25 Years Ago Today We Lost Phyllis Hyman

[sansradio]

Sounds like some of you had soooooooo much more knowledge and inside information that I did, so thanks for sharing it. One thought that crossed my mind back at the time was wondering whether or not the instantaneous career of Whitney Houston took its toll on Phyllis. Perhaps being label-mates she was jealous of Whitney's superstardom and thought it could have/should have been her. Did anyone else ever hear anything like that?

The scuttlebutt was that Clive back-burnered Phyllis for Angela Bofill, then, as Angela's Arista output progressively languished commercially, enter Whitney.

[marv2]

The scuttlebutt was that Clive back-burnered Phyllis for Angela Bofill, then, as Angela's Arista output progressively languished commercially, enter Whitney.

Whitney shut it down for all times!

[Guy]

Whitney shut it down for all times!

Indeed. And yet, sadly, could not outrun her own demons.

[midnightman]

The scuttlebutt was that Clive back-burnered Phyllis for Angela Bofill, then, as Angela's Arista output progressively languished commercially, enter Whitney.

People misinterpret Phyllis' anger at the other female artists as her being mad at them. No, she was mad at Clive for not promoting her as she was. Clive wanted her to be more of a pop singer [[hence why there were songs like Somewhere in My Lifetime, You Sure Look Good to Me - an underrated disco gem btw - and Why Did You Turn Me On) but she wasn't having it. And Clive always internalized Phyllis as not respecting what he was trying to do while Phyllis felt Clive was too controlling [[she publicly called Clive a slave driver more than a few times). Phyllis had no issue with Angela, Dionne, Aretha or Whitney and actually respected them but I'm sure she wanted to warn the younger divas like Angela and Whitney, like "Clive is gonna pass you over when he finds someone else".

But yeah, Whitney succeeded where Angela and Phyllis failed. And that was because Whitney, unlike the other two, was much younger and was more green to the business than P&A, who were already veterans of the music business before Clive got involved with them.