Original UK release date ~ 4th November 1985
US chart peak = 1
UK chart peak = 1
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Read my other #WhitneyHouston30 posts here
Read my Whitney Houston album anniversary posts here
WhitneyHouston30:
While the glorious 1987 'Whitney' album was the first opus by Whitney Houston that I owned myself, I was certainly immersed in her music from when her debut album went stratospheric. Like millions of others around the world, my mum was absolutely smitten with the vocal styling of Ms. Houston and lived for the searing emotional stories she would tell. Titled simply Whitney Houston (because what else, in retrospect, could it be called) the album was the perfect introduction to one of the world's most famous singers, a beautiful melange of pop and soul sounds that straddled genres in a way few others could. Her voice simply bought to life tales of romance - whether it be love dashed or the promise of what might be. She knew how to bend a note to her will so that it was delivered in the most effective way for maximum impact (whether it be a quiet moment or a belt it to the rafters experience). Across the ten songs on Whitney Houston she telegraphed every aspect of her future career in exquisite fashion. It is why the album sounds just as magical today as it did when first released. I didn't buy the singles at the time but I did track them down in my peak record collecting phase (early 1990s) - and thus want to celebrate the singles from the stellar debut Whitney Houston album on the anniversary of the day they were released in my native UK. Revisit, re-love and rejoice that we were gifted with such a voice...
Saving All My Love For You:
In the UK, Whitney's breakout US smash, You Give Good Love, may not have set the charts alight (peaking at 93) but her next single, Saving All My Love For You, would establish her as a worldwide star to be reckoned with. Turns out that, although us Brits were at the peak of Madonna mania, we didn't mind a soulful alternative to the wild pop shenanigans of the newly monikered Material Girl. In some respects Ms Houston was just as daring as Lady Ciccone; she just didn't draw attention to it - her debut single was rumoured to have been about the pleasures of the flesh and this track was unmistakably a tale of a woman having an affair with a married man. It wasn't exactly a song I could relate to - even though at age 11 I didn't understand fully the narrative, I did understand the emotion in Whitney's voice. She brings pathos, melancholy, ecstasy and drama to the song without ever being overwrought - an absolute masterclass in vocal delivery that should be studied far and wide. The sumptuous saxophone at the end of the song leaves the wistful yearnings of Ms. Houston lingering for long after the song has finished. In hindsight, it is easy to see why it became such an indelible hit.
While I didn't exactly remember the date that Saving All My Love For You was released in the UK (I had to look it up), I do recall that it was a Monday because my mum, my siblings and I had our Monday after school ritual of going to check out the new music releases at the local record shop. That day, my mum was eager to buy SAMLFY after hearing it on the radio and declaring it "the bee's knees". She was convinced it would be a huge smash. We all sat round listening to the top 40 countdown the following Sunday, only to be disappointed it wasn't in the charts (it debuted at 60). Not to worry - it soon rocketed to become number one for two weeks during the hugely competitive Christmas chart period (a huge deal in England), lingered at number two for a further 3 weeks and set the stage for her debut album becoming a huge UK seller too. For one moment in time, Whitney's passionate ode to a no-win situation was the most elegant, emotive song you would hear on the radio. It was the first of a whopping 7 consecutive number ones Stateside; a record which, I believe, still stands to this day.
(It is worth noting that the UK b-side to Saving... is one of my favourite Whitney songs. All At Once was a single in its own right in a few territories and was a song I kept playing as much as any of the official single releases from the album. There are very few who did heartache as poignantly as Whitney and this is a devastating portrayal of someone whose loss comes suddenly and swiftly, with no warning. Elegiac strings swirled around her melancholy vocals, but it was the pretty piano melody that stood out for me (and it was a song I spent hours trying to perfect myself after my mum bought me the sheet music for my birthday). You are there for every moment of hurt realisation with her, linking it to your own experiences in one huge cathartic release of feelings. When she holds that last note of the titular refrain I still get goosebumps to this very day).
UK chart run ~ 60-23-9-2-1-1-2-2-2-9-19-28-44-56-71-72-78-97
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