"Whitney" (1987)

Her beautiful voice was unbeatable in the world of pop.

Thank you, Patrick Bateman.

3 years later in a rehearsal on SNL

Nippy loved eating snatch

r3 Wow, so beautiful

Though it's one of the best-selling albums of the 1980s, she did get a lot of backlash when the album was released. Many critics found fault with the material - saying she 'played it safe', not taking chances, and delivering nearly a 'carbon copy' of her first album. Many in the Black community nicknamed her 'Whitey' Houston, saying she was delivering to her 'white fans' again, and leaving her black fans aside. (This backlash from the Black community supposedly made her cry in more than one interview, according to sources back then). Houston switched gears on her next album, delivering a more 'urban / R&B ' album.

I played the hell out of this album back then. In addition to the four #1s OP listed Love Will Save The Day was a top 10 hit for many weeks. Love Is A Contact Sport couldn't sound more 80s but it's a really fun track. The one questionable choice was I Know Him So Well. I suppose it was included since the Elaine Paige/Barbara Dickson version was such a huge hit in Europe and the Broadway production of Chess was then-imminent. Whitney sounds great on it but Cissy...does not. They should have left it a B-side or released it separately from the album

"I Know Him So Well" was originally proposed as a duet for Streisand and Olivia Newton-John in the summer of 1985 for Streisand's "The Broadway Album". ONJ accepted, but then the duet was dropped. Streisand ended up recording it as a solo (finally released in 1991), but left it off the album because 'Chess' hadn't opened on B'way yet, and it technically didn't belong on the album (she had a change of heart with 'Back to Broadway' and including two songs from 'Sunset Blvd' even though it hadn't opened anywhere when the album was released).

“So Emotional” is my favorite from that album. I never liked “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.”

I remember I was working at a really popular fine dining restaurant in Chicago that summer (“The Beach” - but in Italian) and going out with all my colleagues for drinks one night and I Wanna Dance With Somebody came on in the club and all of us got up and danced. We were in our early 20s. It was fun.

R3, wow, she sounds fantastic there

I drove a shitty hoopty, but it had a tape deck with auto-reverse… I had the cassingle of I Wanna Dance With Somebody and played it practically non-stop. I’d sing at the top of my lungs, “…with somebody who’s UGLY.”

I had a friend convinced that was the actual lyric.

Glad she finally went ghetto enough for her black detractors. She could have wasted her strengths for a Teena Marie caliber career. “Bobby, yank this impacted turd from my anus!” Then her teeth falling out like a broken string of pearls while performing privately for some sultan. Girl was at last a suitable mess! A role model for her spooky 👻 similarly fated daughter. Way to go.

I always thought R3 song's was such a torch song and should have been one of her biggest hits. Not other songs like sleeping in Grand Central bullshit.

I used to sing to my little dog: "I wanna dance with some doggy. I wanna feel the heat with some doggy. I wanna dance with some doggy, with some doggy who loves me!"

It was one of her biggest hits r15 it spent 2 weeks at #1 in early 1991.

Here’s the Linda Clifford version from a decade before Whitney’s with Luther vandross on backing vocals.

I would say what a tragic fall, but I think inside she must have been falling all along.

[quote] It was one of her biggest hits [R15] it spent 2 weeks at #1 in early 1991.

I would say it's a forgotten hit, often overshadowed by I Will Always Love You, I Wanna Dance With Somebody, How Will I Know and Saving All My Love For You

Nothing can top her debut album, but some good songs on this one. I love her cover of For The Love of You.

Yeah, the cover of For The Love of You is beautifully done. Her detractors, while valid, could’ve listened more closely to what she was actually doing. I mean, it was the ‘80s. Even Aretha was singing cheese like Freeway of Love and I Knew You Were Waiting For Me. Jennifer Holliday was the one who was tearing it up - the detractors took aim at Whitney but they weren’t buying Jen’s records either! They just wanted to trash talk Whitney, a goddess.

I think people sleep on You Give Good Love. What an incredible song, an incredible vocal performance. A debut single that just knocked it out of the park.

