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- [00:00]
Chris Melanphy
You're listening ad free on Amazon Music.
- [00:04]
Whitney Houston (song lyrics)
How will I know if he really loves me?
- [00:07]
Chris Melanphy
Welcome to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate magazine about the hits from coast to coast. I'm Chris Melanphy, chart analyst, pop critic and writer of Slate's why Is this Song Number One? Series on today's show. Eight years ago this month, the world lost one of the most exceptional voices ever to top the charts, Whitney Houston. Her death at age 48 one day before the 2012 Grammy Awards stunned the music world and left reverberations that are still felt today. Indeed, discussion and debate about Houston's legacy persists into this new decade. Just last month, it was announced that she will be honored this year as a new inductee into the Rock and Roll hall of Fam. That Rock hall induction has come with its share of controversy, with some critics arguing that Houston is primarily a pop act whose body of work is only adjacent to rock. Of course, not only rock fans have questioned Houston's bona fides over the years. During her lifetime, Whitney's successful crossover to a mainstream audience complicated her relationship to R and B, the African American audience and the black musical tradition that spawned her. But one thing that can't be taken away from Houston is her list of musical accomplishments, particularly her roster of Billboard feats, including some chart records she still holds to this day.
- [02:06]
Whitney Houston (song lyrics)
Where Do Broken Hearts Go? Can they find their way Home?
- [02:13]
Chris Melanphy
Today on Hit Parade, we're going to go in greater depth on those chart feats than any biographical program about Houston has before. And we're going to focus not just on the most staggering achievements, but how Whitney's chart history decodes the essence of her career. Sure, we'll talk about Greatest Love of All and I Want to Dance With Somebody and I Will Always love you. But some of Whitney's most revealing hits are the ones that receive less attention today, such as the moment she openly campaigned to win back the affection of the R and B audience. And that's where your hit Parade marches today, the week ending December 1, 1990, when I'm youm Baby Tonight by Whitney Houston rose to number one on both Billboard's Hot 100 and its Hot R and B Singles chart. And that crossover is just one of the details we will dissect in painting a picture of 2020's newest female rock hall induct. The nominees for best r and b urban contemporary single by a female r. Where Do Broken Hearts Go? Whitney Houston this footage is from the 1989 Soul Train Music Awards, as you can probably hear the audience at this televised program honoring achievement in African American music is actually booing Whitney Houston a nominee that night, Then at the very zenith of her popularity, this footage has become the Zapruder film of Whitney Houston lore. Versions of it feature prominently in a pair of documentaries about Houston that, improbably, both appeared in movie theaters. Just in the last three Can I Be Me by British director Nick Broomfield, and Whitney by Scottish director Kevin MacDonald. Both films have their merits. Watching them both, you get a decent sense of the triumphs, challenges and tragedies Houston faced in her life, even if predictably, each film leans heavily on on the sensational aspects. Why didn't Cissy do more? What was Whitney's drug of choice? What was it that drove them apart? How much do you think you spent? Did John ever try and get rid of Robin? Were they in love? But what neither documentary fully portrays, in my opinion, is exactly how Whitney's catalog of songs and the chart performance of her songs and albums brought her to that Soul Train moment, or how her material helped her persevere beyond that moment. So, Hit Parade listener, while I expect this podcast episode is not the first biographical material you have consumed about Whitney Houston either before or after her passing, I am hoping to bring some different angles to this story, not so much to contradict the record as to complicate it and give it nuance. It goes without saying that we will not delve into the more tabloid worthy details of Houston's life. Not because the stories of her relationships or substance abuse are unworthy of inquiry, but because they are not central to a critical assessment of her career. I want to help reframe the way we think about that. Catchy and hit, packed and slick and soulful and now Rock Hall Enshrined Career Speaking of the Rock Hall, Houston's musical lineage can be traced to some other hall inducted and hall worthy artists. And after all, Whitney was descended from gospel and R and B royalty Don't.
- [06:59]
Whitney Houston (song lyrics)
Make Me over now that you got me at your command, that's Don't make.
- [07:08]
Chris Melanphy
Me Over, the 1962 debut single by Dionne Warwick. When this hit reached the top 40 in early January 1960, Dionne Warwick's aunt Cissy Houston was pregnant with her third and youngest child. Dating back to the 50s, Cissy, who was born Emily Drinkard, before marrying John Houston and changing her first name to Cissy, sang in a gospel troupe called the Drinkard Singers. With her nieces Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick, the Drinkerd Singers were already renowned before the 50s were even over, having recorded what is widely regarded as the first major label gospel album in 1958. By the 60s, the Drinkard singers had evolved into an in demand R and B vocal troupe. In fact, the week in August 1963 that Cissy Houston gave birth to that child, Whitney Elizabeth. A former vocalist from the Drinkerd Singers, Doris Troi, was In the top 10 of both the pop and R B charts with the classic hit Just One Look. In short, the week Whitney Elizabeth Houston was born to John and Cissy Houston, members of the Drinkerd Singers were already helping to define the sound of 60s rhythm and blues. Whitney Houston would grow up during a fertile time for pop and R and B crossover on the charts. Her role models were a string of assertive black female performers for whom crossover took many forms. Whitney's cousin Dionne Warwick represented one crossover model, scoring a string of refined R and B and pop hits written by white Brill Building songwriters Burt Bacharach and.
- [09:27]
Whitney Houston (song lyrics)
Hal David welcome back.
- [09:33]
Chris Melanphy
On the Motown label the Supremes. The label's flagship group scored a staggering 27 top 40 pop hits in the 60s by fusing sharp pop melodies with an irresistible R and B derived backbeat. As Diana Ross was pushed forward as the Supreme's star performer, she proffered a poised but soulful take on love and heartbreak. Or Gladys Knight, who was signed with her group the Pips to Motown in the late 60s. They fused that polished Motortown sound with a grittier, more Southern flavored R B. And then of course there was the Memphis born daughter of a Detroit preacher. The woman who would come to be known as the Queen of soul, Ms. Aretha Franklin.
