Whitney Houston was born on August 9, 1963 in Newark, N.J. to Cissy Houston, a gospel singer. Whitney began singing in a gospel choir at age 11; she went on to work as a backup singer for Chaka Khan and Lou Rawls. Whitney also began working as model in her late teens. "Discovered" in a nightclub by Arista Records A&R man Clive Davis, Whitney's eponymous debut was released in 1985 and became an instant success. With singles like "The Greatest Love of All" and "Saving All My Love For You," the R&B-influenced pop album sat at No. 1 for 14 weeks, selling 12 million copies in the U.S. alone, the most commercially successful debut album by a female artist (recently topped by Alanis Morrisette's Jagged Little Pill).
Houston's second album, simply entitled Whitney, was the first ever album by a female artist to enter the charts at No. 1. The 1987 LP went on to sell over 9 million copies and spawn four No. 1 singles: "I Wanna Dance With Somebody," "Didn't We Almost Have It All," "Where Do Broken Hearts Go," and "So Emotional." After taking three years off, Houston returned in 1990 with I'm Your Baby Tonight, which strayed from her pop formula with R&B and hip-hop infused tracks. Though it peaked at No. 3 and went quadruple platinum, the album was a bit of a disappointment for Houston and producer Babyface.
Shifting gears, Whitney made her acting debut in the 1992 film The Bodyguard, co-staring with actor Kevin Costner. The movie itself grossed $400 million, better than expected, but the soundtrack, recorded by Whitney, was an even more amazing commercial success, selling over 16 million copies -- at one point, it sold one million copies a week! The ballad-heavy album spent 20 weeks at No. 1 in the U.S., and also reached No. 1 in the U.K. and other countries. The first single from the soundtrack, the Dolly Parton cover "I Will Always Love You," spent 14 weeks at No. 1 and sold nearly five million copies, making it the best selling single of all time.
After taking some time off to marry pop star Bobby Brown in 1992 and give birth to her first child, Bobbi Kristina, in 1993, Houston returned to acting with 1995's Waiting to Exhale, for which, of course, she also recorded three soundtrack songs. Though neither the movie nor the album was as successful as The Bodyguard, the soundtrack reached No. 1 and sold five million copies in the U.S. alone. 1996's The Preacher's Wife once again tried to duplicate the Bodyguard formula, but the movie flopped and the gospel-oriented soundtrack only reached No. 3.
1998 saw the release of the disastorous My Love Is Your Love which, despite being her first studio album in eight years, debuted in the lower regiens of the Top Ten.