I think Whitney topped the 1st album. “Whitney Houston” always sounded kind of cobbled together with remnants from the Teddy Pendergrass album, the Jermaine Jackson duet, and then The Greatest Love of All cover buried on the 2nd side, finally released as the last single, the monumental success of which must’ve shocked Arista with that tacky video they made for it. “Whitney Houston,” for all its success, was a showcase. “Whitney” was an album, a cohesive statement.

For at least 30 years, "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" has been said to be the best-selling single in pop music history, making it the most popular song on Top 40 radio. IIRC, Jackson's "Billie Jean" comes in at a distant second. I'm not sure if any release by Taylor Swift or Beyonce has surpassed Houston at this point, but she had the title since 1987.

It's kind of been forgotten now, but as the above poster said there was a big stink about Whitney not being "urban" enough and playing it safe to cater to a white audience. Whitney was very hurt by the criticism and it only added to her personal problems.

She could take a shit song like ONE MOMENT IN TIME and wring a standing ovation out of it at the Grammys.

And the shot of her from behind in that white dress - she was TIGHT.

R23 Yes, I'm the poster who mentioned that above. I remember reading all the criticism and the media coverage by the time the Grammys were given out eight months later. There was quite a backlash against her.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Al Sharpton one of her biggest critics ? Isn't he the one who coined the name 'Whitey Houston' and made it go viral in the Black community ? I'm pretty positive he was deeply involved.

Yes, Al Sharpton was an asshole to her at that time.

‘Not black enough’: the identity crisis that haunted Whitney Houston

DYKE!

that article from r27 is like the fever dream of a college essay

Do people even write like that anymore?

After the backlash she never really made pop again. It was all R&B which worked to a degree because R&B became more popular than pop but she didn’t really go with it.

“ After the backlash she never really made pop again”

Wrong. I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU is nothing but pop and was recorded and released after the backlash. And it was her biggest song ever. And one of the biggest songs ever in the history of contemporary music.

Crazy to think that in the 20 years after The Bodyguard and until her death she only released only two or three more studio albums, and I believe the last one was cobbled together with what they could use because she was so fucked up.

“ she was so fucked up”

SHE LOOKED TREMENDOUS!

What pisses me off is that all of us could see the deterioration. She was coming apart before our eyes. And nothing or no one seemed capable of stopping her. Her mother was toxic. I also blame Clive Davis who had enough money and enough people that he could have forced her into rehab. Put her in a hospital not for 30 days, but maybe a two year stint. Something.

IMO The Bodyguard was her very best album.

R34, the only person who can save an addict is themselves.

People who blame family or cohorts do not understand the nature of addiction. The addict has to take responsibility for their own behaviour. Only the addict can develop the strength to overcome their addiction.

I was just at the thrift store picking up some new (to me) cds and this is one of the ones I bought. It wasn't in a case, so I hope it's not damaged.

As soon as I'm done with my Carly Simon cd, I'm going to play this one!

Whitney had an amazing voice.

Whitney’s voice was amazing at its peak, ‘85 thru the early ‘90s.

1992 was when it all started to seem like a mess behind the scenes. She had The Bodyguard and massive #1 song of the year… and yet she’d just married Bobby Brown, a coupling that did not make sense to most of us. He was total ghetto-turned-rich, crude and dumb and messy and shallow, and everybody thought wrongly that Whitney was not like that.

Six years later in 1998, new album “My Love Is Your Love” - you could tell she was not doing well. This interview was a rough one…

R36 I completely agree with you. However, I also believe that an addict needs support and they need an environment where they can face their addiction and any other demons and develop the psychological and emotional tools to fight the addiction. IMO Whitney was in free fall and there was no safety net. Of course addicts will resist help at first. They don't want to let go. But when they are placed in an environment where they can physically detox, and then get counseling, support or even medication where necessary, they have a much better chance.

it was about the money. She was surrounded by people who benefited from her money. None of them wanted to see Whitney take a year or two off and get healthy. And yet it was so clear her voice was destroyed, and she could no longer tour or perform and they refused to admit it. And of course to be completely cynical, maybe, they thought that like Elvis and like Michael Jackson, she was worth more dead than alive.

True r41. Not only was she Clive Davis and Arista's cash cow, but she supported her entire leeching family and Bobby Brown's entire leeching family. They were parasites who only cared about the money.

