Monday
Feb132012
Music Monday: Goodbye, Whitney Houston
One of the greatest vocalists in history, once with a clarity unparalleled (and it still is if you're honest, she didn't even need to do runs or melisma. She just sang the song and it sounded other-worldly), Whitney Houston, died over the weekend. After the death of Don Cornelious and Etta James dying earlier in January, Houston dying officially made this (for me) the most depressing Black History Month ever. Feel free to celebrate you favorite memories and moments featuring Houston in the comments. Mine was that as a kid, I loved her so much, I actually performed "The Greatest Love of All" at a school pageant. (Video: Houston singing "Home" from "The Wiz" in her national TV debut in 1985. Hat tip: Jezebel)
Danielle Belton | 4 Comments | Share Article | Email Article | Print Article | tagged RIP, music, music monday, whitney houston 
Reader Comments (4)
Greatest Love of All was my favorite song as a kid, it was the first song I memoried entirely and sang it ALL THE TIME! lol
I have always loved her and her music. The album "Im Your Baby Tonight" is my all time favorite of her work, although I have most of her albums (I dont have the first two but I have everything after that). Every song on that album I can sing and enjoy...
Her album "Just Whitney" is one that I love as well, because I felt it had alot of her in the songs. You can really see where she was in her life and I was going through a rough time myself. I was finishing up graduate school and the song "Tell Me No" was on repeat! That helped get me through.
"Tell me no, I'll show you I can...tell me no, I'll dig my feet right in...tell me no, just tell me I cant win...come on Im strong I'll prove you wrong...go on and go...tell me no"
"No no no no no no no motivates me more and more and I think its time you know your giving me something to work for and I cant wait for the day that I can rub it in your face Im not gonna stop until Im number one, I reach the top..."
Yes that was my song in graduate school. lol
By the way...I still have both of those albums in heavy rotation....especially when I have had "you cant" day...I pull that album out and jam!
Whitney is gone but never forgotten...she will live on through her music just like MJ. She as well as he, inspired so many...
OMG Snob, I've never seen this video..I got CHILLS!
I had never seen that until I saw it at the NYTimes timeline tribute.
plus, so many live videos that I had never seen.
she was THE VOICE.
I'm just beginning to accept it. it still seems unreal.
she was the female soundtrack of my youth.
Such a beautiful face, such a beautiful voice. When I first saw her as a child I thought she was the most lovely thing I'd ever seen. I don't think I ever left the room if her videos came on. Often imitated, but she will NEVER be duplicated.
I'm so sad that her life was so brief and so tragic.
There is NO ONE who can own a song like that. So many people try to imitate what she did, including many of the women who followed her, but there is a naturalness and an organic quality to her singing that they just do not have.
I love how she starts out softly and then just it's like she kind of forgets about the camera and audience and just totally inhabits the song.
And yes, when she hit those last notes I had chills too.