- [10:39]
Whitney Houston (song lyrics)
I Never Thought I Loved a Man.
- [10:44]
Chris Melanphy
When Franklin broke through with her 1967 Atlantic Records debut, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love you, she not only brought the Muscle Shoals rhythm section to the top of the charts, she also defined the gospel to pop path of R and B crossover for a generation of singers, particularly female singers. And soon enough, Aretha's success boosted other careers. Inspiration By 1967, the Drinker's Singers had transformed themselves into the Sweet Inspirations. Dion and Dee Dee Warwick had long since left for their respective solo careers, but Sissy Houston still led the remaining quartet. The Sweet Inspirations had already provided backing vocals for a range of 60s recording artists, from the Drifters to Jackie Deshanet, and Sissy was a prominent backing vocalist on Aretha Franklin's Atlantic debut album. That success in part led the label to sign the Sweet Inspirations to their own contract.
- [12:07]
Whitney Houston (song lyrics)
I gotta have a sweet.
- [12:11]
Chris Melanphy
Sweet, Sweet Inspiration, an eponymous song by the Sweet Inspirations reached number five on Billboard's R&B chart and number 18 on the Hot 100 in the spring of 1968. The Sweet Inspirations were essential to RB and pop cross pollination in this period. While continuing to score R and B hits through the end of the decade, they became the premier backing vocal group of their era, heard prominently on hits not only by their peer Aretha Franklin, But also on massive pop hits by Van Morrison. And Dusty Springfield. And for several years, the Sweet Inspirations became King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley's go to vocal troupe, both in the studio and on the road. Talk in everlasting words and dedicate them all to me. As for Cissy Houston, she had issued a handful of solo singles during the 60s, and in the wake of the Sweet Inspiration's success, she broke away permanently for a solo career in 1970. But she didn't reach the heights of Aretha Franklin or her niece Dionne Warwick. Sissy's biggest hit, a torch soul cover of the Ronettes, be my baby, reached number 31 on the RB chart and number 92 on the Hot 100 in 1971. During the 70s, Cissy Houston's limited chart success was not the norm. It was a great decade for black female crossover, whether it was the multiple chart toppers by classical pianist turned pop superstar Roberta Flack the first time.
- [14:40]
Whitney Houston (song lyrics)
Ever I saw your Face.
- [14:46]
Chris Melanphy
Or Dionne Warwick, who finally topped the Hot 100 with the Philly soul hit Then came you, a duet with R and B veterans the Spinners, Or the front woman of the funk band Rufus, singer Shaka Khan, who eventually started scoring solo hits on both the pop and R and B charts. The rise of disco too was good for black female performers, whether it was former Supreme Diana Ross, Original Queen of disco Gloria Gaynor. Or all time Queen of disco Donna Summer, to whom we devoted an entire episode of Hit Parade. In the late 70s, Sommer was hybridizing disco with synthesizers and even rock guitar, pushing crossover further and topping the pop, R and B and dance charts.
- [16:10]
Whitney Houston (song lyrics)
Some hot stuff, baby, tonight.
- [16:13]
Chris Melanphy
Disco was such a powerful force that even Cissy Houston scored a sizable hit late in the decade, the dance floor classic Think it over. While it missed the Hot 100, Sissy's biggest club hit made the R and b charts top 40 and number five on Billboard's disco chart. All of the other black female legends I just ran down scored massive crossover hits in the 60s and 70s. But this crossover was fleeting. And African American female superstars found it difficult to build a consistent chart record. The quiet overachiever among them, Roberta Flack, Singing My Life with his words, scored three Hot 100 chart toppers in the 70s and even four top 10 albums. But Flack would follow a massive selling hit like Killing Me Softly with his song with albums and singles that would miss the top 20. Even the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, she built one of the longest R and B chart streaks in history, including 17 R&B number 1s between 1967 and 1977. But even Aretha went more than a decade without a top 10 pop hit. From the early 1970s to the mid-1980s, this glass ceiling on black female crossover achievement would change. Eventually, the 1980s would see an explosion of black male crossover, from Michael Jackson to Lionel Richie to Prince. But on the other side of the crossover equation was what was dominating the R and B charts and black radio in the late 70s and early 80s. The music was strong enough that some would argue crossover was simply not necessary. Close the door Let me rub your back where you say sore. Teddy Pendergrass, former lead singer of Harold Melvin and the Blue notes, scored only one pop top 40 hit, Close the Door, which peaked at number 25. And it didn't matter. Pendergrass was an R and B legend, performing sellout concerts composed largely of black listeners and racking up a string of black radio hits. A dozen R and B top five hits, and nearly 30 that reached the R&B top 40. Indeed, by the 80s, the R& B chart was its own universe, with its own lineup of stars with who would rarely or never cross to the pop charts. Singers from Luther Vandross. To frankie beverly and maze. To Jeffrey Osborne, Girl, you know and Stacy Ladisall. All of these artists scored strings of R and B top 10 hits. And in this period, none of those hits would touch the upper reaches of the Hot 100. In the early 80s 80s, both white and black audiences had certain expectations for what pop crossover by black artists sounded like and what didn't. I offer this preamble to depict the musical world a young Whitney Houston entered when she emerged as a recording artist in the early to mid-1980s. Even before she had issued a recording, Houston had a very auspicious television debut in 1983 on the MERV Griffin Show. She was introduced not only by Griffin, but by the man who signed her, Arista Records president Clive Davis. And from the start, Davis had a vision for Houston's career.
