Oct 24 2008
Whitney, Where Art Thou?
Whitney Houston- as she appeared in 1992’s The Bodyguard- seemingly has disappeared into the clouds, with nary a musical peep out of her since 2002. A new album is planned for release in early 2009. (image courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)
Forget Where’s Waldo- it’s more a matter of “Where’s Whitney?”
Nearly six years since the release of her last album Just Whitney, we’re still waiting for Ms. Houston to deliver a new studio album. The only new material she’s released since was an album of Christmas music titled One Wish- The Holiday Album, which has scanned slightly more than 400,000 units, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Just Whitney, meanwhile, stands as Houston’s lowest-selling studio album to date, at less than 740,000 copies- that represented a serious decline from 1998’s four-million-selling My Love is Your Love.
This decade has been particularly rough for Houston, with her acknowledged drug abuse, time in and out of rehab and her broken marriage to Bobby Brown. In terms of her career, the singer’s last top 10 hit (heck, top 40 hit) on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart was “The Star Spangled Banner” in 2001; that career-defining single was re-released following the September 11 terrorist attacks. Thereafter, Just Whitney failed to spawn any top 40 singles; the set’s second single, “One of Those Days,” got as high as No. 72.
Houston reportedly is at work on a new album with mentor Clive Davis; the record originally was due for release this fall, but was pushed back to early next year (a rather mediocre new track was posted on Houston’s MySpace profile a few months back- whether it makes the album remains to be seen). People are waiting to see if she can enjoy a comeback along the lines of Mariah Carey, who rose from the ashes of Glitter and Charmbracelet to score one of her biggest albums yet, 2005’s The Emancipation of Mimi. That album sold some six million units in the USA; with album sales diminishing as they are, there’s little chance a Houston comeback album would sell anywhere near that total. But, if the material strikes a chord and gets some “The-Voice-is-Back” hype behind it, sales of two million would be considered a rousing success.
Few probably would expect a success along those lines at this stage. More importantly, fans just want to hear some new Whitney. With 19 top 10 hits, 12 No.1s and nearly 60 million albums sold in the USA, Houston doesn’t need to prove herself commercially at this point. Furthermore, her legacy is sealed- while she’s never been a big critical favorite, her 1985 debut album arguably set the template for female pop/R&B to come in her wake (much like Madonna’s 1983 debut did so for pop/dance).
With that debut, Houston showcased an angelic voice that could move more than a few mountains, and while the quality of that voice may have diminished during some turbulent years, fans hope she can reclaim that template-setting glory, at least to some degree. The music world is a fickle one, especially when one’s been gone from the scene as long as Houston has; the fact that she’s also now a woman in her mid-40s is another challenge to overcome, in the ageist U.S. radio climate.
However, if there’s someone worth rooting for in scoring a comeback, it’s Houston. She’s been as down as someone can get, and she’s survived the raw and gritty rock-and-roll lifestyle that has destroyed others, both personally and professionally. She may never live down “Crack is whack,” but if she can return to at least some of the glorious vocal greatness of her peak, then fans really meant it when they said, “I Will Always Love You.”
