Whitney Houston Live: Her Greatest Performances
Live album by
Whitney Houston
ReleasedNovember 10, 2014
Recorded1983–2009
Genre
Length79:38 (CD)
101:58 (DVD)
LabelLegacy Recordings
Whitney Houston chronology
I Will Always Love You: The Best of Whitney Houston
(2012)		 Whitney Houston Live: Her Greatest Performances
(2014)		 I Wish You Love: More from The Bodyguard
(2017)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
NY Daily News[2]
Buffalo News[3]
NewsdayA[4]

Whitney Houston Live: Her Greatest Performances is a posthumous live album by American recording artist Whitney Houston. It was released on November 10, 2014 by Legacy Recordings, a division of Sony Music Entertainment.

Content and release

Following the week of the album's release, Whitney Houston Live: Her Greatest Performances made Billboard chart debuts, the album sold 22,000 copies in the week ending November 16. According to Nielsen SoundScan, it entered at the top on the Top R&B Albums chart, second place on the R&B/Hip Hop chart, and number 19 on the Billboard 200.[5][6] 30% of the album sales were digital, the first time Houston has achieved that.[7] The success of it topping the R&B Albums chart made Houston the first female artist to have a number one R&B album in four decades, later joined by Janet Jackson's Unbreakable a year later.

Critical reception

Upon its release, Whitney Houston Live: Her Greatest Performances garnered enormous critical acclaim and praise. Giving it 5 stars, Jim Farber of NYDAILYNEWS, praised the album saying, 'The recordings here—with their odd echoes, imperfect playing, and wavering ambiences—show that Houston performed even better without a net than with one. The performances also work wonders in disproving the image of her, in her shiniest years, as a too-perfect wax figure of a star.' He further added, 'Only in concert did Houston, who died in 2012, show the full range of her talent. Shorn of the studio’s confining arrangements and gauzy production, the Newark native had the freedom to display those hairpin turns of phrase, last-second switches in key and playful improvisations that rank her among the greatest singers of all time.' Glenn Gamboa of Newsday gave it Grade A and wrote, 'Houston was an extraordinary singer, an artist who rarely delivered a song the same way twice. Early on, her improvised inflections, her runs, her stops and starts—they all seemed brilliantly planned and elegantly executed. "Whitney Houston Live" documents how great the singer was before her death in 2012 and builds a strong case that her talent should outlast her tabloid exploits.'

Jeff Simon of BuffaloNews, gave the album 4 stars and wrote, 'While three quarters of the female singers on TV singing contests seem to want to be Houston, what she does on this disc makes them all seem like kindergarten kids wiping their noses on their sleeves.' He further stated, 'She wasn’t long for this world. But when it came to stuff like this, find me anyone in her time that did it better. Maybe, if we’re lucky no one again will ever try.'

The Slant Magazine review noted that the song list, apart from a few obvious inclusions, was inexplicable and did little to showcase the range of Whitney Houston's live talent. Andrew Chan closes with the insight that "the myth of her perfection may make her studio work definitive, but at the height of her powers, Whitney was an artist born for the stage, where her voice could pour forth unrestrained by the limits of a booth."[8]

Track listing

CD

No.TitleWriter(s)Taken Live FromLength
1."Home"Charlie SmallsThe Merv Griffin Show, 19834:39
2."You Give Good Love"LaLaThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, 19854:16
3."How Will I Know"George Merrill, Shannon Rubicam, Narada Michael WaldenThe BRIT Awards, 19874:01
4."One Moment in Time"Albert Hammond, John Bettis31st Annual Grammy Awards, 19895:33
5."Greatest Love of All"Linda Creed, Michael MasserThat's What Friends Are For: Arista Records 15th Anniversary Concert, 19906:50
6."I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)"Merrill, RubicamThat's What Friends Are For: Arista Records 15th Anniversary Concert, 19904:27
7."The Star Spangled Banner"Francis Scott Key, John Stafford SmithSuper Bowl XXV, 19912:15
8."All the Man That I Need"Dean Pitchford, Michael GoreWelcome Home Heroes, 19915:07
9."I'm Your Baby Tonight"L.A. Reid, BabyfaceWelcome Home Heroes, 19914:28
10."A Song for You"Leon RussellWelcome Home Heroes, 19916:04
11."Medley: I Loves You Porgy / And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going / I Have Nothing"George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin / Tom Eyen, Henry Krieger / David Foster, Linda ThompsonThe 21st Annual American Music Awards, 199410:01
12."I'm Every Woman"Nickolas Ashford, Valerie SimpsonThe Concert for a New South Africa, 19943:55
13."I Will Always Love You"Dolly PartonThe Concert for a New South Africa, 19945:59
14."My Love Is Your Love"Wyclef Jean, Jerry DuplessisLate Show with David Letterman, 19983:46
15."I Believe in You and Me"Sandy Linzer, David WolfertThe 16th Annual World Music Awards, 20043:45
16."I Didn't Know My Own Strength"Diane WarrenThe Oprah Winfrey Show, 20094:35
Total length:79:38

