Celebrate ‘Bodyguard’s 25th with new Whitney
New Whitney Houston music is always cause for celebration.
Legacy Recordings, in cooperation with the late singer’s estate, is ringing in the 25th anniversary of The Bodyguard with Whitney Houston – I Wish You Love: More From the Bodyguard, out Friday. The new edition of the soundtrack — the best-selling of all time with 45 million copies sold worldwide — features eight previously unreleased live and studio recordings of songs from the iconic 1992 film that costarred Kevin Costner and Houston, in her acting debut.
Among the highlights are never-before-heard versions of Run to You and
Queen of the Night from Houston’s Bodyguard World Tour, a dance remix of I’m Every Woman, and a live rendition of I Have Nothing, which Houston performed in August 1996 in the Southeast Asian country of Brunei, at a private concert for Princess Rashidah and royal family.
Listening to this particular rendition of the Bodyguard hit, which peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, reminds “me of how amazing she was as a vocalist,” says Rickey Minor, Houston’s longtime musical director. “It’s a mountain of a song — it just climbs, climbs, climbs until the end. Every night, just like any professional athlete, she took interesting choices to run the scales to get to a note or hold a note a little longer.”
Swimming, playing sports and enjoying massages throughout her week-long stay in Brunei, “she got a chance to relax, whereas if you’re on tour every day, it’s hectic,” Minor continues. “I think she was in a really relaxed place for this show.”
The reissue also features an alternate take on the film’s emotional closer, I Will
Always Love You, with added instrumentals. Minor remembers being on set with Houston the day she sang the chart-topping ballad, which was written by Dolly Parton but became the R&B powerhouse’s calling card.
“Thinking about the emotion behind the song, she thought, ‘I should sing it live,’ ” Minor says. “One thing that was really important for her was that she always said, ‘I need stories and I need a melody. I can’t sing something that I don’t feel, that I don’t believe. I’m a storyteller through my voice.’ ”
Houston died in 2012 at age 48 after an accidental drowning in a hotel bathtub brought on by heart disease and cocaine abuse. Her loss makes the song even more bittersweet, Minor says.
“You always wonder in this kind of case what could’ve been,” he says. “I guess the ‘sweet’ part for me was getting to have any time with her; I’m grateful for that. I’m quick to look at the landscape of singers who were after her and before her and recognize that it was a gift to be in close proximity to her, let alone work with her and be involved in shaping some of these iconic performances.” Minor hadn’t revisited many of Bodyguard’s songs until the upcoming re-release. Listening to them with fresh ears in the studio one night, “I hadn’t had an emotional reaction like that since the day she died.”