney ended up getting the role of Sondra on The Cosby Show instead of releasing an album.

r198 Whitney really auditioned for the Cosby Show?

"Crack Is Wack"

I love this interview with Whitney at the My Love is Your Love album release time. She was in good shape in 1999-2000 and performed some of her last AMAZING Whitney Houston vocals. Not that she couldn't still sing after that - she lived for another 12 years and had some nice moments. She had a long fall, her body stayed resilient for years but her voice was gone by 2004 and her mind was affected in the last years too. Her decline was heartbreaking, the end inevitable.

How Will I Know

Out of those I'd go with 'How Will I Know' but my most listened to Whitney track is 'Love Is A Contact Sport' followed by 'Step By Step' classics.

Two very gifted performers that truly struggled with their demons.

You Give Good Love.

Whitney was another one that was born with an incredible voice that was tormented. She not only could sing but she was beautiful too.

I Wanna Dance is the worst....shocked it's in the lead.