We rank Whitney Houston's 10 best songs, with the inside story from her mentor Clive Davis
When the time came to sift through demo tapes for new songs, Clive Davis and Whitney Houston would sequester themselves in Davis’ New York office or his bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel and listen.
“It was always just Whitney and me – not her mother, her father, Robyn or Bobby. No one ever attended those meetings except the two of us, other than David Foster when we worked on ‘The Bodyguard,’” Davis tells USA TODAY, referencing Houston’s close friend, Robyn Crawford, and husband Bobby Brown. “I would narrow the list down to 20 songs before I played any for her, and she and I would narrow those down to the 10 finalists.”
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The song-selection process is depicted in abbreviated form in “I Wanna Dance with Somebody,” the Houston biopic (starring Naomi Ackie) that music mogul Davis – who signed the gilded-voiced singer in 1983 – co-produced (he’s portrayed in the film by Stanley Tucci, whom Davis calls a “real, true, fine actor”).
It would be impractical – really, impossible – to shoehorn all of Houston’s musical bona fides into the film considering her seven studio albums and 57 singles. Of her 11 No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, seven reached the top spot consecutively – a feat yet to be duplicated.
Also somewhat impossible? Choosing 10 of Houston’s most memorable and affecting songs.
But we accepted the mission and share our picks, with Davis providing insight.
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10. 'Queen of the Night' (1993)
The fifth and final single released from the 45-million-selling soundtrack for “The Bodyguard” was written by L.A. Reid, Babyface and Daryl Simmons. A sharp-edged rock song, it continued the relationship among Houston, Reid and Babyface, who worked with her three years prior for “I’m Your Baby Tonight,” their first endeavor to toughen up Houston’s slick sound. At the time, apt comparisons were made to Janet Jackson’s similarly snarling “Black Cat.”
9. 'I Didn't Know My Own Strength' (2009)
For years, Davis and ace songwriter Diane Warren tried to find the opportune time for her to craft a song for Houston (Davis says he convinced Warren to hand “Un-Break My Heart” to Toni Braxton in 1996 since Houston was busy with her film career). Warren’s power ballad landed on Houston’s 2009 album, “I Look To You,” at a time when lyrics such as “Survived my darkest hour/my faith kept me alive/I picked myself back up/hold my head up high” resonated with the singer as she battled drugs and a combative marriage and divorce. “Whitney had not done any studio albums for (nearly) eight years,” Davis says. “Diane was well aware of that and she definitely had Whitney in mind specifically.”
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8. 'I Have Nothing' (1993)
Written by David Foster – who produced many tracks on “The Bodyguard” – and Linda Thompson, the whisper-to-a-bellow ballad was one of two tracks from the soundtrack nominated for an Academy Award in 1992 (“Run to You” the other). When Houston dramatically unfurls the “don’t make me close one more door” lyric, it’s every bit as effective as Jennifer Holliday belting “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going.”
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7. 'I'm Your Baby Tonight' (1990)
Following an ugly incident at the 1989 Soul Train Music Awards when Houston’s name was booed by some in the crowd – presumably because she wasn’t seen as a true R&B singer thanks to her massive Top 40 appeal – Davis enlisted Reid and Babyface to write a song that would primarily target R&B radio. A new jack swinger with an undercurrent of funk and a direct blast of sexual frankness, the title track of Houston’s third album “gave R&B stations what they rightfully deserved,” Davis says. The song hit No. 1 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop chart – and, says Davis, gave Reid and Babyface their first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
6. 'So Emotional' (1987)
The sentiment is simple enough: “I get so emotional baby/every time I think of you/ain’t it shocking what love can do.” On her sixth consecutive No. 1, Houston’s multioctave voice and emphatic phrasing – not to mention her cute laughter that punctuates the song throughout – combined with a squealing guitar solo and muscular dance beat collide for a perfect pop recipe.
5. 'All At Once' (1985)
Houston’s self-titled debut album generated a bevy of hit ballads – “You Give Good Love” and “Saving All My Love for You” among them – but this lament with its sweet piano melody was relegated to album track purgatory in the U.S. Released as a single only in Europe and Japan, the Michael Masser/Jeffrey Osborne-penned paean with its orchestral swells and swaying chorus spotlights Houston’s vulnerability as she pines for the past.
4. 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)' (1987)
Davis says when he first heard the demo of the song written by George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam (who had their own hit as Boy Meets Girl with 1988’s “Waiting for a Star to Fall”), he felt like it could have been written for Olivia Newton-John. So he turned to producer/songwriter friend Narada Michael Walden to “interpret it.”
“I knew he would make it so you would feel the heat, that you want to go to bed with somebody. It wasn’t going to be simplistic,” Davis says of the buoyant mirror-ball-worthy pop smash, which also ascended to No. 1 as the lead single from Houston’s second album, “Whitney.”
3. 'Greatest Love of All' (1986)
In the “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” film, Davis first hears Houston sing with her mother, Cissy, at New York’s Sweetwater Club. Houston is singing backup, but then urged by her mother to take a solo. The song she performs is the hit George Benson ballad, “Greatest Love of All.” Coincidentally, Davis had previously commissioned the song for the 1977 Muhammad Ali biopic, “The Greatest,” so the moment Houston sang the opening lines, “it floored me,” Davis says.
“Just picture a stunning 19-year-old who comes up to the mic and from the very first note she is singing it in a manner that (songwriter) Michael Masser could not have imagined when he wrote it,” Davis says. “When she finished, I called Michael and said, ‘Take a redeye and come hear this singer. You’ve never heard your song like this.’”
2. 'I Will Always Love You' (1992)
By now, the story is legend. Kevin Costner, Houston’s co-star in “The Bodyguard,” unearthed the Dolly Parton twanger – though the version he played Houston was Linda Ronstadt’s 1975 cover – and suggested it for the film. Producer Foster, with Houston’s input, rearranged it with a soul bent. One of the hallmarks of the song – its stunning a capella intro – was discouraged by the record label, but Costner and Houston insisted it remain. Despite Parton’s imprint, the towering anthem is often regarded as Houston’s signature musical offering.
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1. 'How Will I Know' (1985)
The synth-coated groove that opens the song – also written by Merrill and Rubicam – injects an immediate air of lightness, but as Houston starts to sing, dabs of insecurity and echoes of doubt contradict the perky vibe (“Tell me, how will I know (don’t trust your feelings)”). Though stocked with ’80s touchstones – a gurgling sax solo, a squiggly guitar break – the song is deeper than its Lite-Brite video conveys as Houston allows us to feel her shyness and uncertainty.
For definitive proof of Houston’s unadulterated vocal talent, take a listen to the chills-inducing isolated vocal track of the song that went viral a decade ago. There is a reason Davis says she is, “the best singer of her generation."
"In being able to believably do ‘Greatest Love of All’ and ‘How Will I Know’ and ‘I’m Every Woman, she really showed she’s one of a kind,” Davis says,
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Whitney Houston's best songs ranked for 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody'