Whitney Houston

As the daughter of renowned gospel and soul singer Cissy Houston, and the cousin of Dionne Warwick, Whitney Houston was better connected than most young vocalists when she embarked on a recording career in the mid-'80s. But neither genes nor industry contacts can account for the level of superstardom to which Houston quickly ascended. Blessed with a sublimely creamy, agile voice-and picture-perfect looks to boot-the singer delivered the sort of buoyant dance tunes and smooth, hummable ballads that are equally at home on the pop, R&B, and Adult Contemporary charts. For years critics carped that her supple singing would be better served by more soulful, less commercially ingratiating material; when she finally did emerge with a more urban sound, the media homed in on her increasingly irresponsible personal behavior. But where America’s record-buying public was concerned, Houston became a star of the highest order, one whose appeal crossed races, cultures, and generations.

As a child, Houston sang in her family’s church choir. At 15 she began performing in her mother’s nightclub act. While attending a Catholic high school, the lithe beauty signed with a modeling agency and posed for magazines including Glamour and Vogue. After graduating, she continued to model and sing, backing up Lou Rawls and Chaka Khan, then at 19 was spotted by Arista president Clive Davis - who had previously steered the careers of Warwick and Houston family friend Aretha Franklin - while giving a showcase in Manhattan. Davis signed Houston, and started choosing songs for her debut album, which featured duets with established stars Teddy Pendergrass (her first hit, “Hold Me”) and Jermaine Jackson, and cost Arista an extraordinarily hefty sum of $250,000.

Released in 1985, Whitney Houston proved a worthwhile investment, shooting to #1 and generating the smash singles “You Give Good Love” (#3 pop, #1 R&B, 1985), “Saving All My Love for You” (#1 pop, #1 R&B, 1985), “How Will I Know” (#1 pop, #1 R&B, 1985), and “Greatest Love of All” (#1 pop, #3 R&B, 1986). Whitney solidified Houston’s success, reaching #1 and spawning “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)” (#1 pop, #2 R&B, 1987), “Didn’t We Almost Have It All” (#1 pop, #2 R&B, 1987), “So Emotional” (#1 pop, #5 R&B, 1987), “Where Do Broken Hearts Go” (#1 pop, #2 R&B, 1988), and “Love Will Save the Day” (#9 pop, #5 R&B, 1988). Also in 1988, Houston recorded “One Moment in Time,” NBC-TV’s theme song for the Summer Olympics (#5 pop). In 1989 she teamed up with Aretha Franklin on the #5 R&B hit “It Isn’t, It Wasn’t, It Ain’t Never Gonna Be.”

In 1990 I’m Your Baby Tonight’s title track topped the pop and R&B charts, as did “All the Man That I Need.” There were more hits in 1991 - “Miracle” (#9 pop, #2 R&B), “My Name Is Not Susan” (#20 pop, #8 R&B), and “I Belong to You” (#10 R&B) - but, peaking at #3, Baby proved disappointing after its predecessors. Houston bounced back in a big way, though, with the 1992 film The Bodyguard, in which she made her acting debut (as a singing star, opposite Kevin Costner), to mixed reviews and huge box office success. The movie’s soundtrack - with six tracks sung by Houston - proved even more successful, hitting #1 and producing a monster single, Houston’s cover of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” (1992), which remained at the top of the chart for an unprecedented 14 weeks, as well as a cover of Chaka Khan’s 1978 hit “I’m Every Woman” (#4 pop, #5 R&B, 1993) and “I Have Nothing” (#4 pop, #4 R&B, 1993). In 1992 Houston married singer Bobby Brown [see entry]; their first child, Bobbi Kristina, was born the next year.

Houston’s next career move was to attempt to duplicate the success of the movie/soundtrack combination of The Bodyguard with 1995’s black-female friendship film Waiting to Exhale, in which the singer costarred alongside Angela Bassett. The movie was popular with audiences, and resulted in a few more hit singles for Houston, most notably “Exhale (Shoop Shoop)” (#1 pop and R&B) and a duet with CeCe Winans, “Count on Me” (#8 pop, #7 R&B, 1996). In 1996 Houston starred with Denzel Washington and Courtney B. Vance in The Preacher’s Wife, a box-office disappointment whose soundtrack nevertheless gave her another charting ballad, “I Believe in You and Me” (#4 pop, #4 R&B). She tried the small screen in 1997, producing and playing the Fairy Godmother to Brandy’s Cinderella in a Wonderful World of Disney remake of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. In 1998 Houston released her first studio album since 1990, the uncharacteristic My Love Is Your Love (#13 pop, #7 R&B). Aside from a handful of ballads, including her Oscar-winning duet with fellow diva Mariah Carey, “When You Believe” (#15 pop, #33 R&B, 1998–99), from The Prince of Egypt, and the Diane Warren–penned torch song “I Learned From the Best” (#13 R&B, 1999), the album showcased a new, savvy street credibility that had previously come through only in Houston’s later interviews and her private life with Brown. Hip-hop personalities and producers such as Wyclef Jean, Lauryn Hill, Rodney Jerkins, Missy Elliott, and Faith Evans collaborated with the vocalist on various tracks. The public still loved the new Whitney, giving her hits with the sultry “Heartbreak Hotel” (#2 pop, #1 R&B), the kick-him-out anthem “It’s Not Right But It’s Okay” (#4 pop, #7 R&B, 1999), and the reggae-inflected title track (#4 pop, #2 R&B, 1999).

While Houston was back in the spotlight, reports of her already notorious prima donna behavior became more prevalent in 1999 and 2000: She was often hours late for interviews, photo shoots, and rehearsals; canceled concerts and talk-show appearances; and in what would be the start of a string of tabloid stories questioning her state of mind, dodged arrest for marijuana possession at a Hawaii airport in January 2000 (charges were later dismissed). In the months that followed that incident, Houston was a surprising no-show at her mentor Clive Davis’ induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and was allegedly booted out of Academy Awards rehearsals for an all-star tribute to Burt Bacharach. Rumors about her tumultuous marriage to Brown resurfaced, particularly when he was briefly imprisoned in mid-2000 for a parole violation. Yet Houston attempted to have the last laugh with a powerful performance at an Arista Records anniversary party that also served as a tribute to Davis, plus the release of a two-disc greatest-hits collection that equally highlighted her ballads and dance-club remixes and featured four new songs, three of which were duets with Deborah Cox, Enrique Iglesias, and George Michael.

from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001)