I still remember the interview Oprah did with Cissy after Whitney’s passing and Cissy saying (rather defiantly) that it would have bothered her if Whitney was a lesbian. One of the very few times I’ve seen Oprah truly surprised by an answer. She actually repeated herself and Cissy doubled down. It was a very icy exchange, with Oprah looking at her like “Bitch please, that should have been the least of your issues with her”

Cissys was able to maintain a post Sweet Inspirations solo career largely due to the adoration of gay men. Whitney said this and I’m sure Oprah knew it as well.

Cissy was a monster who hid behind Jesus and her church and judged everyone. A vile woman .

She really was vile.

Whitney should've taken a page from Madonna's book and kept her asshole family at arm's length. One of the smartest things Madonna ever did, they would've driven her insane otherwise.

This was a great album. I remember hearing that the black community gave her a hard time about it - which sucks now when everyone remembers how talented she was and continued to be until addiction took her down. If she had been allowed by her family and her musical pimp, Clive, to be her real self and not a product, she may not have died.

I was a junior in high school when this came out, so I was very self-conscious about liking "cool" music I strutted around school in a Joy Division t-shirt, but as soon as I got home, I was listening to my mother's copy of "Whitney" on repeat.

"And when you talk....I just watch your mouth."

I never admitted to liking her until "My Love is Your Love" came out. A great record.

It was all over for Whitney when she became "ghetto." Musically, it basically happened with "Heartbreak Hotel" and most of what followed it. The same thing kind of happened with Janet Jackson. When she released "That's The Way Love Goes" the shark fins were cutting the water, basically. Whitney largely left pop, dance and adult contemporary music behind, and Janet shed pop music for 90s "urban." Later, both would try to retreat back to the sounds that made them stars to begin with, but it was sort of too late for either to recover.

[quote] This was a great album. I remember hearing that the black community gave her a hard time about it - which sucks now when everyone remembers how talented she was and continued to be until addiction took her down.

The Black "community" loved Whitney Houston. In the late 80s, we were disappointed that she was recording pop pablum while singers like Anita Baker, Miki Howard and Regina Belle were recording music with the soul, jazz and gospel influences of Black heritage music. This was a story the media ran with when it should have focused on Clive Davis picking insipid material and insisting that Whitney and Narada do re-takes of vocal performances that he deemed "too Black."

I remember all the criticism Whitney received for not making music that was "black enough". Donna Summer received the same chatter. An utterly ignorant accusation, as any music made by black people is black music. Nothing like reinforcing stereotypes in the name of shattering stereotypes. It's not the responsibility of an artist to pander to a specific audience (although it happens all the time), It's the responsibility of an audience to support an artist's unique artwork, be it music, theater, sculpture...

Why wuld people fuck with Whitney for her song choices, and they applauded Tina Turner who went hardcore Rock and roll.

Donna Summer was perhaps the only black artist who had a majority white fanbase.

I'd say that any black artists who made it to the heights that Whitney, Tina, Donna, Diana, Dionne did have majority white audiences. Mathematically it just jas to work out that way.

Tina Turner got a pass because her whole vocal and stage energy was always very rock n 'roll/old school blues, and her unusual comeback was so late in life and everybody knew her "escape from Ike's abuse" story. Nobody ever held Tina to some kind of expectation that Tina should stick to making Chaka Khan, Toni Braxton type music.

I guess somehow with Whitney the "she's Black; but she won't make Black music" expectations were quite a thing.

Clive Davis should’ve gone out of his way to have Whitney record a live gospel album, just like Aretha did. He should’ve let Whitney “go to church.” It wouldn’t have been the same commercial appeal as her pop records but it would’ve been a document of her extraordinary talents and silenced her critics. It would’ve been an incredible artistic success.

I saw her on the 2nd leg of the first “Whitney Houston” tour. The 1st album sold so well, Arista had to stall the release of “Whitney” for nearly a year. But she sang some of the new stuff in concert including Didn’t We Almost Have It All and I Wanna Dance With Somebody. She did a couple of old school, faith-based gospel songs, some Donny Hathaway and I Am Changing from Dreamgirls. Plus all the solo stuff from the 1st album - someone may have even duetted with her on the Jermaine Jackson number.