- [21:10]
Clive Davis
You have signed her to Arista that's correct. You'll probably start off with an album. That's correct. She is gorgeous. She is how old? 19. This girl is 19 years old. She is Dionne Warwick's cousin, isn't she? She is Dion's first cousin. Right. But if the magaly is to pass to somebody who's 19, who's elegant, who's sensuous, who's innocent, who's got an incredible range of talent but guts and soul at the same time, it will be Whitney Houston in my opinion. She's got it.
- [21:37]
Chris Melanphy
She got it.
- [21:38]
Clive Davis
Wait till you hear her. Here's Whitney Houston.
- [21:46]
Whitney Houston (song lyrics)
I wish I was back there.
- [21:49]
Chris Melanphy
The conventional wisdom on the Svengali like Clive Davis and the ingenue Whitney Houston was that Davis from the jump pushed Houston toward more white friendly pop. Certainly in his Merv Griffin interview you can hear Davis verbalizing his crossover dreams for his new protege. But the reality was more nuanced. For starters, the song Whitney was singing that day on Merv Griffin was best known by serious R and B fans. It was Home from the musical the Wiz, a track that that had been sung only by Stephanie Mills on Broadway and Diana Ross on film, but to that date had never been issued as a single. If Home was played on the radio at all by 1983 it was a black radio deep cut. So both Davis and the 19 year old Houston must have known that while her stuff stellar performance of Home would impress all audiences, It would be most resonant with black audiences. This is the subtler truth of the campaign to break Whitney Houston on the charts. She was first pitched largely to African Americans. And given the chart history of everyone from Aretha Franklin to Dionne Warwick to Roberta Flack to Diana Ross to Whitney's own mother, Cissy Houston, there was every reason to expect that Whitney's crossover to pop audiences could be huge, but might be fleeting. Another telltale sign of the effort to establish Houston with black audiences was whom she was paired with on her very first single.
- [24:00]
Whitney Houston (song lyrics)
Tell you you're my greatest.
- [24:02]
Chris Melanphy
My latest, my greatest inspiration, Teddy Pendergrass had enjoyed a stellar solo career with a streak of R b hits between 1977 and 1982, most of them top tens. But after his 1982 top five hit hit yout're My Latest Greatest Inspiration, Pendergrass experienced a personal trauma, a car accident that left him paraplegic from the chest down. As he spent the rest of 1982 and 83 recovering and looking to return to music. Pendergrass ultimately switched record labels and he needed a single that would reintroduce him to the public and he got his assist from Arista Records newest signing. Hold Me, billed as a duet of Teddy Pendergrass with Whitney Houston, was a top five RB hit in the summer of 1984. It reinvigorated Pendergrass's status as a leading figure on black radio while also serving as Houston's formal recorded debut. Hold Me was almost exclusively an audience R B hit on the Hot 100, it peaked just outside the top 40 at number 46. Though Pendergrass took lead credit on Hold Me, the song would reappear the following year on Whitney Houston's self titled debut album, an LP released 35 years ago this month on Valentine's Day 1985. But again, its crossover with pop audiences did not happen overnight. The choice of you Give Good Love as the first single from the Whitney Houston LP was a signal to black audiences. A smoldering mid tempo soul number produced by multi instrumentalist Kashif, an artist himself with a string of black radio hits, you Give Good Love topped Billboard's R B chart, then called Hot Black Singles in the spring of 1985. In a year when when the top R and B artist was not a pop crossover star like Michael Jackson but rather slow jam king Freddie Jackson, whose hit Rock Me Tonight topped the R and B chart back to back with.
- [27:14]
Whitney Houston (song lyrics)
Houston Rock Me Tonight for old times Sake.
- [27:22]
Chris Melanphy
Whitney's own slow jam seemed right on Trent, not a naked crossover bid, And Arista Records spent practically the entire first half of 1985 working you give good love to Top 40 radio. Eventually their effort paid paid off as the single reached number three on the Hot 100 in the summer of 1985 alongside current hits by Tears for Fears, Duran Duran and Sting. Very impressive for a first solo single by a new R B star, but Houston would do even better with her follow up hit. Saving All My Love for your was a poised torch song that had been first recorded in the late 70s by former 5th Dimension singer Marilyn McCoo. It was written by a pair of veteran white male songwriters, legendary Brill Building songwriter Jerry Goffin and Chicago born Michael Massar. Songs of theirs, like Diana Ross's Theme from Mahogany had long established their crossover bonafides.
- [28:53]
Whitney Houston (song lyrics)
Do you know, once we were standing.
- [28:57]
Chris Melanphy
Still in town and as recently as 1983 Massar and Goffin had scored an enormous R and B crossover hit by Roberta Flack and Peabo Bryson. The ballad Tonight I celebrate my love.
- [29:16]
Whitney Houston (song lyrics)
Tonight I celebrate my love for you.
