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New Bubbatunes - Diva 3

bub73 Whitney Houston – Call Me Nippy (February 20, 2007)
I’m sure the biggest question is where the title for this delve into the balladry of that high-octane diva came from – well it wasn’t me. From the time she was but a little model running around her house, everyone (including cousin Dionne Warwick & Auntie Aretha Franklin) called little Whitney, “Nippy.” Since those days, the Whit has even named her production company Nippy Inc. So hey if that’s what makes the crack ho feel comfortable then who am I to judge. Okay, that was pretty harsh but kind of funny. And before we actually get into her music let me just say that though her life was on quite a tragic spiral I kind of liked the wacky Whitney, it made her seem a little more human I think. Of course she wasn’t as great as the whacked out Mariah who only became interesting to me at all when she was all out of control. For Whitney I think all of us really wanted to see her get better and it seems with her impending divorce we may get the wish.

The problem when these divas hit bottom is they always insist on staging some kind of come back to prove they are still wonderful. It becomes quite apparent that they are not. In the midst of Mariah’s downfall she made two bad albums and a bad movie, Whitney tried to win fans back with Just Whitney but she was so bitchy on the album no one cared. So unfortunately for her, but lucky for us our little compilation has overlooked the mistake that was her last album and we instead concentrate on her great outputs.

Whitney’s debut album in 1985 pretty much arrived under my radar, living in Rhinelander Wisconsin, the R&B hits weren’t exactly played on the radio but I recall stepping into the record store and seeing her single for “You Give Good Love” right there in the top 10. I had no idea who she was or what the song was as I had never heard it. Of course it was only a matter of months before her second single, the bombastic “Saving All My Love For You” was all over the radio and I (or anyone else) would never wonder who Whitney Houston was again.

When I was a kid I used to fall asleep to the radio, I would hop into bed to the bristling sounds of WIFC 95.5 FM and fall asleep to the hits of the day. One night in 1985, there I was in bed and I recall hearing “Saving All My Love For You” and actually getting out of bed hoping to find out who sang the song. Now I’m not the sentimental mush type and wasn’t even back then but there was something utterly captivating about the voice and the whole song. The song isn’t so much a love song about someone leaving you or even how so much how in love you are, she is basically the mistress in the song refusing to get a man of her own because she wants to keep it going with this one. It was and still is interesting.

Of course the single became big and by the time Whitney was dancing around with her third single, the more pop jumpy “How Will I Know” she had become a bonafide star. I bought the cassette and actually listened to it all the time. Of course her dancy stuff from those days has a more dated sound while her ballads are pretty much timeless, there’s something kind of safe and comfortable in those 80’s synth dance beats. When Whitney made her official Greatest Hits album one CD was her ballads while the second CD was the dance cuts, all of which had been remixed and updated. I understand the reasoning but I really wanted the originals. How can it be a greatest hits if her greatest hits are unrecognizable?

Lucky for you, Bubbatunes went with the originals on her dance hits, so “How Will I Know” is exactly how you remember it from that summer of ’85, as is her first single from her follow up album “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)” which is another song that gives me the warm fuzzies. Apparently when asked if Whitney had any regrets about her career, she said she had two and they were the videos for “How Will I Know” and “I Wanna Dance…” which is sad because I love the videos, particularly the Dance one – those boys she was dancing with were hot especially the cowboy in his underwear…

Where was I? Oh yeah, Whits, and our little Nippy can take any ballad and completely charge it full of power and though I’m not one to love ballads, Whitney’s ballads have always touched me in some way. I absolutely adore “Didn’t We Almost Have It All” with its so sad our love is over but what can you do? Type of mentality, and “All The Man That I Need” which Whitney claims as a song about God but to me it’s really about that perfect man. I love it.

Of course her other big ballad from her self titled debut is her cover of “Greatest Love Of All” – I know what you’re thinking, “That’s a cover song?” Yeah, someone else sang it first but like Whitney, we’ve all claimed it as our own. She belts the shizz out of the song and where it could run into cheesiness it never actually makes it hilarious to me, as I really love those lyrics, “I believe the children are our future/ treat them well and let them lead the way…” but of course it’s the idea that the greatest love of all is found within yourself and I love, love the lyrics, “Everybody’s searching for a hero/ people need someone to look up to/ I never found anyone to fulfill the need/ a lonely place to find/ so I learned to depend on me…” It is striking and scathing yet beautifully true.

Our heaviest album featured on Call Me Nippy is Whitney’s debut album and with the highlights of the hits “Saving All My Love For You”, “Greatest Love Of All” and “How Will I Know”, so there is room for others as well including my all time favorite song on that debut “All At Once” – a slightly over the top ballad that’s set to a more upbeat contemporary tempo that just piano, Whitney cries out that her man is gone and it all just hit her at once. It’s a great performance and it really struck a chord for me for some reason.