Every song she sang from the 1st album sounded 10x better live. I was never a fan of How Will I Know, it was too juvenile, but to hear her sing it live - like, it had depth and different levels. She was amazing. In those days, every note was solid gold. I don’t want to focus on it but I never would’ve expected her downfall. Nobody would’ve. The closet kills.

That’s very wise. And in Whitney’s case the closest was Cissy.

R55 I think the idea of a Gospel album is brilliant. Aretha had to fight to do hers and fight to record Amazing Grace live in Church, and it was A huge hit, an instant classic and still selling today. Whitney would have had a mega hit out of hers.

Whitney did gospel with Preachers Wife. She has some fantastic numbers on there.

Clive Davis knew that Whitney could be the huge crossover pop star he was looking for, she was young and gorgeous and of course had the voice. He tried to do it with Dionne and Aretha but they were older and much too established in their careers. He also tried it with Phyillis Hyman but she was also older and had mental issues. He looked at the very young Whitney and he knew she could be turned into a superstar.

Everyone thought SHE was the all-american girl. The anti-Madonna.

And she was a crack-smoking, pussy-licking, ghetto hood rat with a filthy mouth and a nasty temper. But for years she had that "All-American Girl" image thanks to Clive Davis's incredible publicity.

One of the first things Clive did after he signed Whitney was make her get a glam makeover. She was pretty dykey before that.

Young and dykey Whitney

By the end of the 80s / early 90s it seemed like quite a few black female singers went for a more 'urban' sound for their albums. Houston's "I'm Your Baby Tonight", Jackson's "Rhythm Nation", Diana Ross' "Workin' Overtime" and Summer's "Mistaken Identity". Houston and Jackson survived the transition, but Ross and Summer didn't. Neither of their albums of New Jack and hip-hop music cracked the Billboard Hot 100 Albums,

The MY LOVE IS YOUR LOVE album was huge with the gays. When the Thunderpuss remix of IT’S NOT RIGHT BUT IT’S OK played at The Dock in Cincinnati, the dance floor filled. No one was too cool for Whitney then.

The late 80s was a renaissance of soul music. The early 80s were spent watering down Black music to make it palatable for pop "crossover." When the "Whitney" album hit in 1987, urban airwaves were dominated by lush, "retro-soul" music made by Anita Baker, Stephanie Mills, Phyllis Hyman, Miki Howard, Regina Belle, Vesta Williams, Teens Marie, Angela Winbush and Meli'sa Morgan. Or the funky, rhythmic dance music of Janet, Jody Watley, Pebbles, et al. The bubbly pop music that Whitney was making was just not in vogue, particularly as she was made to tone down all of her emotive, gospel soulful feeling on the recordings.

I thought "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" was the most boring ballad ever but then I saw her perform it on the AMAs; she gave it so much soul and passion and fire and her voice was just otherworldly. I could only appreciate that song after that performance. The difference between her studio recordings and her live performances was night and day.

She had a great voice and an absolute insatiable taste for crack and abusive men. RIP

And snatch.

You couldn't dance to Whitney's songs. They were for listening or for singing along but not for dancing. R65 don't forget The Pointer Sisters!

I can't TELL you how many times I was at a club and when the DJ put on I Wanna Dance With Somebody, How Will I Know or So Emotional, the dancefloor would clear out and everyone would leave.

r69, funny how everyone leaving perfectly coincides with your presence

[quote]The early 80s were spent watering down Black music to make it palatable for pop "crossover."

So very true. Even The Pointer Sisters (as someone mentioned above) went from Black music in the 70s to singing back-up for Streisand ("Emotion") in the 80s.

And there was one reason for this shift in the early 80s: MTV and VH1. Those were the powerhouse video channels that every home in America were tuned into back in the day, and every music producer wanted their artist on the channels. Yet everyone knows they weren't playing Black artists in the beginning. It took 2 years for them to introduce their first Black male artist (Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean") and their first Black female artist (Donna Summer's "She Works Hard for the Money" ) because they felt these two artists - who each had a huge white audience - were 'safe' to play in 'heavy rotation'. Tina Turner was added in there because she was never considered R&B, she was considered 'Rock n Roll'. There were a few other black artists added in slowly, but the difference was they were NOT in 'heavy rotation' (played once an hour) like Jackson, Turner and Summer were. The first time The Pointer Sisters released "I'm So Excited" in early 1982, it got zero play on the two video channels. When they included it on their more pop-friendly album a couple of years later, it became a hit on MTV and VH1.

