American singer Whitney Houston needs no introduction, her awe-inspiring vocals have conquered every imaginable mountain in the music industry, her universal appeal endearing her to millions. What was the first song that the powerhouse vocalist first released?
Whitney Houston’s first song was an R&B duet entitled “Hold Me” with Teddy Pendergrass on his album, but her first solo song was “Someone For Me”. Technically, there was a single prior to this, but it was unreleased.
Houston’s powerful vocals have forever etched her into the history of music, her range of vocal talent, and the quality of her overall discography, making her arguably one of the greatest recording artists of all time.
Her very first single didn’t achieve a chart position, perhaps due to it only being released in Europe, but the rest of the debut album was so packed with hits that it didn’t matter. Both the album and numerous other singles achieved top 10 chart positions, including the number one spot in some cases.
Houston’s First Song
Although she eventually showed some interest in the song-writing aspect of her music, Houston’s primary domain was performing. Ever since she was a child this had interested her, beginning with the church she attended, where she also learned to play piano in addition to her mesmerizing voice.
This meant that even when Houston finally received a recording contract, championed by Gerry Griffith and Clive Davis of Arista Records, there would be a few years of delay between the signing and the release of any music. This delay was mainly to give the label time to find a suitable setup and accompanying producers.
In the meantime, we were treated to Houston’s first feature on a studio produced single. Not as a solo release, but as a duet with Teddy Pendergrass. Released almost a full year before her own singles or album, the duet was Houston’s first trip to the top of the charts, snagging the number five spot on Billboard’s US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.
The First Single and The First Album
Although her first song was the Jermaine Jackson produced “Someone For Me”, her debut single was “Thinking About You”. The track came on the self-titled album Whitney Houston, and although those who worked with her knew that she was going to be huge, at the time of the first single’s release the only hint we had of her success was her duet with Pendergrass.
The debut single came out of the gates strong, managing to break its way onto the Billboard chart that she had enjoyed time on during her duet. As it turned out, this was just the beginning.
Over the course of the singles from the album being released, she would go from strength to strength, storming and dominating almost every single chart. The album itself enjoyed a similar level of success, occupying the top spot in the US, Australian, Canadian and Swedish charts.
The Impact of Her Releases
The fame that her breakout album and singles generated were doubtlessly important to her career as a whole, near-instantly garnering her a solid fanbase. More importantly, though, much of Houston’s success with her first songs had a cultural impact that transcended sales statistics or radio plays.
Her immeasurable talent allowed her to switch between genres, capturing an audience with the kind of breadth and depth that her peers could only dream of, especially for an African American woman during that time. We can still see some of that influence in the number of musicians and singers who followed in her footsteps, who will swear by the effect that Houston had on them.
The legendary track was written by Dolly Parton from The Bodyguard soundtrack, “I Will Always Love You,” will likely forever be tied to that legacy, owing to the mind boggling amount of success that it had. It spent months in the limelight, locking up the top spot in every chart in almost every corner of the globe, staying there for months in some cases.
So, even though her first song or her first single might not be as memorable as the debut release of some other artists, the history that she wrote in the wake of her stellar and near-spotless career certainly will be.