- [29:24]
Chris Melanphy
Among Masser and Goffin's songs, Saving All My Love for you, sung from the point of view of a mistress of a married man, had never reached its full potential. But yet in the voice of Whitney Houston, the track took on both youthful innocence and soulful grit. It became Houston's first number one on both the R and B and pop charts in the fall of 1985. By the end of 85, the Whitney Houston album had emerged as the year's sleeper hit, rising into the top 10 on the Billboard album chart and going double platinum. Even as the LP generated a pair of big pop hits, it was still dominating the R and B chart. Arista took this moment to promote an up tempo funk and dance song, Thinking about yout and exclusively to black radio. It reached number 10 on Hot Black Singles in the closing weeks of the year and did not make the Hot 100 at all. If Whitney Houston the album had generated no further hits, it would already rank among the most successful debut albums ever. But early 1986 is when Arista deployed the album's secret weapon. It is telling that Arista says, saved the ridiculously catchy How Will I know for Whitney Houston's third pop single and fourth R&B single. The song's backstory is a quite literal struggle for white and black influence in Houston's sound. Written by the then husband and wife pop songwriting team of George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam, How Will I Know was originally penned for Janet Jackson a couple of years before her Control album. Janet's team ultimately passed on the song, feeling it did not jibe with her new sound. That's when Arista executives acquired it for Whitney. Arista's director of R and B music later told Fred Bronson, writer of the Billboard Book of Number One Hits, that they heard it as an unabashed pop crossover single, a contrast from the other, more RB driven material on Houston's debut album. But when it came time to record How Will I Know, Arista begged Narada Michael Walden, a producer and songwriter busy working on a comeback album for Aretha Franklin, to work on the song with Houston. Walden told Bronson that he was fairly unimpressed with the Merrill Rubicam demo, and he asked to not only produce it, but also rearrange and even co write new parts of the song. At first, Merrill and Rubicam balked at Walden's demand. They had never worked with an outside co writer before. But they eventually compromised, allowing Walden to add a new verse and change the song's key and tempo. After making his refinements, Walden not only recorded Whitney, but invited her mother Cissy Houston into the studio to sing backing vocals. In fact, the pileup of multi tracked background vocals you hear on How Will I Know includes both Whitney and Cissy Houston. How Will I Know became the fulcrum for Whitney Houston's career, a sleek Frankenstein's monster that hybridized the all R and B and pop elements of her sound on the radio and on mtv. It vocalized like a soul song, but played like new wave pop. Indeed, its video was the first by Houston to receive any appreciable MTV play. The clip was vintage MTV as Houston strutted through a paint splattered set filled with both white and black dancers like a United Colors of Benetton ad come to life. At one point in the video when Houston says she's asking you cause you know about these things, an image of Houston's honorary aunt Aretha Franklin flashed on the screen when it came to crossover, How Will I Know Try to leave no audience behind How Will I Know topped Both the Hot 100 and Hot Black singles, but this time it topped the pop chart first. About a month before it topped the R B chart when it hit number one pop, Houston actually ejected a song by her cousin Dionne Warwick. The charity mega singer single that's what Friends Are For. It was the first time an artist succeeded a blood relative at number one in eight years, since the Bee Gees and Andy Gibb traded off at the top of the chart in 1978. A couple of weeks after the song hit number one, the Whitney Houston LP topped the pop album chart for the first time in its 50th week, the slowest rise to number one since Fleetwood Mac's self titled album a decade earlier. Arista Records had pulled off one of the most painstaking artist introductions in pop history. One last note on how How Will I Know it would be the last Whitney Houston song to top the RB chart for more than four years. It was as if black audiences got the memo around early 1986 that Houston was moving away from them. Of course, as I said earlier in the show, the 1980s was a watershed decade for black to white crossover on a blockbuster scale. But prior hits by black male superstars had pulled off similar pop crossover without alienating the African American audience. Whether it was Michael Jackson recording hits penned by white songwriters, Lion Richie scoring hits that spanned the R B, pop and even country charts, Or Prince hybridizing his R B with guitar rock and even appearing on album rock stations. In any case, Houston's next single would be an interesting test of her crossover status, especially since its roots ran deep on the R and B chart. I believe the children are our future. The Greatest Love of All was first written in 1977 for a movie called the Greatest, a biopic of boxer Muhammad Ali, and it was first recorded by jazz and R B singer and guitarist George Benson, who took the song to number two on the R B chart that year. It was also a number 24 pop hit. Songwriter Michael Massar, coming off several hits for Diana Ross, and lyricist Linda Creed co wrote the song to reflect the achievements and inspirational symbolism of Ali's career, an homage to a towering African American sports figure. Eight years later, for Whitney Houston, the song became an athletic feat of a different variety. Greatest Love of All became the biggest pop hit from the Whitney Houston album, spending three weeks at number one on the Hot 100. Meanwhile, on Hot Black Singles, it peaked at number three, a respectable showing. But it was Houston's first single to peak higher on the pop chart than on the R B chart. An ironic turn of events for a song that in the 70s had been more warmly embraced by the black community. Were R B audiences turning away from Whitney Houston? It was too soon to say. The week Greatest Love of All peaked on the R B chart, it was topped by a blockbuster hit from a soul queen achieving her own crossover, Patti LaBelle with her Michael McDonald duet On My Own, one of the top pop and R and B hits of the year. Clearly, R and B listeners were not eschewing pop crossover entirely in 1986. At the end of the year, Billboard named LaBelle's duet with McDonald the top black single of the year, but they also named the Whitney Houston LP the top Black album. In fact, Houston's self titled debut was the top album of any genre in 1986, also topping all pop albums that year, Houston had sold truckloads of music to a spectrum of listeners, and with just one album, she had achieved a feat that had eluded everyone from Aretha Franklin to Roberta Flack to Donna Summer. The first black female artist to have the year's top album and the first LP by a black woman to generate three number one population. It was going to be a tough act to follow, but in a way what came next was even more stunning and in ways that Whitney Houston, Clive Davis and Arista did not expect. More divisive. When we come back, a chart feat of Houston's that has long gone unheralded and how it ultimately led to her Soul Train moment. By 1987, anticipation for Houston's second album would be sky high. And yet, somehow, commercially, if not artistically, Team Whitney managed to beat expectations again by giving pop fans exactly what they wanted. I Wanna Dance with Somebody who Loves Me was in every way a sequel like how will I Know it was written by the couple choice, George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam. It was specifically requested of them by Arista Records. Once again, it was produced by narrator Michael Walden. Once again, Walden wasn't a fan at first of Merrill and Rubicam's original composition. He later told the Billboard Book of number one Hits, quote, I thought it was too country and western. I felt there's gotta be some way I can make it funkier. Walden, who rearranged the song but did not take a co writing credit this time, might have succeeded in making the song passable as R and B, but it was clearly the poppiest song Houston had released to date. For proof, just listen to the other song. Meryl and Rubicam, who also recorded as the duo Boy Meets Girl, had offered to team Houston first.
- [43:44]
Whitney Houston (song lyrics)
That's where you belong with my arms.
- [43:47]
Chris Melanphy
Baby, yeah Waiting for a Star to Fall was rejected by Arista as not on brand for Whitney, Picture a song that's so poppy, even Clive Davis didn't think Houston should record it. Yet many of its sonic hallmarks are the same as on I Wanna Dance With Somebody, especially the bright, frothy keyboards. Issued a year later as a single for Boy Meets Girl, Waiting for a Star to Fall was a top five pop hit, riding the coattails of Merrill and Rubicam's earlier hits for Houston. But back in 1987, that broadly similar single they dashed off for their number one clown clients, That one was a blockbuster. Released in May 1987, I Wanna Dance with Somebody took just seven weeks to top the Hot 100, becoming Whitney Houston's fourth straight pop number one. But that wasn't its most impressive chart feat. The single set up the June release of Houston's second album, simply titled Whitney, and it would set a record that literally no one can take away from Houston and is actually quite misunderstood. If you're not a chart nerd to explain this record, I have to go back briefly to the seventies. In our Elton John episode of Hit Parade, I described an amazing chart feat Elton pulled off in 1975 when his LP Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy entered the chart on top, Elton achieved something that had eluded everyone from the Beatles to Led Zeppelin. In those analog days of the charts, it was extraordinarily unusual for music retailers to collectively report a new album as their best seller. In fact, Billboard would not computerize its charts with the SoundScan system until the early 90s, after which number one debuts on the album chart became commonplace. But in the mid-70s, Elton John had done something previously thought impossible, and he did it twice. In 1975 alone, his follow up album, Rock of the Westies also debuted on top. In fact, the list of albums in the pre SoundScan era that debuted on top of the album chart is so short I can run it down for you right now. There were exactly a half dozen number one album debuts before the 1990s. The first two were those 1975 albums by Elton John. The third, released in 1976 was Stevie Wonder's hugely anticipated magnum opus Songs in the Key of Life. The fourth number one debut in album chart history didn't come for another decade. The 1986 Bruce Springsteen box set live 1975-85, his follow up to the blockbuster 1984 album Born in the USA. Before I reveal the the fifth of these six albums, let me skip ahead to the last one. That was Michael Jackson's Bad, his follow up to Thriller, which came out in the late summer of 1987 and surprised absolutely no one when it debuted on top. But the pre SoundScan One debut that I can safely say no one saw coming again, except maybe Clive Davis was Whitney Houston's Whitney. In June of 1987, it stunned the music business by entering the chart on top. Some statistics this made Whitney Houston the first female artist to debut at number one on the album chart and the only woman to do it before SoundScan. This was only Houston's second album. Those two Elton John albums were the new ninth and tenth of his career respectively. Songs in the Key of Life was Stevie Wonder's 18th studio album. The live box set was Bruce Springsteen's first concert album, but of course it followed his seventh studio album. And finally, Bad was Michael Jackson's seventh studio album. Simply put, in the pre computerized era of the charts, the youngest artist ever, barely three years after she started recording, had America's top album out of the box. And she had gone where no black female artist had gone before. Forget crossover, this was cross cultural dominance. Unsurprisingly, I Wanna Dance with Somebody peaked at number two on the R and B chart. This would not have been remarkable except for what happened over the next year as the Whitney album kept generating hit.
- [50:39]
Whitney Houston (song lyrics)
When love was all we had worth.
- [50:42]
Chris Melanphy
Giving didn't we almost have it all? Another torch ballad co written by Michael Masser reached number one on the Hot 100 in late September 1987 on the R and B chart Like I Want to Dance With Somebody, Didn't We Almost have It All? Peaked at number two. So Emotional was the third single from Whitney. Written by veteran songsmiths Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly, who had penned previous pop chart toppers by Madonna, Cyndi Lauper and Hart, the light synth funk track reached number one on the Hot 100 in January 1988. It was Houston's sixth consecutive number one pop hit on Hot Black Singles. It reached number five.
- [51:43]
Whitney Houston (song lyrics)
Where Do Broken Hearts Go? Can they find their way home When.
