“The Greatest Love Of All” was already a punchline by the time Sexual Chocolate got a hold of it in Coming To America, and maybe it was a punchline for several good reasons. But certainly none of those reasons are anything Whitney Houston brought to the song. She sold that junior high graduation hymn better than any mortal could ever expect to. Bette Midler could belt the heck out of “From A Distance,” and Mariah Carey could make your mom cry with “Hero,” but neither ever convinced me they were really, truly feeling it. Whitney made “The Greatest Love Of All” schmaltz we can believe in.
Maybe a bit of Desert Storm-fueled jingoism helped Whitney’s Super Bowl “Star Spangled Banner” hit #20 in 1991…but a decade later, in the weeks after the 9/11 attacks, when we needed not just patriotism but hope and comfort, we put her “Star Spangled Banner” back on the Billboard chart, and we put it there 14 spots higher than last time. (Hell, in 2001, Whitney’s “Star Spangled Banner” charted in gosh-darned Canada.) To date, her version is the only version of our national anthem ever to hit Billboard. Hendrix’s Woodstock version never charted, and they played some out-there shit on the radio back in ‘69.
Now take a moment to consider just how many singers have sang “The Star Spangled Banner” in the 54 years we’ve had Billboard charts.
Yes, along the way Whitney lost her power. They could- and they did- take away her dignity. But it’ll be much harder to take away her many, many Moments in Time, when she was more than anyone thought she could be. And I absolutely realize how saccharine this all sounds as I write this, and yet when I hear Whitney sing it, I believe it, because I believe she believed it.
Nicely done Joe!
Thanks again, Mr. Smooth!
I will never ever forget you Whitney