by Michael P. Coleman
With the new Live: Her Greatest Performances, Whitney Houston’s fans almost have it all.
Many media outlets are expressing surprise that, before now, Houston had never released a live album.
She still hasn’t.
Since The Voice left us almost three years ago, and since Clive Davis seems hell bent to keep a full concert album from us, we’ll take what we can get. The sixteen song collection offers most of her best live televised performances in chronological order, giving her fans a jubilant “career concert” of sorts.
Like most of Houston’s recorded output, Live: Her Greatest Performances (released on CD and DVD) is a stirring collection that could have been much better with a little tweaking. Also, like every one of her albums after her 1985 debut, it falls just short of living up to her label’s promotional hype or her own immense talent.
That said, the new collection is a must-have for Houston’s fans. Vocally, she doesn’t give her critics much to carp about. The album begins with her 1983 Merv Griffin Show performance of The Wiz‘ “Home”, performed two years before the release of her eponymous debut album, during which Houston trumpeted her prodigious talent. Other highlights of the CD are her playful, fiery “How Will I Know” from the 1987 BRIT Awards, her pitch-perfect “One Moment In Time” from the 1989 Grammy’s, and her triumphant “Greatest Love Of All” from Arista’s 1990 15th Anniversary concert.
The CD also includes a stirring “I Loves You, Porgy / And I Am Telling You” / I Have Nothing” medley from the 1994 American Music Awards, a ferocious “I Will Always Love You” from Houston’s 1994 “Concert For A New South Africa”, and a masterful “A Song For You” from the singer’s 1991 “Welcome Home Heroes” HBO special. These cuts and others showcase Houston’s fusion of the fire and fury of Aretha Franklin with the polish and poise of Diana Ross, creating a new blueprint for a generation of singers who followed her. Throughout these cuts, Houston’s glorious octave leaps, her crystalline soprano, her gospel-inspired mid-range belt, and her near-brilliant lyrical improvisations are there in all of their glory.
As thrilling as these selections are, there are disappointments on Live: Her Greatest Performances. A live version of Houston’s first #1 hit, “Saving All My Love For You”, is conspicuously absent, for example. The album’s version of “Greatest Love Of All” was released just a few years ago on an anniversary edition of her debut album. Houston’s voice is bolstered by backing tracks on “I’m Every Woman.” And as thrilling as her lip-synched version of “The Star Spangled Banner” was at Superbowl XXV, it WAS lip-synched. As such, it hardly belongs on a collection of greatest “live” moments. These tracks could have been jettisoned in exchange for performances like her exceptional live duet of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” with CeCe Winans, or Houston’s own “All At Once” performance from the 1987 American Music Awards.
The accompanying DVD is even more perplexing, as it includes not only Houston’s Superbowl pantomime, but a promotional video of one of Houston’s lesser-known hits, 1999’s “My Love Is Your Love”.
On one hand, the collection’s chronological presentation allows Houston’s fans an almost tangible walk down memory lane with one of modern pop music’s greatest vocalists. On the other, that same stroll winds up offering a bird’s eye view of a vocal titan in decline. By the collection’s end, it’s a battered, husky Houston who brings Oprah Winfrey and her 2009 studio audience to tears with Diane Warren’s “I Didn’t Know My Own Strength.” It’s a testament to Houston’s gift that she was able to move O’s audience so significantly, even with a fraction of her former voice at her command. In hindsight, it’s also a bittersweet moment. In the months before her death just over two years later, it became clear that Houston had eventually forgotten the inner strength about which she so convincingly sang on Oprah.
In sum, you’ll enjoy Houston’s Live: Her Greatest Performances. Just make sure you have a few tissues handy.
Click here for a Wall Street Journal interview with Clive Davis about the curation of the new album and DVD.
Michael P. Coleman is a Sacramento, California-based freelance writer who‘s saving all his love for you. Connect with him at michaelpcoleman.com, via email at mikelsmindseye@me.com, or on Twitter: @ColemanMichaelP
