Whitney Houston : MusicNotes by Ed Mullen

Written by Ed Mullen (Feb14, 2011) www.DJMrEdHQ.com
– Whitney Houston MusicNotes –

Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012, age 48)
Born in Newark, New Jersey. Third of three children.
Attended the New Hope Baptist Church in East Orange, New Jersey.

1977: Whitney Houston, age 14, sang back-up on Michael Zager Band’s single “Life’s a Party”. The Michael Zager Band’s big hit was “Let’s All Chant”, a 1978 disco classic. Zager was a profific producer.

Magazine model: 1981, November issue. Cover of Seventeen magazine was an 18-year old Whitney Houston. One of the first African-American models to appear on a major magazine’s cover.

Family: Cissy Houston and Luther Vandross sing on J.Geils
1977 album “ Monkey Island” featuring the song, “Surrender”.
Note: Versitile R&B session singer Luther Vandross sings back-up on
J.Geils’ “Flamethrower”, David Bowie’s “Young American”,
Change “The Glow Of Love”, Bionic Boogie’s “Hot Butterfly”

Family: Cissy Houston toured with Elvis Presley
as a member of the Sweet Inspirations.

Family: Cissy Houston, Whitney’s mother. “Think It Over” 1978.
Disco classic. Great non-stop beat, nimble string section.
Soulful lyrics delivered by her powerful voice.
Video title:
Cissy Houston – “Think It Over” 1978 .
Note: Groovy disco dancing and fashions.
Note: Roller-skating disco couple at :28

Family: Whitney’s self-proclaimed “god-mother” is family friend,
Aretha Franklin.
Aretha moved to Arista records for her comeback albums:
1982 :Jump To It, 1983: Get It Right, 1985 :Freeway of Love.
Her first chart hits since 1974. Collaborating with Luther Vandross,
Marcus Miller (Luther’s producer/bassist), Cissy Houston.

Family: Whitney’s teenage nickname was “ Nippy”

Family: Cousin to Dionne Warwick, her career rebounded since signing with Arista ( Clive Davis, Arista Records label head)

TV: The Merv Griffen Show, 1983 June 23.
Clive Davis introduces Houston in her first TV performance. (More than a year before 1st album is released in 1985!) Davis boasts that “for the next generation, here was a singer who combined the soul and guts of Aretha Franklin with both the sultry elegance of lyrical phrasing and the beauty of Lena Horne.” Her selections were “ Home” from “The Wiz”, “Since You’ve Been Gone”, “Aint No Way” and “You Send Me” with her mother, Cissy.

Billboard charts: Seven #1 Hit Records In A Row!
Whitney is the only artist to chart seven consecutive #1 Billboard Hot 100 hits.
They are
“Saving All My Love For You,” “
How Will I Know,” “
Greatest Love Of All,”
“I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me),”
“Didn’t We Almost Have It All,”
“So Emotional,” and
“Where Do Broken Hearts Go”

Whitney Houston has seven, but should have 8 consecutive Number One records because,the streak begins with her second single ever released, but her first single, ” You Give Good Love” hit #3 (Pop), stayed 21 weeks on the (Pop) Billboard chart, while recently topping the Billboard R+B charts.

TV: 1985. Whitney performs “ You Give Good Love” on
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on April 5th, in her 1985 nationally-televised debut album release.

WHITNEY
(1985 debut) 25 million sold. In the top 30 of the best-selling cd/albums worldwide. The album cover basically had three columns, left and right were a light orange with the middle column a picture of the beautiful singer. (the color made it easy for a DJ to find, while reaching into a record crate of albums)

Billboard: Top 50 R&B / Hip Hop Artists (1985-2010) Whitney Houston #3. Career achievements include five #1 albums and eight #1 singles on the Billboard R&B chart.

So many accolades, so much chart success and classic songs but only 7 solo albums released in her career (and one of them was a holiday album. First album released in 1985.
………………………………………………………………………
(DVD) THE 1987 SOUL TRAIN AWARDS with “That’s what Friends Are For”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xNKW6Vk5Xg
Video title:
Whitney Houston, Luther Vandross, Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder
“That’s What Friends Are For “
………………………………………………………………………..
(DVD) THE 1987 SOUL TRAIN AWARDS (first year)
Luther and Dionne, hosts.
Dionne Warwick introducing Whitney.
YouTube: Whitney Houston ” You Give Good Love”
………………………………………………………………………..

