New Whitney Houston Song Released!

What did they do to her voice on the track? It sounds like a Whitney "soundalike."

I know the vocals were recorded in the early 90s, but it also sounds "like" her early 80s voice.

Ok song but it's easy to understand why this was never released in her lifetime

What an amazing voice she had. This song's a little overproduced but I'm glad to have it.

Apparently it was released in Japan decades ago

will never be a big hit

Screechy. Hard pass. Prefer Winwood and Chaka.

the Winwood version is a classic

I wish Whitney would have done what she did with I WIll Always Love You to other songs.

She did a version of You Light up My Life but it was too late in her career to register

If this song gains traction and becomes a bonafide hit, someone hide the razors around Madame X!

Ew, the vocals are okay, but it sounds spare and unfinished. And kinda irritating.

The Chaka Khan version is perfection, and is still played regularly.

It seems Pat Houston is the Grande Dame of the Whitney legacy now. Probably not a good idea.

Not a fan of this remix - it sounds too generic and unfinished. A better DJ treatment could help...

Are the lyrics

*gurgle* *gurgle*?

She is still dead though, right?

I'm surprised her label never reissued the original version of Higher Love either before or after her death. The studio recording was only available as a bonus track on the Japanese CD release of I'm Your Baby Tonight. Seems like it would have been a natural to include a "new" song on one of her compilations to increase sales. I couldn't find the original studio recording but here's a live version from a 1990 concert.

Songwriter Will Jennings is also responsible for Winwood's "Valerie."

Texas boy.

It’s just a bit unfortunate they’d wait so long to release a new song by her, and it’s “Higher Love” - considering she died of a drug overdose.

Creepy stunt. No thanks.

So it was junk she never wanted to see the light of day, her heirs needed to release because the blew thru all their inheritance.

R12, thank you for posting.

I bet the original recorded version is much better than the current, over-produced one.

The USA Women's Soccer Team played it in the background during the NYC ticker tape parade

r17, the original recorded version is steeped in early 90s production so the sound is very dated. The live version is better with the more prominent gospel chorus and live band so it doesn't sound quite so Casio-programmed.

How is it possible the original 1986 version sounds fresher and more current than either the 1990 vocals and its 2019 production?

R19 Winwood is a musician who plays all of his own instruments; Houston was one hell of a singer. She didn’t write music or do her own arrangements. But the woman could make a song live and breathe better than almost any other singer of the era.

I don’t love what she did, but I don’t hate it. I prefer Winwood, but I’ve always preferred Winwood since Spencer Davis Group. That’s my bias and I respect the opinion of others.

r19, even with the state of music being what it is these days, I think the Steve Winwood/Chaka version of Higher Love could be released in 2019 and still chart. It is such a great soul/pop-rock gem.

I think the Whitney remix could benefit from a touch of that “Winwood” arrangement to give it a fresher sound. Not an exact dupe mind you, it just needs a layer of grittiness to modernize the track.

R21 Oh, god yes. That's perfect.

Even though some may criticize this song, her vocals clearly blow out today's singers. I'm sorry but Ariana Grande sounds like a whiny dog compared to Whitney.

It’s good but would of done better if it had just been marketed as Whitney but a KYGO remix. He billed himself equal to her, please Gurl!

I was always surprised Whitney did a cover of a song that was only about 3 years old at the time she recorded it.

[quote]Winwood is a musician who plays all of his own instruments; Houston was one hell of a singer. She didn’t write music or do her own arrangements. But the woman could make a song live and breathe better than almost any other singer of the era.

Interesting you say that when those who worked with her always stated that she didn't take credit for her arrangements. This is one of the better articles about the artistry of Whitney Houston, a very good read. Race, unfortunately, played into how she was perceived.

[quote]The first challenge to Houston’s legacy arrived in the early nineties, in the form of Mariah Carey, who, from the very beginning of her career, with her constant vocal runs and obsessive flurry of hands, took certain “black” singing habits to extremes. These were habits that Houston—having been shaped by traditional gospel and its conservative nature, and by her cousin Dionne Warwick’s elegantly restrained performance style—largely eschewed. Despite Carey’s caricature of black stylistics and her mixed racial background, the skin-color difference between her and Houston managed to bring out America’s racism. Houston was subject to the singer’s version of the black athlete’s curse: as the daughter of the gospel great Cissy Houston and a cousin of Dionne, Whitney was regarded as all instinct and natural gifts, whereas Mariah, arranger and songwriter, had a brain.

I hear the song a lot on the radio but in a better version than the one originally posted here. They must have remastered it again to make it sound less hollow.

Glad to hear Whitney on top 40 radio again!

It's a top 5 hit in the U.K.

Andy Cohen anointed this the song of the summer. Old queen.

R26, on the back of the Whitney album, it says "Vocal Arrangements by Whitney Houston"

She gets vocal arrangement credit on every album since her second, including The Bodyguard. But the perception that she didn't have a clue and just showed up and sung remained. From that same article:

[quote]This was unfair to Houston. I worked for the choreographer Debbie Allen at the Oscars in 1999, when Houston and Carey sang their middling hit “When You Believe,” from “The Prince of Egypt.” Late into a night of rehearsals on the evening before the broadcast, it was discovered, by Houston, that the arrangement wasn’t working, and the rehearsal ground to a halt. (Houston had missed the first day of rehearsal and had shown up so late the next day that her run-through with Carey was pushed to the end of the session.) With none of the musicians in the hall (including Bill Conti, the longtime conductor of Oscars ceremony) able to riddle out a solution, Houston identified the offending chords for the orchestra and created a new arrangement on the spot. The room watched her in awe.

There are plenty of stories like this.

R26. Thank you. You have made my day. I have honestly been in love with Whitney Houston since the very first time I heard her sing. That she was a musician as well is an important part of her story that must be told.

Clive Davis got all the success for her success. But truth is she would've exploded with anyone else. Clive Spent three decades trying to find another Whitney but it never happened.

It's difficult, R33. We've been looking 8 years trying to find ANYBODY.

*Clive got all the CREDIT for her success.

Music Video

^ Cute vidéo.