Whitney Houston - The Debut Album Review

Whitney Houston is the self-titled debut studio album by American singer Whitney Houston. It was released on February 14, 1985, by Arista Records. The album initially had a slow commercial response, but began getting more popular in the summer of 1985. It eventually topped the Billboard 200 for 14 weeks in 1986, generating three number-one singles—"Saving All My Love for You", "How Will I Know" and "Greatest Love of All" (a cover of "The Greatest Love of All", originally recorded in 1977 by George Benson)—on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, which made it both the first debut album and the first album by a solo female artist to produce three number-one singles.^[4][5] The album topped the albums charts in many countries, including Canada,^[6] Australia,^[7] Norway^[8] and Sweden,^[9] peaking at number 2 in the United Kingdom,^[10] Germany,^[11] and Switzerland.^[12] The album was certified diamond for shipments of 10 million units or more on March 16, 1999, and later 13× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America on July 29, 1999.^[13][14] With sales of over 22 million copies, Whitney Houston is one of the best selling albums of all-time.^[15][16][17]

In 1986, at the 28th Grammy Awards, Whitney Houston received four nominations; including Album of the Year^[18] and won one, Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female for her song "Saving All My Love for You".^[19] For the 29th Grammy Awards of 1987, the album earned one nomination for Record of the Year for "Greatest Love of All".^[20] In 2003, the album was ranked number 254 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.^[21] In its 2012 edition, the album was ranked at number 257.

In honor of its 25th anniversary, the album was reissued as Whitney Houston - The Deluxe Anniversary Edition on January 26, 2010, an expanded edition with five bonus tracks including the a cappella version of "How Will I Know" that original 12-inch remixes, a bookletking the history of the original album, along with a DVD of live performances and interviews by Whitney Houston and Clive Davis.