Rolling Stone: 500 Greatest Albums of All-Time:
Whitney Houston (debut) #253

Rolling Stone: Best Album of the 1986:
Whitney Houston (debut)

1986 Grammy Controversy. Whitney should have been nominated for “Best New Artist” on her debut album, but her duets with veteran singers like Teddy Pendergrass and Jermaine Jackson disqualified her. Even the powerful Clive Davis, Arista Records boss, complained, but it did not sway the committee from their decision. The 1986 Best New Artist Award went to Sade.

TV: 1986. Sacre Blu! The popular French talk show host, (admitted he was drunk) Serve Gainsbourg embarrasses himself by making an “indecent proposal” to Houston, on the air, after she performed “Saving All My Love For You”.

Award: 1986. At her first Grammy Award ceremony in 1986 (Feb 25), Whitney received three nominations. Presenting her first Grammy win was Dionne Warwick and Julian Lennon. (Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female)

Family: After meeting Bobby Brown (New Edition) at the 1989 Soul Train Music Awards, they dated for three years and marrying in July 18, 1992. They have one daughter Bobbi Kristina Houston Brown, born on March 4, 1993. After a year of separation, they divorced in 2007.

Doctor Houston! : Whitney recieves a Honorary Docorate in Humanities
from Louisiana’s Grambling State University in 1988.

Family: In 1996, Cissy received a Grammy for Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album “Face To Face”. Look for her version of “How Sweet It Is”. In 1998, she won that award again “He Leadth Me”.

“I Will Always Love You” written by Dolly Parton. Released on her “Jolene” album in 1974. The song reaches “Number One” on the Billboard Hot Country Charts. With Whitney’s version, Dolly Parton becomes the first artist to earn a ‘Number One’ record twice, with the same song …. as a singer and then the composer.

“I Will Always Love You” by Whitney became the hit single that remained Billboard’s Number One for the longest duration, 14 weeks.

Billboards Greatest Songs of All-Time: # 68 .“I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston

“The Bodyguard” (1992) soundtrack has sold over 44 million copies worldwide. The biggest selling soundtrack in history.

Dolly Parton – I will always love you
Dolly’s version appears in the movie, “The Best Little Whore House in Texas (1982) starring Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton. Its Broadway run was from 1978-79.

Grammy Awards 1994: Whitney Houston opens the
1994 Grammy Awards with a stunning version of “ I Will Always Love You”

1991, Super Bowl 25, Whitney Houston sings the National Anthem
2009, Super Bowl 43, Jennifer Hudson sings the National Anthem

“The Bodyguard” (1992) soundtrack. 44 million sold. It is the 4th of best selling cd/albums worldwide.

David Foster: Many albums and singles by mega-producer David Foster (Celine Dion, Andrea Bocelli, Chicago, Streisand, Michael Buble… etc.)
Some Whitney Houston / David Foster projects:
1992 The Bodyguard sntrk,
1996 The Preacher’s Wife,
1998 My Love Is You Love,
2009 I Look To You.

Awards 1993: Whitney set a record as a 11-time Billboard Music Award winner in 1993 .
30 career Billboard Music Awards

Awards: 22 American Music Awards. Tops in career American Music Awards, female, solo.
In 1994, tied Michael Jackson for most AMA’s in one year, eight.

Awards 1994: World Music Awards, Whitney becomes a 5-time winner,
the most WMA’s in one year (1994).

1995 “Exhale (Shoop Shoop)” debuted at Number One
(third time in history a song debuted on top).
After just one week at Number One that song remained at
Number Two for 11 weeks, which is the longest duration
at Number Two in history.

Awards 2001: Whitney is honored with the inaugual BET Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001.

1996. Houston records the Four Tops classic, “ I Believe In You And Me”
(“The Preacher’s Wife” soundtrack) Grammy-nominated.