This certainly wasn't lost on Clive Davis, who was 'creating' Houston's music career at the time, and pushed her into white pop music to get exposure on MTV and VH1. But he has said in dozens of interviews (as did Houston herself), there was still push-back from MTV and VH1, not wanting to play Black artists in heavy rotation - light rotation (once every few hours) was more than enough.

VH1 debuted Jan. 1, 1985 & played plenty of black artists, as their format was aimed at a more mature demographic, not a specific rock & roll format like MTV was at its initial launch.

[quote] For at least 30 years, "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" has been said to be the best-selling single in pop music history,

That's not true at all. There are many, many pop songs that have outsold it. It was a popular song though. I hated Whitney and thought Whitney Houston was a much better album and it's not even close. The second album is just a bunch of schlock. Like The Greatest Love of All on steroids for most of the album.

I'm Your Baby Tonight was the lead single off the third album and it sucked. She did have some good material, but she also had schlock. The song choices weren't always great.

R74, yes, her material was much more hit and miss than Madonna's was. And I was actually surprised to learn just how many of hear earlier hits were covers.

Saving All My Love For You was originally recorded by Marilyn McCoo, of all people.

I think Sister Sledge recorded All the Man I Need, before Linda Clifford.

The Greatest Love Of All was originally recorded by George Benson

Marilyn McCoo’s version is basically 70s country music, which is totally fine by me

How many good years in her career did Houston actually have? She started in 1985 and seemed to hit her all-time high in 1992-93. Then she did some movies. But by 2002, people were talking about a new single and I thought, “Where the hell has she been for so long?”

Her real career high was '85-'92. Her '98 album was pretty good, but by then the drugs and crazy behavior had become public knowledge. Things really escalated with the disaster of the Michael Jackson concert appearance just days before 9/11, and then the infamous Diane Sawyer interview was shortly after that.

It was Linda Ronstadt’s version of I Will Always Love You that Kevin Costner and Whitney used as a template for recording her version. If you listen to Linda’s, you can hear it, especially in the chorus.

Yes, Whitney's version sounds more like Linda's than Dolly's.

You missed my joke R70. It was a response to R68's idiotic statement.

I remember the church I went to had a woman who would just sing background songs during Communion (that time when people are standing in line and when the priest is putting things back into the tabernacle so everyone just waits) and in 1983, she sang “The Greatest Love of All” during several services so when Whitney released it as a single about three years later, I could only think of Mass.

The church music director also got a synthesizer in the mid-80s and sometimes he’d play the theme to “Out of Africa” during communion.

[quote] Her real career high was '85-'92.

I might extend this into 1995 or so. The Waiting to Exhale soundtrack was huge too and so was her song Shoop (Exhale).

Cissy telling Oprah she didn't like Robyn and would not have been okay with Whitney being gay.

Oprah: “ would you have been OK if Whitney was gay”

Cissy: “no”

Oprah: *sprays Binaca blast to mask the smell of Gayle’s 🐈‍⬛*

^^^😂 😂😂

Whitney had that FUCK YOU Don't tell ME what to do! attitude with anyone who gave her any suggestion to improve her life. That attitude will certainly bite you in the end.

Whitney had some really bizarre interview with Entertainment Weekly at the time of “Exhale”. The gay thing somehow got brought up and she freaked out and left the room after a mini breakdown.

Horrendous bland pap.

How fucking banal is this?

"Oh I get so emotional baby Every time I think of you"

Around the time of Exhale, more likely Whitney staged a mini breakdown and went to the ladies room for another blow hit.

R73 Hence, I ended my post with: "I'm not sure if any release by Taylor Swift or Beyonce has surpassed Houston at this point, but she had the title since 1987."

R74: I’m assuming you’re American here - if you haven’t heard it, give the Yvonne Turner remix of I’m Your Baby Tonight a listen. It’s the version they released in the UK and it’s 100 times better than the awful US version.

