Customer Reviews

Whitney Houston

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I didn't get to hear this album until over a year after its release in spring 1986. It is a very fabulous album. Some of the songs are a little sappy in the lyrics, but Whitney overcomes that with her superb voice and range on all of them. There are two songs on here, Someone For Me and Thinkin' About You (the two dance numbers) that give How Will I Know some stiff competition! I have played those songs more than "How". Loved the duets she did with Jermaine Jackson and Teddy Pendergrass. And she sounds superb on the remake of George Benson's "The Greatest Love of All." I still think she sings a little too loud on "All At Once", especially "Though I must face it all alooooooooooone" singing it too loud. I go "Whitney! You sound too loud!" every time those parts come up! I still love "You Give Good Love"--that was the SONG! Whitney at her rawest form there! Although she moved on to pop-oriented stuff and soundtrack hits like "Bodyguard", this is such a unique debut, very R&B. I think they waited a year too late to release the later singles--they sounded better in '85 than '86. It still holds up today every time I hear one of that album's hits on the radio! Timeless songs!!!!!! Heavily imitated by wannabe singers to this day on talent shows, American Idol and the like!

Whitney Houston has suddenly passed away at the tender age of 48. She has led a tumultuous life, with drug abuse, resulting in the ultimate sacrifice: the loss of her golden voice and her life. According to Tommy Mottola, the boss at Sony, he rightly said that Whitney Houston's voice at the beginning of her career was considered the golden standard, to be imitated by other singers that follow.

To truly appreciate the raw talent of Whitney, a greatest hits album is simply not enough. She has 19 charted albums on Billboard 200 Album Chart. This first release is one of her best, when she first started with raw talent as a singer and supermodel. This album stayed at Number 1 for 14 weeks, and has sold over 13 million copies in US. And if you compare with the best selling album of 2011, Adele's 21 only sold over 5 million. So, go figure.

I remember this was one of two CDs that I bought, when I finally decided to convert from vinyl to digital in 1985. The other purchase was ABBA's Greatest Hits. (Now, my CD collection is near 18,000) Of course, I also have Whitney's original album. You cannot beat the much larger, more detailed front and back covers of the vinyl album covers and the analogue sound from my Oracle turntable.

All the songs in this album are top-notched with some rare gems:

Track 01 You Give Good Love (#3/1985)
Track 02 Thimking About You (b-side to Greatest Love Of All)
Track 03 Someone For Me (b-side to How Will I Know)
Track 04 Saving All My Love For You (#1/1985)
Track 05 Nobody Loves Me Like You Do (album track) duet with Jermaine Jackson
Track 06 How Will I Know (#1 for 2 weeks/1985)
Track 07 All At Once (b-side To Saving All My Love For You)
Track 08 Take Good Care Of My Heart (album track) duet with Jermaine Jackson
Track 09 Greatest Love Of All (#1 for 3 weeks/1986)
Track 10 Hold Me (#46/1984) a beautiful duet with Teddy Pendergrass

This first album of Whitney Houston is truly remarkable with so many hits. The audio was very well remastered. Here, you can hear Whitney's at her early rawest best. Highly recommended as part of your Whitney Houston collection.

UPDATE:

One week after Whitney's passing, Whitney's Greatest Hits has re-entered the Billboard 200 Album Chart at #6, while her previous chart-topper I Will Always Love You re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 at #7! In The Catalog Album Chart, Whitney's Greatest Hits reigned supreme, re-entering at Number 1, while her first album, Whitney, re-entered at Number 5 and The Bodyguard Soundtrack at Number 7. Amazing feat!

I love this album. This was Whitney's first album, and her voice is absolutely angelic--just gorgeous. Too bad all of her lifestyle choices over the subsequent 15 years have resulted in the Whitney we have today. Instead of growing into the super-grand diva that this album certainly predicted, we are left with a cracked up, croaky-voiced freakfest.

When Whitney Houston released her debut album in 1985, things took off slowly; radio took a moment to realize how talented this lady was, and some critics had mixed feelings about the album's glossy production. But 25 million copies later, "Whitney Houston" proved the critics wrong.

This is a remastered edition of Whitney's legendary debut and the sound quality is amazing. It also includes five bonus tracks : hard to find remixes of "Someone for me" and "Thinking about you", two versions of "How will I know" (an acapella rendition and an extended dance mix) and a jaw-dropping live version of "Greatest love of all" that's worth the price of the album alone. As for the album's original songs, most of them are already classics, whether they're chart topping singles ("Saving all my love for you", "Greatest love of all", "How will I know", "You give good love", "Hold me") or songs that should have been singles ("All at once", "Nobody loves me like you do"). Best of all, "Greatest love of all" is finally released here in its original grand-piano form, something that fans have been wishing to get for ages (the original CD included the single remix instead). This music has stood the test of time, and has lost none of its timeless appeal.