Awards: 1996. The Guinness Book Of World Records
lists Whitney as music’s “most awarded female artist of all time”
with an amazing tally of 411 awards (as of 2006).
“A tally that is certainly topped by her two Emmy Awards, six Grammy Awards, 16 Billboard Music Awards, and 23 American Music Awards, as well as MTV VMAs in the U.S. and Europe, NAACP Image Awards, BET Awards, “Soul Train” Music Awards, and so on. She received the Nickelodeon “Kids Choice” award (she was inducted into the “Kids Choice” Hall Of Fame in 1996), the Dove (Gospel Music Association) Award, and Blockbuster Entertainment Award. Whitney was inducted into the BET (Black Entertainment Television) Walk Of Fame in 1996; and received “Soul Train”‘s prestigious Quincy Jones Career Achievement Award in 1998.” (from www.whitneyhouston.com)

DJ: Disc Jockeys around the world enjoyed her remixes of her hits. Some of mine are “ So Emotional”, “It’s Not Right, But It’s OK” and “I’m You’re Baby Tonight”. .. www.DJMrEdHQ.com

1997. School named for Houston. June 12, 1997.
Whitney Houston and Clive Davis attend the ceremony re-naming the
Franklin School in East Orange New Jersey which is now
the Whitney Houston Academy Of Creative and Performing Arts.

1999. VH-1 Divas Live ’99 featuring Headliners:
Whitney Houston, Tina Turner, Cher, Brandy & Faith Hill.
Houston sings 5 songs including “ I’m Every Woman” with Chaka Khan.

Movies featuring…. Whitney Houston, the actress.
1992 – The Bodyguard
1995 – Waiting To Exhale
1996 – The Preacher’s Wife
1997 – Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella.
2012 – Sparkle (?) -soon to be released-

Note: originally “The Bodyguard” was pitched to Diana Ross and Steve McQueen in 1976.

2002, Interview with Diane Sawyer. (“crack is wack”)

Awards 2003: In 2003, VH-1’s produces a list of
The 50 Greatest Women of the Video Era.
Their rankings were:
Madonna #1, Janet Jackson #2 and Whitney Houston #3.

2004, “Being Bobby Brown” reality show. One season only. [ OMG !]

In 2007, USA Today ranked the 25 Most Memorable Music Moments list and Whitney Houston was #11.
Among the list was #1 Napster, #2 Live Aid, #3 Michael Jackson, #9 iPods and iTunes and #13 the creation of the CD .

2008 Billboard: Top 100 Artists of All-Time (1958-2008)
Whitney Houston, #9.

2009, Interview with Oprah Winphrey .

Awards: Whitney Houston is the only artist with AT LEAST ONE:
Grammy, American Music Award, Emmy, Mtv Video Music Award, Mtv Movie Award,
People’s Choice Award and a Billboard Music Award.

Awards: On WhitneyHouston.com (section: biography),
there are paragraphs of her charitable endeavors and foundations,
like the Whitney Houston Foundation For Children Inc.

Whitney Houston is 14th best selling artist of all time. All cd/sales worldwide.

2011, February. Whitney Houston was in Roxbury, Massachusetts at the Twelfth Bapist Church. She was attending Bobby Brown’s mother’s funeral (Carole Brown). She, spontaneously, performed “Precious Lord Take My Hand”. (WBZ TV report)

2012. Grammy Awards. LL Cool J, host calls for an opening prayer.
Near midnight, Jennifer Hudson (“Dreamgirls”, 2008 Grammy award winner, 2004 American Idol-seventh place) mesmerizes audiences around the world with her mentor’s hit record, “ I Will Always Love You” Jennifer Hudson (Feb12 2012) Grammy Awards.

2012. The night before the 2012 Grammy Awards broadcast, expected to attend the event, greeted by Clive Davis, enjoying festivities with friends and her 18-year old daughter… Whitney Houston is found dead in her hotel room, age 48.

2012. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie orders all flags in his state to be flown at half-staff on the day of Houston’s funeral in honor of the New Jersey native’s career.

Feb2011 NY Times obituary. Summary.

Ed Mullen sources below.
– www.NYTimes.com, www.whitneyhouston.com , www.whitney-fan.com , wiki-pedia=whitney houston, WBZ-TV news clip, liner notes from her CDs.