249. Whitney Houston, "Whitney Houston"

 

I was blown away to be reminded that this album came out in 1985, almost 40 years ago.  Whitney really was the bridge between the 70's soul and R&B singers and the vocal acrobats today.  Without Whitney, there's no girl on American Idol cavorting up and down the scale, doing vocal unimaginable vocal runs, for good or ill.

But this isn't really the album where Whitney seemed to be showing off her vocal prowess just to blow people away.  Instead, it's a more self-assured performance, the birth of an important artist rather than the mid-stage dynamism.  I'm sure you know the singles - "You Give Good Love," then "Saving All My Love," then "How Will I Know," the poppiest and most MTV of the singles, the one that really broke her to mainstream audiences.  It's irresistably catchy.  Written by George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam, they pitched it to Janet Jackson, who turned it down.  Good thing, too, because Whitney absolutely brought this song to life.

As you may have guessed, I was not a huge Whitney Houston fan, but listening to this album (for the first time in its entirety) was not an unpleasant experience at all.  Of course I remembered the singles, since I was alive in the 1980's, but the whole album really hangs together well as an example of 80's R&B/dance/funk/pop.  You could do a lot worse.  The production is, of course, super 80's-ified, with the big drum machine sounds and the gated reverb and the bunka bunka bass sound and the splashy fake cymbal sounds.  You know it when you hear it.

Whitney, of course, met a tragic end in the Beverly Hilton, the day before the 2012 Grammys.  Now recognized as one of the greatest vocalists and R&B performers of all time.  It's fascinating to listen to this album now and know what was coming.

Does this album deserve to be in the Top 500? I would think so.