- [51:51]
Chris Melanphy
Where Do Broken Hearts Go A Another narrator Michael Walden production co written by future Broadway composer Frank Wildhorn, topped the Hot 100 in April 1988, Whitney Houston achieved yet another chart record that she holds to this day. It was her seventh consecutive number one pop hit, breaking her out of a tie with two legendary groups. The Beatles, who scored six straight number ones between 1964 and 1966, And the Bee gees, who scored six straight chart toppers from 1977 to 1979. Like all of its chart topping predecessors, Where Do Broken Hearts Go fell short of the top spot on hot Black singles, topping out at number two. In fact, of the singles released from the Whitney album, the only one to perform better on the R and B chart was the album's fifth and final single, the Latin flavored jelly Bean Benitez produced dance track Love Will Save the Day. It reached number five on the R&B chart and number nine on the Hot 100. So it's important to clarify. All five singles from the Whitney album made the top 10 on both the pop and R and B charts. Even if four of them were pop number ones and none of them were R and B number ones. Black audiences did not abandon Whitney Houston en masse when she broke into a greater level of pop fame. Frankly, the biggest warning sign of Houston's ebbing black audience came just after her second album when she was invited by broadcaster NBC to record the theme song to the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea. The stately anthem One Moment in Time. This song reached number 5 on the Hot 100 and a more distant number 22 on the R and B chart, but still to varying degrees with pop and R and B audiences. Even this Olympian hymn was a hit. So what was going on that night in 1989 when large swaths of the Soul Train Music Awards audience booed the very mention of Whitney Houston? The nominees for best R and B Urban Contemporary Single by a female female are. Where Do Broken Hearts Go? Whitney Houston. At least one of the recent documentaries About Houston, Kevin McDonald's Whitney, attributes the backlash to a white knee campaign ginned up by the Reverend Al Sharpton. And to be sure, some black radio programmers had turned their backs on spinning Houston's records, believing that after hits like I Wanna Dance With Somebody, her material leaned decidedly more pop than urban. On the other hand, it has also been pointed out that many of Houston's awards show competitors that night, from Anita Baker to Vanessa Williams, had also crossed over successfully with white audiences. To me, the explanation lies somewhere in all of this chart data, and it is one simply of magnitude. Even in a decade that saw crossover dominance by Michael Jackson in music, Eddie Murphy at the movies and Bill Cosby on tv, Whitney Houston's success was perceived as perhaps too much too soon. Houston had achieved a rapid crossover that was quite literally unprecedented among black female artists. It was Bruce Springsteen level, Beatles level, Elton John level. So, as unfair, even sexist, as it might have been, if relatability is vital to a popular artist's success, particularly a female artist's success, Whitney Houston may have been perceived as a bit too untouchable. As for Houston in herself, she reportedly took the Soul Train incident hard. And observers say the fact that she met her future husband on the Soul Train Awards that same night was no coincidence. Again, I will not be delving deeply into Whitney Houston's tumultuous relationship with Bobby Brown. However, I will say that most accounts of Houston's life unfairly underplay the magnitude of Bobby Brown's career and the role he played in helping to redirect her career. At the moment she met him, Brown was an honest to goodness R and B to pop crossover megastar.
- [58:02]
Whitney Houston (song lyrics)
There's Something Wrong with my Life.
- [58:04]
Chris Melanphy
Bobby Brown got his start with New Edition, a Boston based boy band who are often seen as the 80s bridge between the Jackson 5 and New Kids on the Block. They were very popular with both white and especially black audiences between New Edition's launch in 1983 and 1980. In 1986, when Brown left the group, they scored a dozen R and b hits, including eight top 10s and three 1s. When Brown left the group to go solo, he began scoring R and B hits of his own immediately. And by the end of the decade, even before he met his future wife, Brown had entered a whole new realm of fame.
- [58:52]
Whitney Houston (song lyrics)
Cause I Would never be that close again.
- [59:00]
Chris Melanphy
Released in the summer of 1988, Bobby Brown's don't Be Cruel album synthesized multiple strains of late 80s black pop. On its most famous single, the pop and R and B chart topper My Prerogative, Brown worked with Teddy Riley, the producer king of New Jack Swing, it's the Way that I Want to Live. But Bobby's even smarter move was teaming up with a rising pair of writer producers who had just had a romantic R B smash. Antonio Reed and Kenneth Edmonds were better known by the sobriquettes LA Reid and Babyface as members of the vocal group the Deal. L A and Babyface had scored a 1988 top 10 hit on both the pop and RB charts called two occasions. But they quickly established themselves as even more successful behind the boards with a smooth but kinetic pop and be sound. In 1988 and 89, L.A. and Babyface were producing smashes for everyone from Karen White to Paul Abdul to After Seven. Reed and Babyface co wrote and produced half the tracks on Bobby Brown's Don't Be Cruel album, including all of its hit singles that weren't My prerogative. In fact, the night in April 1989 that Whitney Houston met Bobby Brown at the Soul Train Awards, Brown had the number one R&B song in America with the LA and Babyface composition Every Little Step. At the end of 1989, Billboard named Brown's Don't Be Cruel album the number one pop and r and B album of the year. It had generated five top 10 hits and was certified Sextuple platinum for the record. As of 1989, Houston's most recent album, Whitney, was also certified for 6 million in sales. In short, hard as it may be to grasp decades later, for that brief moment, at least on the charts, Brown was about as popular as Houston. And thanks in large part to his work with LA and Babyface, he had achieved his pop crossover without alienating his black fan base. All of the Don't Be Cruel hits had had reached the hot Black singles top five and three had hit number one there. So it made sense when in 1990, Clive Davis asked L A Reid and Babyface if they would produce tracks for Houston's third album. Reed and Babyface was wound up producing just three tracks for Houston's new album. And the most important of these, the album's title track heralded Houston's new sound for the 90s. I'm youm Baby Tonight, which topped Both the Hot 100 and the R and B Trooper chart, found Whitney Houston getting right with the audience that brought her to the dance. Its sound called back to 60s R&B and its video evoked Diana Ross and the Supremes. Many hits in Houston's career can be termed pivot points, but though it now ranks among the middle of the pack among Houston's catalog of radio classics, I'm youm Baby Tonight really is a dividing line in Houston's erv. Never again would she veer too far from the preferences of African American listeners. Maybe Houston was also trying to stay ahead of some new competition. The week in December 1990 that I'm youm Baby Tonight topped the Hot 100, it replaced the latest hit by a newcomer, a crossover pop and R and B singer named Mariah Carey. Whatever Whitney's motivations, her career balance had been put back on track. In early 1991. Another lung busting ballad, all the man that I Need, topped both the pop and R and B charts. But Houston's most athletic vocal feat in early 91 came not in the studio but at a globally televised live event, the 25th Super Bowl.
- [64:37]
Whitney Houston (song lyrics)
Can you see?
