Arista 18699
Executive producers: Clive Davis and Whitney Houston
Track listing: I Will Always Love You / I Have Nothing / I’m Every Woman / Run to You / Queen of the Night / Jesus Loves Me [Whitney Houston] / Even If My Heart Would Break [Kenny G and Aaron Neville] / Someday (I’m Coming Back) [Lisa Stansfield] / It’s Gonna Be a Lovely Day [the S.O.U.L. S. Y.S. T.E.M.] / (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding [Curtis Stigers] / Theme from the Bodyguard / Trust in Me [Joe Cocker featuring Sass Jordan]
December 12, 1992
20 weeks (nonconsecutive)
“I kind of knew that it would have some potency to it, being Whitney Houston’s first acting role in a film starring Kevin Costner,” producer/songwriter David Foster says of The Bodyguard. “It seemed like a winning combination. We knew it would be hot, but I don’t think we knew that it would sell 25 million copies.”
Of course, the prospects for The Bodyguard soundtrack looked pretty good right at the start. Houston’s first two albums had topped the chart, while 1990’s I’m Your Baby Tonight had climbed to number three.
Foster and his wife, Linda Thompson, became involved in the project at the script stage. They wrote the song “I Have Nothing,” and Foster produced Houston’s recordings of “I Will Always Love You” and “Run to You,” and co-produced Kenny G and Aaron Neville’s contribution.
Says Foster, “Whitney was such a treat to work with and we had a lot of positive influence from Kevin, director Mick Jackson, [Arista president] Clive Davis, and scriptwriter Lawrence Kasdan. They all had ideas of how they wanted the music, but they all pretty much agreed, so it wasn’t that confusing.”
The standout track from The Bodyguard was Houston’s cover of “I Will Always Love You,” a two-time Number One country hit for the song’s writer, Dolly Parton. Houston’s version was decidedly different. It began with the diva singing the opening lines a cappella. “I would love to take credit for it, but it was Kevin Costner’s idea,” says Foster. “I said, ‘Kevin, I don’t like that idea. Maybe for the movie we’ll do it, but for the record, I don’t think that is such a good idea.'” Yet when Foster recorded Houston’s vocal in Miami, he changed his mind. “She started singing with no music and I just went, ‘Wow, this is incredible.'”
Although Arista was initially a little concerned that pop radio might not take to an a cappella intro, the label held their ground, and issued the single in its original form. On November 28, 1992, the single began its run atop the Hot 100. Two weeks later, The Bodyguard joined the single at the summit. (During its 20-week run, The Bodyguard would return to the top spot after being knocked out from Number One three different times.)
“I Will Always Love You” held the top position on the Hot 100 for a total of 14 weeks, topping Boyz II Men’s “End of the Road” for the record for most weeks at Number One on Hot 100. (That record, however, was later bested by the Mariah Carey-Boyz II Men collaboration “One Sweet Day.”)
The album featured other hits as well. The song Foster and Thompson opted to write for the film needed to fit some specific requirements. “In the script it called for a big, Shirley Bassey/ ‘Goldfinger’-type Oscar-winning hit. That was quite a challenge, to think of something Shirley Bassey would sing, but could be a hit in 1992.”
Foster and Thompson lived up to the challenge, but “I Have Nothing” didn’t become a hit until 1993. On April 3, it peaked at number four on the Hot 100. It also spent two weeks on top of the Hot Adult Contemporary chart. On February 20, 1993, Houston’s version of Ashford & Simpson’s “I’m Every Woman” also reached number four.
One of the albums The Bodyguard kept from the pole position was Kenny G’s Breathless, which spent 10 weeks at number two. Said Kenny G, “When you’re at number two… it’s nice to know that the album at Number One is something that you’re rooting for.”
THE TOP FIVE
Week of December 12, 1992
1. The Bodyguard, Soundtrack
2. Unplugged, Eric Clapton
3. The Predator, Ice Cube
4. Timeless (The Classics), Michael Bolton
5. The Chase, Garth Brooks