Whitney Houston 1985

 

Whitney Houston is the debut studio album by American singer Whitney Houston. It was released on February 14, 1985, by Arista Records. The album initially had a slow commercial response, but began getting more popular in mid-1985. It eventually topped the Billboard 200 for 14 weeks in 1986, generating three number-one singles—"Saving All My Love for You", "How Will I Know" and "Greatest Love of All"—on the Billboard Hot 100, which made it both the first debut album and the first album by a solo female artist to produce three number-one singles.^[5][6]

The album topped the albums charts in many countries, including Canada,^[7] Australia,^[8] Norway,^[9] and Sweden,^[10] while peaking at number 2 in the United Kingdom,^[11] Germany,^[12] and Switzerland.^[13] The album was certified diamond for shipments of 10 million units or more on March 16, 1999, and later 14× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America on January 27, 2023.^[14][15] With sales of over 25 million copies worldwide, Whitney Houston is one of the best selling albums of all time.^[16]

In 1986, at the 28th Grammy Awards, Whitney Houston received four nominations, including Album of the Year,^[17] and won one, Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, for "Saving All My Love for You".^[18] For the 29th Grammy Awards of 1987, the album earned one nomination for Record of the Year for "Greatest Love of All".^[19] The album has ranked on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in all three editions.^[20][21]

In honor of its 25th anniversary, the album was reissued as Whitney Houston – The Deluxe Anniversary Edition on January 26, 2010, an expanded edition with five bonus tracks including the a cappella version of "How Will I Know" that original 12-inch remixes, a booklet on the history of the original album, along with a DVD of live performances and interviews by Whitney Houston and Clive Davis.^[22] On June 30, 2020, after the 35th anniversary celebration in February 2020, the album re-issued as a double vinyl including the singles from Whitney Dancin' Special. Also, they released a box set including the 40-page hard cover photo and lyric book.

 After seeing Houston perform in a New York City nightclub, Clive Davis believed the singer had the potential to crossover and be the next big superstar. He signed her in 1983 and the two began work on her debut album. Initially Davis had a hard time finding songs for her. Even after elaborate showcases in New York and Los Angeles, many producers turned down the chance to work with her.^[24] It took a year and a half for Jerry Griffith, then-Arista's A&R chief and the one who had recommended Houston to Davis, and Davis to amass suitable songs for the album.^[24] Finally the songwriter-producer Kashif offered to produce "You Give Good Love". Jermaine Jackson, who had emerged from the shadow of his younger brother Michael, produced three songs. Narada Michael Walden revised and then produced "How Will I Know". Michael Masser covered the pop side of the tracks, producing four of his own compositions, including "Saving All My Love for You" and "Greatest Love of All", which had originally been recorded in 1977 by George Benson as "The Greatest Love of All", and was the main theme of the 1977 Muhammad Ali biopic The Greatest. After two years of recording, the album was ready for release. Budgeted at $200,000, it ultimately cost almost $400,000.