The tragic story of Whitney Houston

FLASHBACK RADIO with Chuck Reynolds

It was in the early 1980s that Clive Davis who, among other titles, was a successful American record producer, A&R executive and music industry legend, can take credit for discovering a phenomenal singing talent three years before introducing her to the world in 1985. That talent went on to become one of the greatest female vocalists of all time.

Whitney Houston had the right genes to start with as her mother, Cissy Houston, was a choir minister and gospel singer while her cousin was pop vocalist Dionne Warwick.

As a young choir singer, Whitney was first able to get a great response from both the choir and the church members and, by the time she was 15, she was singing with her mother in public and hoping to get a record contract.

Everything fell into place for Houston when she was 19 and discovered by “the man with the golden ear”, Davis, who gave her a contract and special guidance to move away from her gospel leanings into the mainstream of pop, soul and R&B music.

Davis continued working with her by hiring talented songwriters, musicians and producers, and by 1985 everything fell into place for Houston with her debut studio album, Whitney Houston, being released on Valentine’s Day.

However, the first single, Hold Me, was actually released 9 months earlier in the summer of 1984, and featured a duet of Whitney with legendary soul singer Teddy Pendergrass, who was the lead vocalist for one of the greatest Philadelphia soul groups of the 1970s, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes. Unfortunately, Hold Me for Teddy and Whitney was a slow riser, reaching only the 46th position on the Billboard Hot 100.

It may have been a quiet beginning for Whitney, but her management and Arista Records were not disappointed, as they were on a mission to have her breakthrough in 1985, starting in May with an R&B ballad, You Give Good Love. That song was soulful enough to attract a strong loyal urban base of listeners. The song choice was perfect and it topped the R&B chart, but its popularity even surprised her management as it also crossed over onto the pop charts, where it peaked at the unexpected high of #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 on July 26.

But that was just the beginning of an incredible run as the next three single releases from her debut album all reached number one, beginning with Saving All My Love for You on October 26, How Will I Know on February 15, 1986 and The Greatest Love of All for three consecutive weeks starting May 17.

The success of her debut album was special as it was the first debut album by a female artist to have three number one singles. Whitney’s album was also the first by a female to be number one on the Billboard Year End Albums Charts (1986).

But why stop there? Her second album, Whitney, featured four consecutive number one hits, which included I Wanna Dance With Somebody, Didn’t We Almost Have It All, So Emotional and Where Do Broken Hearts Go.

Her third album, I’m Your Baby Tonight, featured two more number one hits — I’m Your Baby Tonight and All the Man That I Need — while her fourth album, The Bodyguard, was a movie soundtrack considered to be her album even though it only featured three of her songs and the rest by various artists.

It was a massive seller with sales in the U.S. of over 18 million and 45 million around the globe. The lead single I Will Always Love You, written by Dolly Parton, also broke records in 1993 as it remained at number one for 14 consecutive weeks.

But as the years passed by, with her personal life having much turmoil, things started changing for Houston. She married Bobby Brown in 1992 and they had a baby daughter the following year, but they went through periods of infidelity, drug use and domestic violence.

Yet, in spite of all that, she managed to hit the top of the chart one more time with Exhale (Shoop Shoop) three years later in 1996. But the aura she had wasn’t the same and there were more misses than hits, and by mid- 2000 through 2009, not one of her last seven releases managed to break the top 70 on the charts.

Having worked in radio and played many of her hits and watched her rise on the charts from her beginnings in 1985, it was ironic to hear that she died February 11, 2012 — just before the Grammy Awards were held — when she drowned in a bathtub at a hotel in Beverly Hills with heart disease and cocaine being the contributing factors.