Whitney first came to prominence by singing back up and doing a duet with Teddy Pendergrass (“Hold Me”), so it was probably a no brainer to include duets in her early career and for Whitney Houston, they hooked her up with Jermaine Jackson. The best of the cuts they do together is “Nobody Loves Me Like You Do” which once again, just strikes some strange chord in me. I think it’s sweet and nice and tender. I guess I can be a sucker sometimes too.

Lest we forget Whitney had a top ten hit before I ever heard of her, we’ve included “You Give Good Love” a soft mid tempo R&B celebration of love that is actually one of the weaker songs in her catalogs but one that still can’t be ignored. It’s still so hard to believe at the time of all these songs she was a mere 19 years old.. oh Nippy how far you’ve come.

By 1987, Whitney was ready for her second album and the first release was “I Wanna Dance…” which had me be bopping along, then came that wonderful ballad Of “Didn’t We Almost Have It All” but the Nips wasn’t done pushing the singles out quite yet – two more dance tracks would follow “So Emotional” and the interesting and somewhat strange for Whitney, “Love Will Save The Day” and there was even another hit ballad “Where Do Broken Hearts Go”, another song that I always liked though apparently it’s one Whitney almost didn’t record because she didn’t like it. Well, huh?

I’m Your Baby Tonight was Whitney’s third album and since so many years had passed in between albums so had the music scene, but that isn’t enough to stop Whitney. No, siree she just hopped on the trail and hired LA Reid and Babyface to produce a few songs. The big hit was the title cut and those boys proved a great find behind the power house Whitney, she was a little more carefree, a little more sure and a lot more funky.

But funky was only for funky’s case because the second single was the aforementioned “All The Man I Need” and her very next recording would be the one to blow the lid off of the world. “I Will Always Love You” a bombastic cover of a fairly restrained Dolly Parton song, Whitney was heard everywhere belting and belting. Personally, the song or rather her performance grew tired rather quickly but occasionally it’s all right to hear and it should really be included on a Whitney mix so I threw it on at the end.

“I Will Always Love You” was from The Bodyguard, Whitney’s big film debut but it’s hardly the only song that came from the soundtrack album and the much more enjoyable cover of Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman” is a great time every single time I hear it. Although I am starting to think I only go through the song so I can get to the end where Whitney screams, “Chaka! Chaka Kahn!” which I always thought was awesome.

Rather than rely too heavily on her ballads that sprung from The Bodyguard I decided I wanted other Whitney songs on my compilation so we moved right past the rest of the soundtrack and went to her next film Waiting To Exhale, which is also a better movie if you want my honest to Jesus. The film is a great sound off to the African American woman and Whitney isn’t the only star so it’s much easier to watch and once again with the help of Babyface, her “Exhale (Shoop Shoop)” showed Whitney could be just as musically current as any Hottie hitting the scene. A slower mid tempo declaration of life, and how no matter how bad it can get, if you’ve got friends who care, you will reach the point where you can exhale.. shoop, shoop.

I originally had the single “I Believe In You & Me” from her film The Preacher’s Wife on the first editions of Call Me Nippy, but the song’s a bit of a bore and I really wanted the more urban world of Whitney that she created when she bounced back from fairly lackluster sales with the 1998 album My Love Is Your Love. It’s really the only other Whitney album (besides the debut) to own and some would probably argue its miles above even the debut. Full of great singles that went from “Heartbreak Hotel” to “I Learned From The Best” it showed a current and new side to Whitney.

But two other singles that captured my attention were the title track and “It’s Not Right But It’s Okay” – both were big hits and became even bigger hits when remixed with just slightly more dance feelings. I love the remix that was used on the single for “My Love Is Your Love” and that is the version we use here. The song is our opening track as it is probably my all time fav Whitney tune, full of love and what would happen if’s, the song sets an urban tale of woe should the whole world just implode at least she knows that her love is your love and my love is your love and that is love, or something like that. It’s an excellent song.

The remix of the single for “It’s Not Right But It’s Okay,” is used here as well. The song in its original form is a already a great song and definitely one of her better singles but when Thunderpuss remixed it into a full on attitude dance hit, Whitney liked it so much she went back and redid the video to use the new remix version; and if it’s good enough for Nippy then it’s good enough for Bubba.

Whitney Houston – Call Me Nippy (bub73)
Track List:
01. My Love Is Your Love (Wycleaf Jean Remix)
02. Didn’t We Almost Have It All
03. How Will I Know
04. All The Man That I Need
05. All At Once
06. So Emotional
07. Greatest Love Of All
08. I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)
09. I’m Your Baby Tonight
10. Saving All My Love For You
11. Where Do Broken Hearts Go
12. I’m Every Woman
13. You Give Good Love
14. Love Will Save The Day
15. Exhale (Shoop Shoop)
16. It’s Not Right But It’s Okay (Thunderpuss Remix)
17. Nobody Loves Me Like You Do
18. I Will Always Love You

Labels: bub73, Bubbatunes, diva, Whitney Houston

posted by swivek @ 12:24 PM