Whitney Houston - Whitney Houston (1985) {Japan 1st Press}

16 May, 11:01
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Artist: Whitney Houston
Title: Whitney Houston
Year Of Release: 1985
Label: Arista / Nippon Phonogram Co., Ltd. #32RD-31
Genre: R&B, Soul
Quality: EAC Rip -> FLAC (Img+Cue, Log) / MP3 CBR320
Total Time: 00:47:23
Total Size: 308 / 114 Mb (Full Scans ~ 356 Mb)
WebSite: Album Preview

Whitney Houston is the eponymous debut album of American R&B and pop 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 the summer of 1985, and it eventually topped the Billboard 200 for 14 weeks in 1986, generated three number-one singles — "Saving All My Love for You", "How Will I Know" and "Greatest Love of All". The album in these very rare cases, it began to enjoyed the global success by a new black female artist, topping the albums chart in many countries such as Canada, Australia, Norway and Sweden, peaking at number 2 in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Switzerland. The album was certified diamond for shipments of 10 million units or more on March 16, 1999, and later 13× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America on July 29, 1999, making it one of the top 100 best-selling albums in the United States. It has sold over 30 million copies worldwide. In 1986, at the 28th Grammy Awards, Whitney Houston received four nominations; including Album of the Year and won one, Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female for "Saving All My Love for You". For the 29th Grammy Awards of 1987, the album earned one nomination for Record of the Year for "Greatest Love of All". In 2003, the album was ranked number 254 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

As big a hit as it was – and it was a multi-platinum blockbuster, spinning off several chart-toppers – it’s not easy to think of Whitney Houston’s 1985 debut as the dawning of a new era, but it was. Arriving in the thick of MTV, when the slick sounds of yacht-soul were fading, Whitney Houston is the foundation of diva-pop, straddling clean, cheery R&B and big ballads designed with the adult contemporary audience in mind. Houston’s background lay in the former – actually, it was even riskier, encompassing a stint with the experimental Bill Laswell outfit Material – and her benefactor Clive Davis knew all about selling records to the masses. Appealing as this album is, Davis may never have imagined how Whitney Houston would shift tastes, pushing toward skyscraping ballads where the singer’s affectations, not the songs, were paramount – a move that later led to hollow records, but on Whitney Houston the songs were as important as the immaculate productions. Certainly, the showstopping “Greatest Love of All” provided the blueprint for decades of divas, but it’s the only overblown moment here, with the rest of the ballads – notably “Saving All My Love for You” and “You Give Good Love” – burning slowly and seductively, but what really impresses some 20-plus years on are the lighter tracks, particularly the breakthrough single “How Will I Know” and the unheralded “Thinking About You,” a dance/R&B hit co-written by Kashif that remains one of Whitney’s purest pop pleasures. These joyful, rhythmic moments faded away from Houston’s later work – and also rarely surfaced on the records of those who followed her – but their presence on this debut turns this into a fully rounded record, the rare debut that manages to telegraph every aspect of an artist's career in a mere ten songs.

~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music

Track List:

01. How Will I Know [0:04:32.07]
02. All At Once [0:04:29.68]
03. Take Good Care Of My Heart (Duet With Jermaine Jackson) [0:04:21.67]
04. Greatest Love Of All [0:04:58.18]
05. Hold Me (Duet With Teddy Pendergrass) [0:06:05.12]
06. You Give Good Love [0:04:36.73]
07. Thinking About You [0:05:28.40]
08. Someone For Me [0:05:01.50]
09. Saving All My Love For You [0:04:01.12]
10. Nobody Loves Me Like You Do (Duet With Jermaine Jackson) [0:03:47.43]

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