Whitney Houston Contributed to 2 of the Bestselling Soundtracks of All Time
After decades of success and fame, it may not come as a surprise to you that Whitney Houston contributed to one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time, but two — that’s phenomenal and is quite honestly, one of the best ways to sum of the R&B singer’s talent and abilities.
Her vocals and range have always been distinct and unique — well beyond what many of us see today — but it was her additional presence and performance that stole the show in most cases. It was amazing how well she could captivate her audience, and it shows in the soundtracks many of us still listen to today.
Whitney Houston’s music career, biggest hits, and untimely death
Houston was no stranger to music as a child, often singing beside her mother in gospels. By the time she was 19, she was discovered in a nightclub and made her first TV appearance singing “Home” on The Griffin Show.
Not long after, her debut album Whitney Houston made its way into the mainstream and quickly caught fire, introducing hits like “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)” and “How Will I Know.”
She would earn 11 number one songs (alongside many more memorable hits) before her untimely death in February 2012, when she was found in Beverly Hilton Hotel after a Grammy party.
Biography reports that it was confirmed an accidental drowning due to “heart disease and cocaine found in her system.”
According to MsMojo, her top five biggest hits are “How Will I Know,” “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me),” “I Have Nothing,” Didn’t We Almost Have it All,” and “I Will Always Love You.”
The premise of ‘The Bodyguard’
The Bodyguard was a romantic thriller that became a two-time Oscar nominee and hit the big screens in ’92, starring Whitney Houston as Rachel Marron and Kevin Costner as Frank Farmer.
The movie followed an R&B sensation (Houston) stalked and threatened by an unknown fan, so her manager brings in a Secret Service agent (Costner) to keep her safe. Despite his professional and intense nature, the two grow romantically close throughout the experience. They know it won’t work out, though, so they part ways in the end.
The movie received significantly high ratings, earning prestigious nominees and winning awards like the MTV Movie + TV Awards, Grammy Awards, and a Golden Screen, Germany.
Two best-selling movie soundtracks
Believe it or not, Houston almost wasn’t cast in her hit role. Instead, Diana Ross could’ve been the hit star and vocals behind our favorite soundtrack hits, but she was ultimately too difficult to work with.
On the other hand, Costner spent a significant amount of time convincing Houston to take the part, telling her he would not let her ‘fall’ in her first film feature. Luckily, she agreed because it would not only jumpstart her already-flourishing popularity but would bring some of the greatest music to our ears.
According to Audicus, the top two movie soundtracks are The Bodyguard and Saturday Night Fever, with The Bodyguard sitting at number one by more than five million in sales. In another soundtrack, Waiting to Exhale debuted just three short years later – Houston made another top-ten bestseller with an 11-time Grammy nominee album.
IMDb adds that “originally ‘I Will Always Love You’ wasn’t in the movie – the big single was ‘What Becomes of the Brokenhearted.’ When that song was used in Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), Kevin Costner suggested ‘I Will Always Love You.'”
Fortunately, all the loose ends of the movie fell into place, and we not only got Whitney Houston in the primetime of her career, the beautiful vocals of her hit single ‘I Will Always Love You,’ and Kevin Costner, who made sure it all happened.
