Word: houstons
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...industry rule is to introduce an album with an up-tempo song. Davis took a risk by releasing two ballads as Houston's first singles. "We wanted You Give Good Love to solidify the black base," he says. "To our surprise, it went to No. 1 on the R.-and-B. charts and No. 3 pop. Then Saving All My Love hit No. 1 R. and B. and No. 1 pop. It's ironic, but Top 40 stations give more exposure to ballads by certain black artists than to those by most whites. Whitney is helping to maintain the ballad...
...Will I Know, she wears just a yard or so of slink swank but still upstages the mod-art gashes of color and moves like the cuddliest disco dervish. The new video for I Wanna Dance with Somebody (directed, like How Will I Know, by Brian Grant) underlines Houston's chameleon charm. In one scene she reprises her Saving All My Love role; in another, she does a Tina Turner shimmy; throughout, she bops till any other mortal would drop...
...March, between takes on this video, the star dragged on a few cigarettes, posed with co-workers for just one more picture and, in a precious spare moment, perched on a stool and zoned out. As a professional model for a third of her life, Houston is used to being stared at, pampered, ordered about, tortured by beauticians' caresses. She doesn't seem to mind; she knows the only eye that matters is the unblinking one with the red light. "From the beginning," she says, "the camera and I were great friends. I know the eye of the camera...
...here she stands -- her carriage immaculate, of course -- poised for the future. It should be no surprise to her, so meticulous are her Svengalis' strategies. Houston denies she is corseted by the evening gowns, the narrow gauge of her songs or the charges of her advisers' puppeteering. "I was the primary mover of my career. I told my people to give me a plan and I'd follow," she says. "And it worked. I traveled and smiled, and it worked...
...Whitney Houston could go Hollywood or even Vegas, become a legend or a lounge act. But for now she is happy to savor the triumph. "I like being a woman," she says, "even in a man's world. After all, men can't wear dresses, but we can wear the pants." If she dares, professionally, to wear the pants -- if her song selection grows with her technique, if she rises to the challenges her voice can already meet -- she may soon hear the sweetest accolade. "Whitney Houston? Great singer! Oh, you mean she's pretty...