DVD

No.TitleWriter(s)Taken Live FromLength
1."Home"Charlie SmallsThe Merv Griffin Show, 19837:28
2."You Give Good Love"LaLaThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, 19854:59
3."How Will I Know"George Merrill, Shannon Rubicam, Narada Michael WaldenThe BRIT Awards, 19874:12
4."One Moment in Time"Albert Hammond, John Bettis31st Annual Grammy Awards, 19895:49
5."Greatest Love of All"Linda Creed, Michael MasserThat's What Friends Are For: Arista Records 15th Anniversary Concert, 19907:03
6."I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)"Merrill, RubicamThat's What Friends Are For: Arista Records 15th Anniversary Concert, 19905:41
7."The Star Spangled Banner"Francis Scott Key, John Stafford SmithSuper Bowl XXV, 19912:22
8."All the Man That I Need"Dean Pitchford, Michael GoreWelcome Home Heroes, 19916:41
9."I'm Your Baby Tonight"L.A. Reid, BabyfaceWelcome Home Heroes, 19914:27
10."A Song for You"Leon RussellWelcome Home Heroes, 19916:17
11."Medley: I Loves You Porgy / And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going / I Have Nothing"George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin / Tom Eyen, Henry Krieger / David Foster, Linda ThompsonThe 21st Annual American Music Awards, 199410:05
12."I'm Every Woman"Nickolas Ashford, Valerie SimpsonThe Concert for a New South Africa, 19945:17
13."I Will Always Love You"Dolly PartonThe Concert for a New South Africa, 19949:13
14."My Love Is Your Love"Wyclef Jean, Jerry DuplessisMusic Video, 19984:23
15."My Love Is Your Love"Wyclef Jean, Jerry DuplessisLate Show with David Letterman, 19983:46
16."When You Believe" (with Mariah Carey)Stephen Schwartz, BabyfaceThe 71st Annual Academy Awards, 19994:11
17."I Believe in You and Me"Sandy Linzer, David WolfertThe 16th Annual World Music Awards, 20044:54
18."I Didn't Know My Own Strength"Diane WarrenThe Oprah Winfrey Show, 20095:10
Total length:102:00

Charts

References

  1. ↑ Live: Her Greatest Performances|Whitney Houston. AllMusic
  2. ↑ Five Star Review for Whitney Houston's Live Album.NY Daily News
  3. ↑ Review: Whitney Houston, 'Live: Her Greatest Performances'.Buffalo News
  4. ↑ Whitney Houston Live' review: Whitney at her best.Newsday
  5. ↑ Caulfield, Keith (November 21, 2014). "Billboard 200 Chart Moves: Whitney Houston Returns to the Top 40". Billboard. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
  6. ↑ Houston's first live album, "Whitney Houston Live" makes impressive debuts at #1 on Billboard Top R&B Albums, #17 on Billboard 200.PRNewswire.com
  7. ↑ Whitney Houston's First-Ever Live Album 'Whitney Houston Live: Her Greatest Performances' Makes Impressive Debut.legacyrecordings.com
  8. ↑ Chan, Andrew. "Music Review: Whitney Houston, Whitney Houston Live: Her Greatest Performances". Slant Magazine.
  9. ↑ "Whitney Houston ARIA chart history, received from ARIA in 2022 page 4". ARIA. Retrieved December 3, 2023 – via Imgur.com. N.B. The High Point number in the NAT column represents the release's peak on the national chart.
  10. ↑ "Ultratop.be – Whitney Houston – Live - Her Greatest Performances" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
  11. ↑ "Ultratop.be – Whitney Houston – Live - Her Greatest Performances" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
  12. ↑ "Dutchcharts.nl – Whitney Houston – Live - Her Greatest Performances" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved August 2, 2022.
  13. ↑ "Lescharts.com – Whitney Houston – Live - Her Greatest Performances". Hung Medien. Retrieved August 2, 2022.
  14. ↑ "Italiancharts.com – Whitney Houston – Live - Her Greatest Performances". Hung Medien.
  15. ↑ "ホイットニー・ヒューストン・ライヴ / ホイットニー・ヒューストン" (in Japanese). Oricon. Retrieved January 14, 2023.
  16. ↑ "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved July 1, 2023.
  17. ↑ "South Korea Circle Album Chart". On the page, select "2014.11.16~2014.11.22" to obtain the corresponding chart. Circle Chart
  18. ↑ "Spanishcharts.com – Whitney Houston – Live - Her Greatest Performances". Hung Medien. Retrieved August 2, 2022.
  19. ↑ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved July 1, 2023.
  20. ↑ "Official R&B Albums Chart Top 40". Official Charts Company. Retrieved July 1, 2023.
  21. ↑ "Whitney Houston Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
  22. ↑ "Whitney Houston Chart History (Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
  23. ↑ ""Whitney Houston Chart History (Top R&B Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
  24. ↑ "Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums – Year-End 2014". Billboard. Retrieved July 7, 2020.
  25. ↑ "Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums – Year-End 2015". Billboard. Retrieved July 7, 2020.
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