- [64:40]
Chris Melanphy
There have been numerous accounts of Whitney Houston's now legendary performance of the Star Spangled Banner. Many attribute its outsized popularity to the coincidence of the January 1991 launch of the first Persian Gulf War, a moment of American pride and jingoism, but if also fascinating as a performance which, by the way, was pre recorded prior to the Big Game but is no less impressive for it. Houston, inspired by an earlier unorthodox national anthem performance by the late Marvin Gaye, wanted to bring gospel flavor to her version of the anthem. So her musical director, Ricky Minor, who would later become the musical director for TV's American Idol, proposed something invented to give Whitney room to sing in a gospel style. He added a beat to the song's meter, taking our national anthem from its original 34 waltz cadence to a 44 meter because, as one one observer puts it in Kevin McDonald's Whitney documentary All Black Music is 4 4. So if you've ever heard Whitney's national anthem and felt somehow like the song had a more dramatic, elongated tempo, that's because it. Houston's Star Spangled Banner was an ingenious form of musical crossover. Released as a single two weeks after the Super Bowl, Houston's Star Spangled Banner immediately became the highest charting version of the anthem in the rock era, peaking in its first run at number 20 on the Hot 100 and going double platinum. By 1992, both Houston and her new husband, Bobby Brown, were ready to release new material. And again, hard as it may be to believe this, nearly three decades later, Brown's was the more hotly anticipated album, his first new LP since the chart dominating Don't Be Cruel. Simply titled Bobby. Not unlike his wife's 1987 album, Whitney Brown's 1992 comeback debuted on the Billboard 200 album chart all the way up at number two. And the album spawned an immediate number two pop number one R&B smash produced by LA and Babyface. Whitney made her own cameo on the Bobby album, duetting with Brown on the frothy romantic trifle. Something in Common. As late as mid-1992, Houston was leveraging her husband's status to burnish her own. The song was later issued as a single and reached the top 40 on the Hot 100 and the top 4030 on the R and B chart. As strong as Brown's album was out of the gate, Houston's next project was much less of a sure thing. Her first ever role in a feature film plus a Whitney led soundtrack. But. Well, if you know what became of that film, the Bodyguard and its soundtrack, you might guess that the music did a whole lot better very quickly.
- [68:43]
Whitney Houston (song lyrics)
If I.
- [68:48]
Chris Melanphy
Should Stay what more can be said about Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love youe, one of the biggest songs of the 20th century? Originally written by country legend Dolly Parton, the song was proposed by Houston's Bodyguard co star Kevin Costner. He even conceived the song's stunning a cappella opening. Dolly Parton not only wrote I Will always love you but had previously taken it to number one on the country chart twice. Few hits in chart history have been quite this multi genre and multicultural at their core. It was a song with elements of country, pop, gospel and of course, soul.
- [69:49]
Whitney Houston (song lyrics)
My darling you.
- [69:56]
Chris Melanphy
Both the film and its soundtrack were mega blockbusters. The movie grossed more than $120 million in the U.S. alone and more than 400 million worldwide. As for the music, when Houston's I Will Always Love youe arrived just ahead of the film in November 1992, it took just three weeks to march to number one on the Hot 104 weeks to top the RB chart. It led the RB chart for 11 weeks and the Hot 100 for a then record 14 weeks. As for the album, it spent 20 weeks atop the album chart and for one week just before Christmas 1992, the Bodyguard became the first album of the Soundscan era to sell a million copies in a single week. The Bodyguard not only went on to become the top selling soundtrack of all time with estimated global sales of 45 million copies and the Grammy winner for Album of the year, it was also packed with hits that seamlessly fused Houston's black and white influences. Whether it was her cover of Chaka Khan's 1978 R&B smash I'm Every Woman, which for Houston became a top five pop and R B hit, Or Houston's varsity level pageant worthy torch song I have Nothing, which also made the top five on both charts, It is remarkable for a superstar to have two distinct career peaks. If Houston's post bodyguard career cannot quite be called a second imperial period, she did enter a new phase of a list musical stardom and it was punctuated by more movies and more hits that expertly navigated Houston's cross cultural fame. In 1995 Houston returned in another blockbuster film, Waiting to Exhale, a female empowerment melodrama that doubled as a showcase for African American actresses. Both the film and the soundtrack paired Whitney Houston with a coterie of black sisterhood. On screen she was joined by co stars Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine and Leila Rochon. And on the soundtrack LP produced and almost entirely written by Kenneth Babyface Edmonds, Houston was showcased alongside the cream of current female R and B. Among the other artists scoring Babyface penned hits from the multi platinum Waiting to Exhale soundtrack were Queen of Hip Hop Soul Mary J. Blige. And teen ingenue Brandy, a multi hyphenate singer and actress who was starring in the new TV sitcom Moesha. In a sign of the pent up excitement that greeted Houston's return both to recording and the screen, her leadoff single, the understated, easy paced Exhale parentheses Shoop Shoop debuted at number one on both the Hot 100 and R&B charts in November 1995. Before the hit packed cycle of Waiting to Exhale was over, Houston even scored a follow up top 10 hit in a duet with gospel superstar CeCe Winans called Count On Me. Taking inspiration from this spiritual hit, later in 1996 Houston co starred in another gospel inflected movie, the Penny Marshall directed Denzel Washington film the Preacher's Wife. Its soundtrack was another smash. In fact it now ranks as the best selling gospel album of all time with 6 million copies sold worldwide, outselling even Aretha Franklin's Amazing Grace. It gave Houston a number four hit on both the pop and RB charts with I Believe in youn and Me. It wasn't until 1998 that Houston returned with a straight studio album not connected to a movie, although even this album, My Love Is yous Love, led off with a spiritual film tie in single. The Mariah Carey duet When youn Believe from the animated biblical film the Prince of Egypt. What was more remarkable about Houston's last multi platinum album was how cleverly it worked multiple sides of the street genre wise, pop, R and B, and even dance music. For example, the sultry hit Heartbreak Hotel paired Whitney with then cutting edge R B singers Faith Evans and Kelly Price. The song was an R and B smash, spending seven weeks atop that chart and also reaching a potent number two on the hot 100 for the follow up It's Not Right, but it's okay. Black radio stations tended toward the original, percolating Rodney Jerkins produced album cut, But top 40 stations leaned instead toward a pumping dance club remix by the production team Thunderpuss.
