The album would also get her noticed on the award circuit. 'You Give Good Love' also hit #3 on the Hot 100. The last three would all top the Billboard Hot 100, and 'Saving All My Love For You' would also top the UK pop chart. The album would have six global singles: 'Hold Me' (a duet with Teddy Pendergrass), 'Thinking About You', 'You Give Good Love', 'Saving All My Love For You', 'How Will I Know', and 'Greatest Love of All'. The album would ultimately be certified 13-times Platinum (later Diamond) by the RIAA, and quadruple-Platinum by the BPI. She would hit #1 in many nations, and peak at #2 on the Official Charts Company album chart in the United Kingdom. While it had a slow burn to begin with-it took over a year for the album to reach the top of the Billboard 200 album chart in the United States-her later singles drove the album commercially. She certainly won the crowd with her talents. AllMusic would ultimately rate Whitney Houston 5 out of 5 stars, with Stephen Thomas Erlewine noting it as 'the foundation of diva-pop'. Don Shewey of Rolling Stone described Whitney as 'one of the most exciting new voices in years'.

Still, her best was compared favorably to Dionne Warwick. Though critics were wowed by Whitney's range, some were unimpressed by what they viewed as a formulatic pop nature in many of the songs. They also included a duet with Teddy Pendergrass which was recorded and released on one of his albums in 1984.

There was a mix of producers helping with the songs, including Jermaine Jackson, who produced three of them. It took a year and a half for them to put together songs that fit her voice. It was released through Arista Records on February 14, 1985.Īfter being discovered by Arista A&R Jerry Griffith singing in a New York City nightclub at age 20, she began working on her first record. Whitney Houston is the self-titled debut studio album recorded by the American pop/ soul singer of the same name.

Whitney houston debut album