There has obviously been a lot of thought behind the packaging, from extensive liner notes to rare photos from the early stages of Whitney's career. And though I would have much prefered an interview with the lady herself, Clive Davis' own observations about the album (detailed in a written interview inside the album's booklet) are certainly interesting. This package also includes a bonus DVD which features the four music videos for the album's official singles, a handful of live TV performances and an interview with Whitney and Clive. There's very little doubt that Whitney's loyal fans will be interested by this anniversary edition - and interested they should be, if only to remember what made us fall in love with her voice in the first place.

When Whitney Houston released her debut album in 1985, things took off slowly; radio took a moment to realize how talented this lady was, and some critics had mixed feelings about the album's glossy production. But 25 million copies later, "Whitney Houston" proved the critics wrong.

This is a remastered edition of Whitney's legendary debut and the sound quality is amazing. It also includes five bonus tracks : hard to find remixes of "Someone for me" and "Thinking about you", two versions of "How will I know" (an acapella rendition and an extended dance mix) and a jaw-dropping live version of "Greatest love of all" that's worth the price of the album alone. As for the album's original songs, most of them are already classics, whether they're chart topping singles ("Saving all my love for you", "Greatest love of all", "How will I know", "You give good love", "Hold me") or songs that should have been singles ("All at once", "Nobody loves me like you do"). Best of all, "Greatest love of all" is finally released here in its original grand-piano form, something that fans have been wishing to get for ages (the original CD included the single remix instead). This music has stood the test of time, and has lost none of its timeless appeal.

There has obviously been a lot of thought behind the packaging, from extensive liner notes to rare photos from the early stages of Whitney's career. And though I would have much prefered an interview with the lady herself, Clive Davis' own observations about the album (detailed in a written interview inside the album's booklet) are certainly interesting. This package also includes a bonus DVD which features the four music videos for the album's official singles, a handful of live TV performances and an interview with Whitney and Clive. There's very little doubt that Whitney's loyal fans will be interested by this anniversary edition - and interested they should be, if only to remember what made us fall in love with her voice in the first place.

the ballads on here with jermaine jackson was great. I have to disagree with the main reviewer about the material, the songs were well written and just right for whitney. Its all good.

If there was only one word to explain Whitney Houston debut album, the word will be: POP. Her debut album was her most succesful selling LP ever, and the 10 tracks that were gathered here are just well crafted POP jewels. Pretty far from any early influence she had from New York street sounds or Baptist Church choir gospel music, Clive Davis decided to launch Whitney as a mega-POP artist that would appeal to a wider audience, specially adult contemporary, although was a smash POP hit that stand the title of classic like it or not, felt a little short to become an R&B classic, in fact it wasn't that well receive in urban radio airplay. But after all the music stand and the tracks say it all, "Saving All My Love" a rendition to love affair, "How Will I Know" the eternal question? of if somebody loves us?, "Greatest Love Of All" the most classical uplifting song ever perform by every American Idol fan, "Thinking About You" the R&B song of the album, "All At Once" a simply pleasure, and others, although sometimes sounds dated, this album stand up as a a classic.

This is a classic and a must own for any Whitney Houston fan if you only buy one Whitney Houston album in your lifetime buy this one this album delivers so well the singing, the style, and the pitch of her voice so nice and graceful this is a great classic album to own I love this album just about every track on this album is wonderful and is a classic I love this whole album!!!! This is Whitney's first album so therefore it is her debut album and a very nice one!!!!!

I like the entire cd, all the songs are great. My favorites are "Saving all my love for you" and "Thinking about you"

In addition to Stretch's comment, I think the extra vocals in "Thinking about you" were performed only by two persons: Jermaine Jackson (I hope so!!, cause I like him very much) or Kashif. But it sounds more like Jermaine, don't you think so?

I have nothing else to say, only that Whitney is one of the greatest singers I've ever heard

The 21-year-old singer appeared seemingly out of nowhere in the spring of 1985 and soon went to become one of America's most-loved stars. In a rare feat, three consecutive singles went all the way to the top of US pop charts and helped make "Whitney Houston" one of best-selling debut recordings in pop-music history.

The three singles, ballads "Saving All My Love For You", "Greatest Love Of All" and energetic disco tune "How Will I Know" showcased Whitney's fiery, gospel-trained voice (and videos her great looks, too). However, the album as a whole is not in a vintage category, with too large part of it being stuck in the mid-1980's uninspired black pop. Still, worth mentioning is the ballad "All At Once" and tender duet with Teddy Pendergrass "Hold Me"; interestingly, second part of the album is considerably better than the first, as if the producers were giving listeners a treat for patience.