- [77:08]
Whitney Houston (song lyrics)
It's not right but it's okay I'm gonna make it anyway.
- [77:15]
Chris Melanphy
Pack your in the wake of the with that top 10 success, the title track from My Love Is yous Love got its own club remix and reached the Top five on both the R and B and pop charts in the early weeks of the year 2000. As has been well chronicled, the final double dozen years of Whitney Houston's life were her most troubled and musically her least prolific. She did manage one more top 10 moment of glory in one of our nation's saddest moments. When her Star Spangled Banner was reissued by popular demand in the wake of the 911 attacks in 2001, it not only returned to the charts, it reached a new peak of number six. Houston only issued two albums in the 2000s, and neither one was her best work, thanks to a diminished voice ravaged by years of drug and other abuse. However, her uptempo 2009 single million dollar Bill was acclaimed by critics and did reach the R and B charts top 20, the last new hit of her lifetime. That same year, with no fanfare, Houston became eligible for the Rock and Roll hall of Fame after her earliest recordings passed the 25 year mark. Of course, Houston would not even be nominated for the hall for another decade. Like Donna Summer, it took her passing to bring about a critical reappreciation of her work and I.
- [79:23]
Whitney Houston (song lyrics)
Will always love you Whitney Houston's name.
- [79:29]
Chris Melanphy
Death on February 11, 2012, the day she was scheduled to appear at her longtime mentor Clive Davis's pre Grammy party, prompted an outpouring of grief, and it returned many of Houston's hits to the radio airwaves.
- [79:51]
Whitney Houston (song lyrics)
Bittersweet.
- [79:57]
Chris Melanphy
In fact, as I described in a prior episode of hit parade, Houston's death prompted Billboard magazine to change its Hot 100 policy to allow old or recurrent hits to return to the chart in the streaming and download era, older hits could sell and stream in quantities rival current hits. Just after Houston's passing, her song I Will Always Love youe sold more than 350,000 downloads in a single week. As a result of Billboard's policy change, I Will Always Love youe Re debuted on the chart at number seven the week after her death, and it rose to number three a week later, its highest position since 1993. Eight years after Houston's passing, her induction into the Rock hall on her first and only time on the ballot feels like a reopening of the debate over her legacy. As I said from the top of our show, Houston faced questions of credibility in multiple directions. Not just the predictable carping of rock fans, some of whom are this very year interrogating Houston's Rock hall worthiness, but also from within the gospel and R and B community from which Whitney emerged. They questioned her dedication and devotion to that tradition. This is what makes Whitney Houston exceptional. Literally no other artist of her stature and profile rather reached the chart heights or faced the backlash that Whitney Houston did. Either hall inducted legends like Aretha Franklin or Gladys Knight or ladies who deserve to be in the hall like Roberta Flack or Houston's cousin Dionne Warwick. And Houston came out the other side, still scoring hits and still influencing generations of vocalists from Christina Aguilera, I Am.
- [82:09]
Whitney Houston (song lyrics)
Beautiful no matter what they say.
- [82:15]
Chris Melanphy
To of course, Beyonce. If we accept that women of this vocal caliber belong in the Rock Hall, Houston's induction is eminently logical. As a balloted Rock hall voter myself, voting for Houston this year was a no brainer. By the way, there's one last way in which Houston stands apart from every other Rock hall inductee this year, from T. Rex to Biggie Smalls to the Doobie Brothers. She has a current hit on the radio. No, I don't mean a golden oldie that's getting played on classic hit stations. I mean an actual relatively new hit song. You see, Houston recorded this cover of the Steve Winwood hit Higher love back in 1990 as a bonus track for the Japanese edition of her I'm youm Baby Tonight album. And in 2019, Norwegian DJ and record producer Kygo resurrected this little herd track and remixed it in a current tropical house mode. Build as a duo duet of Kygo and Whitney Houston. The 2019 edition of Higher Love has landed on multiple Billboard charts. Last summer it hit number one on the dance club chart. By the fall, it had reached number 29 on the mainstream top 40 chart and number 12 on the adult top 40 chart As I speak, Kygo and Whitney's Higher Love is in the top 10 of the adult Contemporary chart. It even made a brief appearance on the Hot 100 and it has made the top 20 on the charts of more than two dozen countries around the world. Her legacy secure, Whitney Houston is still scoring he hits from the great beyond, to paraphrase the great Dolly Parton, even when life has not treated her kind. Above all this, we are wishing her love. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Hit Parade. My producer is Justin D. Wright and we also had help this episode from Slate's Rosemary Bellson and Asha Soluja, as well as Annie Zaleski. June Thomas is the Senior Managing Producer and Gabriel Roth the Editorial Director of Slate Podcasts. Check out their roster of shows@slate.com podcast. You can subscribe to Hit Parade wherever you get your podcasts, in addition to finding it in the Slate Culture feed. If you're subscribing on Apple Podcasts, please rate and review us while you're there. It helps other listeners find the show. Thanks for listening and I look forward to leading the Hit Parade back your way. Until then, keep on marching on the one. I'm Chris Malenafi Thinking of Bring me.
- [86:08]
Whitney Houston (song lyrics)
A Higher love Bring me a higher love Hope.