Marv, believe me when I say that I've heard more Whitney than I care to. It was always within ear shot, at every place that I worked. This woman's music does absolutely nothing for me. I give her respect as I would any performer. But that's about it.
Whitney was a better singer, IMO, but I get more enjoyment out of listening to Mariah Carey's music.
Mariah seems to try to hard to impress, IMO. Whitney Houston had control over her voice that only a few artists seem to possess [[early Luther Vandross, for example) wherein every note is absolutely sung as well as it could be sung. She was one of those artists who could put inflection on a word or syllable and as I listen to their music decades later, I still anticipate that small touch before it comes around. For example, when she sings "and I wish to you JOY" in "I Will Always Love You", that word soars out of her throat. Her best performances all had things like that in them.
Whitney was a vocal ATHLETE. She took a song like "The Star Spangled Banner" a song many in the country have heard over and over again in their lifetime to almost become immune to its message and made us really listen to the message and feel the message.
She covered previous hits originally recorded by George Benson [["The Greatest Love of All"), Chaka Khan [["I'm Every Woman") and Dolly Parton [["I Will Always Love You") that with the sheer force of her talent accomplished the very rare feat of making those songs her very own to the point of almost obscuring the original versions.
This is true. Although I'm not typically a fan of cover versions of songs, which I find to be unnecessary in most cases, what she did with "Just the Lonely Talkin' Again" and "I Believe In You and Me" were both respectful to the original artists and also unique to her. I would bet the original singers were happy with how she sang their songs.
If she had only had a vocal coach...
Family photo.
Brother Michael, Cissy, Whitney, father John & half -brother Gary Garland [[1979)
She did. He appeared on exTRA a few days ago.
He said that when she first came to him, her voice was in very bad shape. He thought it was due to smoking. Slowly, he was able to help her get some of her voice back for the last cd. But he thought it was a huge mistake for her to take on that last European tour because her voice wasn't ready.
Hi!
So far I haven't seen any mention of Michael Zager's role in introducing Whitney to the world on record.
Michael: "I liked very much working with Cissy and Whitney Houston... I had Whitney, when she was fourteen, on Cissy's album, Think It Over [[in 1976), as a background singer, and then Whitney's first solo recording was with me on the Michael Zager Band album, Life's A Party."
Best regards
Heikki
Maybe that's because she was just a background singer. She wasn't a star or anything. If he thought so highly of her, why didn't HE produce her first record? C'mon! Stevie Wonder got Syreeta and Wonderlove out there in front. Ray parker Jr. got his boost from Wonder. Quincy Jones made it a point to introduce future stars on record. The Brothers Johnson, James Ingram, Patti Austin...
Hi Soulster!
As far as I know Michael produced Whitney's first record, which was "Life's A Party" in 1978.
My point is that in each documentary I've seen so far everybody's referring to Clive Davis, Luther Vandross or somebody else, but nobody mentions Michael Zager.
Best regards
Heikki
Heikki,
As a DJ during that time frame, I'll tell you what I believe the problem to be.
Here in N.Y., Michael Zager was known primarily for 3 songs..."Do It With Feeling" which featured Peabo Bryson on lead & "Let's All Chant" & "Love Express" from the 1978 LP, "Let's All Chant" & to a lesser extent, "Music Fever" from the same LP.
A problem with most of the Disco LPs from that period is that too many of them consisted of faceless, studio voices which by their nature, weren't necessarily known to the public, nor the media. And the song "Life's A Party" is more of a group singing in unison & not a solo effort. To be generous, it's not emblematic of the best of Disco Music & the vocal arrangement doesn't allow her voice to cut through, much less shine.
To be fair, the vocal could've been sung by just about any studio singer & sounded the same. To be kind, it's derivative & there's nothing about that vocal which indicated any future brilliance. So considering the context of this song & it's group vocal, it's understandable how it could be forgotten or overlooked. It's not as though he put her voice upfront & center stage as an up & coming star. He presented her voice as though it was that of any number of N.Y. studio singers whom he used on a session.
Beyond that, we all know what happened in 1979 & the whole ''Disco Sucks'' movement & the American media played a HUGE part in that. They cannabalized it & milked it for what they could, the bastardized & lambasted it & danced on its ashes. It was as far from Rock & Pop & when Whitney is discussed, when you consider that she was marketed to the Pop market, it's unlikely that anyone would make reference to her appearance on a Disco LP, especially on a song which has her singing primarily in unison with other singers.
Perhaps had it been a Disco smash along the lines of "Shame" of the like, his name would've been mentioned because there would've been no way to overlook that.
Not a knock, just a few possibilities as to his exclusion as regards her musical development.
Last edited by juicefree20; 02-23-2012 at 01:35 AM.
What's your point Soulster? Maybe her mother didn't wanted her recording at that age.Heikki is just saying that Whitney's singing career didn't begin with Clive. She also sang lead on a track on Bill Laswell's Material album. She also was Chaka's background singer. And she wasn't just a background singer. Heikki already pointed out that she sang lead on that Zager's track.
Last edited by P-Shark: The Revenge; 02-23-2012 at 01:34 AM.
Thank you Juice and P-Shark!
Great analysis!
"Memories" is a fascinating piece. I hadn't heard that before.
Best regards
Heikki
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