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Tuesday, July 26, 2011

The #15 Album of All-Time in the Rock Era--"Whitney Houston" by Whitney Houston

The albums get stronger as we count our way down in The Top 100 Albums of All-Time in the Rock Era*.


We are up to the debut album from Whitney Houston.  It reached #1 and spent a total of 14 weeks at the top.  In addition, the album was #2 for five weeks and #3 for four.  It spent nearly an entire year (46 weeks) in the Top 10 and over three years (162) on the chart.

The album was also #1 in Canada, Australia, Italy, Norway and Sweden.  Whitney Houston has sold 13 million copies in the United States and 25 million worldwide.  It has an outstanding Track Rating* of 9.1.


Three #1 songs--"Saving All My Love for You", "How Will I Know" and "Greatest Love of All" highlight the album.  Houston became the first female artist to achieve three #1's on an album and this album became the first debut in history to accomplish the feat.  "You Give Good Love" was another big hit and "Hold Me", with Teddy Pendergrass was the other single that was big on the Adult Contemporary chart.  "All at Once" was released only to Adult Contemporary stations while "Thinking About You" was a single only in the R&B format.







The album doesn't need further validation but it has it.  Houston was nominated for five Grammy Awards, winning for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance ("Saving All My Love for You".  The other nominations came for Album of the Year, Record of the Year ("Greatest Love of All" and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best Rhythm & Blues Song (both for "You Give Good Love".  She won American Music Awards for Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist, Favorite Pop/Rock Album, Favorite Soul/R&B Artist, Favorite Soul/R&B Album, Favorite Soul/R&B Single ("You Give Good Love"), Favorite Soul/R&B Video ("Saving All My Love for You") and  Favorite Soul/R&B Video Single ("Greatest Love of All".  Houston was also nominated for Favorite Soul/R&B Album, Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist, Favorite Soul/R&B Female Artist, Favorite Pop/Rock Video Artist and Favorite Soul/R&B Video Artist at the American Music Awards. 

Whitney won Billboard Awards for Top Pop Album, Top Pop Artist of the Year, Top Pop Album Artist, Top Female Pop Album Artist, Top Black Album, Top Black Album Artist, Best New Artist and Best New Black Artist.  She was nominated for Top Female Pop Singles Artist, Top Adult Contemporary Artist, Top Pop Compact Disc, Top Black Artist of the Year, Top Black Singles Artist, Top Black Single (for both "Saving All My Love For You" and You Give Good Love"), Top Female Pop Album Artist and Top Female Pop Singles Artist.  Houston won Favorite Female Performer at the People's Choice Awards and an MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video ("How Will I Know"), which also received a nomination for Best Video by a New Artist.  She was nominated for Best International Solo Artist at the Juno Awards, and received nominations at the Soul Train Awards for Single of the Year ("How Will I Know") and Album of the Year.   


Whitney Houston:
1.    "You Give Good Love" (Lala) --4:36
2.    "Thinking About You" (Kashif, LaLa) --5:24
3.    "Someone for Me" (Raymond Jones, Freddie Washington) --4:58
4.    "Saving All My Love for You" (Gerry Gofin & Michael Masser) --3:58
5.    "Nobody Loves Me Like You Do" (with Jermaine Jackson) --(James P. Dunne, Pamela Phillips) --3:47
6.    "How Will I Know" (George Merrill, Shannon Rubicam, Narada Michael Walden) --4:34
7.    "All at Once" (Jeffrey Osbourne, Michael Masser) --4:27
8.    "Take Good Care of My Heart" (with Jermaine Jackson) --(Pete McCann, Steve Dorff, Jermaine Jackson) --4:14
9.    "Greatest Love of All" (Linda Creed, Michael Masser) --4:57
10.  "Hold Me" (with Teddy Pendergrass) --(Michael Masser & Linda Creed) --6:02







Whitney got a lot of help on her debut album.  Jermaine Jackson and Teddy Pendergrass agreed to sing duets that are featured prominently.  Cissy Houston, Jackson, Julia Tillman Waters, Maxine Willard Waters, Oren Waters and Yogi Lee sang backup.  Paul Jackson, Jr., Dann Huff, Tim May, Ira Siegel, David Williams and Randy Jackson played guitar, Nathan East and Freddie Washington played bass and Ed Greene, John "J.R." Robinson and J.T. Lewis played drums.  Bashiri Johnson and Joe Lala played percussion, Robbie Buchanan, Randy Kerber, Yvonne Lewis, Richard Marx and Mary Canty played keyboards.  John Barnes played clarinet, Preston Glass played synthesizer, Corrado Rustici played synthesizer and guitar, the great Tom Scott, Ernie Watts, Louie Shelton, Deborah Thomas and Premik  Russell Tubbs played saxophone.


Whitney Houston was recorded in 1984 and produced by Jermaine Jackson, Kashif, Michael Masser and Narada Michael Walden with Clive Davis being the executive producer.  Michael Barbiero, Michael Mancini, Michael O'Reilly and Russell Schmitt were the engineers; Barbiero, O'Reilly and Bill Schnee mixed it, Kashif, Gene Page, Jr. and Narada Michael Walden arranged it.  Donn Davenport was in charge of art, Garry Gross was the photographer.  The album was released February 14, 1985 on Arista Records.

Whitney Houston's debut album comes in at #15 All-Time*.

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