R86: you’re right. Exhale gets overlooked a bit I think as being one of her biggest hits because it only had one week at number one. It spent a few months at number two though behind Mariah and Boyz II Men with their 16 week run with One Sweet Day.

R95, that is so much better. Sounds both fun and refined. The OG track is just a lot of screeching and noise. New Jack Swing wasn't a good fit for Whitney.

R92: please do enlighten us with the much more worthy music and lyrics you listen to.

R96, yes, it's definitely one of her most forgotten number one hits. And, like you said, Mariah really dominated 1995 along with Alanis (starting in fall).

R95: I know right? It was about a decade after it came out that I first heard the US version and I was stunned that was the version they chose to release, and that it managed to get to number one. It really is just screeching and noise as you say.

"Oh I get so emotional baby Every time I think of you"

That's Pop music in general. The Queen of Pop herself had song lyrics such as, "I dress you up with my love. All over your body."

You don't look to commercial Pop music for profound lyrics.

All those New Jack Swing songs from the 90s sound so dated today. "I'm Your Baby Tonight" is one of my least favorite Whitney songs, even though I thought the music video was one of her best.

R101, I agree with you, lyrics of pop songs shouldn';t be judged in the same way as other music. I think Into the Groove and Express Youreself are examples of well-written pop songs but they obviously aren't rivaling anything written by Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell or Paul McCartney.

Her live performances could be stellar. But that live compilation they released shortly after her passing was weak.

It didn't even include her Emmy winning performance of Saving All My Love For You at the Grammy awards! (Though they did include her Grammy performance of One Moment in Time)

And so many gems were just discarded for substandard, mediocre ones. Criminally left off the set:

Why Does It hurt so bad from the MTV Movie Awards

All at once from the AMA's

Didn't we almost have it all from the MTV Awards 87

That's what friends are for with Dionne Warwick from Arista's 15th anniversary

I believe in you and me from Saturday night live

R102, I like New Jack Swing but you're right, most of it is very dated. Even the stuff that is great is dated. I love Don't Be Cruel by Bobby Brown and Johnny Gill's debut but they both sound VERY tied to their era. It's another reason I find Rhythm Nation and Control extremely dated.

I know I'm risking summoning you-know-who to this thread, but I agree that Control and Rhythm Nation sound very dated today.

I hated this album, and I will never forgive MTV for giving I Wanna Dance With Somebody best female video over Running Up That Hill - which they wouldn't even air because Kate didn't lip-sync in it. Once was an incredible piece of dance, and the other was Whitney running around a maze talking into dangling telephones.

Then came the unforgivable and inescapable atrocity that was Eye-ee-eye-ee-eye Will Always Love You. Ugh, the overblown histrionics, but complete lack of emotion. Also, who was really every woman? Chaka Kahn, that's who. The only good thing I can say about it is that it made a ton of money for Dolly Parton, and helped kick off the late career resurgence in respect for Dolly.

Other than that, fuck Whiney Houston. Her music sucked ass, and her voice wasn't that great either - even before she ruined it.

Correction, it was How Will I Know, not I Want to Dance With Somebody, which, honestly, six of one

How Will I Know isn't even a good music video but I do like the song itself. The acapella is better.

The chorus of How Will I know is basically a carbon copy of Aretha's Who's Zoomin Who? Which isn't surprising given that Narada had a hand in both.

The great irony of I Wanna Dance With Somebody was that Whitney couldn’t dance at all.

Ironically Donna Summer also couldn't dance at all. And she was the Queen of Disco!

Tribute to Whitney.

Whitney's pop anthems were great to exercise to.

Many of Whitney's up-tempos from the first two albums would've never worked had they been recorded by someone else. Her voice made "How Will I Know" memorable. (I heard that was initially offered to Janet Jackson, but she rejected it.)

[quote] Why Does It hurt so bad from the MTV Movie Awards

It was released on the Greatest Hits DVD in or around 2000. This performance is truly representative of how she elevated her material when singing live. There are no singers today that can do that. What you hear on record is a patchwork of their very best vocal efforts. Whitney had to be tamed and restrained in the studio, but could unleash in performance.

She was already in the midst of her personal struggle (she is sweating profusely by the end of the song) but tore this vocal from her soul.

I could see how How Will I Know wouldn't fit on a record called Control

Well, ultimately, that was the problem with Whitney’s catalog - great vocal performances, few good songs.

[quote] The chorus of How Will I know is basically a carbon copy of Aretha's Who's Zoomin Who? Which isn't surprising given that Narada had a hand in both.

The first 15-20 seconds of How Will I Know, Who's Zoomin Who and We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off all sound the same, all produced by Narada Michael Walden. It slowly builds then a synth bass sound and it kicks into high gear.

R117...I see your point, but Janet's Control did include "He Doesn't Know I'm Alive", which is really the same song as "How Will I Know?"

While all these new divas were invading the pop music world in the mid-80s (Whtney, Madonna, Cyndi, Janet), Streisand (more or less) said "Screw this ! I'm going back to my roots!" She separated herself by recording 'The Broadway Album', and it was one of the smartest moves in pop music.

R118, considering how big she was, I agree. But when she did great, she did amazingly--Saving All My Love For You, All the Man That I Need, the non-American version of I'm Your Baby Tonight, IWALY (yes, I know it has its detractors on here but it's fantastic, at least until the final minute), I Have Nothing, Step by Step, My Love is Your Love, It's Not Right (Thunderpuss Remix), etc.

R121, also the fact that 1984’s “Emotion” was so poorly received was a factor in that decision. Total flop of an album.

[quote] Well, ultimately, that was the problem with Whitney’s catalog - great vocal performances, few good songs.

Crack is whack. She had a ton of great songs - You Give Good Love, Thinking About You, Someone For Me, How Will I Know, Saving All My Love For You, I Wanna Dance With Somebody, So Emotional, All The Man That I Need, Lover for Life, I Belong To You, Who Do You Love, Dancin' on a Smooth Edge, I Will Always Love You, I Have Nothing, Run To You, If I Told You That

R124, those aren’t even interesting song titles.

Barbra, stop trying to hijack Whitney’s thread.

I Have Nothing was my jam! I still love t hat song. And The Greatest Love of All was our class's high school Graduation song. It had our parents in tears. In fact most of the singles from The Bodyguard were hits.

R124, I love "Dancin' on a Smooth Edge" and cannot understand why Clive relegated it to a b-side. It is one of her most stunningly "pretty" vocals. Even when Narada tried to leaven his frothy pop sound with a Blacker, more soulful edge Clive said "no!"

R125: I know this is a site for pointless bitchery but at least make it funny. Or if you really think songs need ‘interesting’ titles to be good, maybe get some help.

R124 and R128: do you both know Feels So Good? It’s similar to Dancin’ On The Smooth Edge and recorded around the same time (1990) when her vocals were perfect.

R123 It wasn't a Top 10 Hit album like her previous albums ("Guilty". "Memories", "Yentl") as it peaked in the Top 20 at #19. However, it wasn't really a flop - it ended up being certified Platinum (1M albums sold) on December 18, 1984 - just two months after the album was released.

When she was promoting 'TBA', she did acknowledge that she didn't want to do Top 40 pop music any more. She said the tracks on "Emotion" could've been recorded by anyone and she'd rather 'anyone else' do it next time (I always understood her 'anyone' to be the new divas mentioned above). I agree - I think Whitney could've recorded 'Emotion' and had another number one album.

[quote]She said the tracks on "Emotion" could've been recorded by anyone and she'd rather 'anyone else' do it next time

Well fuck right off, Babs. You called ME!

R121 Linda Ronstadt did it first. There might not have been a Broadway Album had Linda's What's New sold over three million copies and revitalized the standards genre.

not sold over three million

Yeah, way to throw Kim Carnes under the bus, Babs.

Y’all better be careful or you’re gonna wake the Babs/“Emotion” super fan and we’ll have to hear about what a classic Left in the Dark is. Again.

You already pokin’ him!

R129, it’s not my fault you’re a humourless cunt, bitch.

I love this song with Santana but the title didn’t age well

I love this song with Santana but the title didn’t age well

Me neither R128. I can't believe it was left off IYBT. It was good enough to be a single, instead of that shitty Miracle.

R130, I hadn't heard Feels So Good before. It's really good. It should've also been included on IYBT.