R.I.P. Whitney

On the day of her funeral I wanted to post another song for Whitney (or 3). You've probably heard "I Will Always Love You" enough this week to pay for Dolly's next 3 surgeries (as the songwriter, she gets paid every time the song is played: on the radio, in a movie or TV show, or in a store [for reals]--the exceptions are personal copies and, presumably "mix tapes" are grandfathered in because who doesn't love mix tapes?!!), and I'm happy they gave her version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" (hey look, it has a hyphen) some suitable airplay as well (she made it cool to do, I think--while I didn't watch the Super Game or whatever event it preceded, I do remember Mike Hoffman telling me that people watching at his place all stood with their hands on their hearts, or something similarly schmaltzy).

So here are 3 of her lesser songs to celebrate the voice of the post-Barbra/pre-Celine era.

"One Moment in Time" won an Emmy for its 2 writers, neither of whom is John Williams (I was sure John Williams wrote the music for the song, but I was wrong--he only wrote the music for the 1988 Olympics thingy [fanfare?] that was also on the soundtrack [do Olympics have soundtracks?]) but 1 of whom is the father of Albert Hammond, Jr. of The Strokes (it's Albert Hammond, Sr.). I need to take a Music Theory class so I can explain the whole pomp of the chord progression, but circumstance keeps preventing me (yes that's a joke). It was produced by Narada Michael Walden, who really defined her early sound (and who is not dead, although I weirdly thought he was).


I used "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" in one of the promos for my Housemartins Freeform a million years ago (as the Housemartins were breaking up, its theme was appropriate). It's another collaboration with Narada Michael Walden as producer but it stays in minor chords (I think), so it's a big sad sound, not a big optimistic sound as before. It's from Whitney's second album, Whitney, which Marti Jones said she was considering as the title of her next album (this was back in 1987, when the joke would have been funny).


But we don't leave things on sad. We leave things with a big finale. The regular mix of "It's Not Right But It's Okay" won't do. For this, we need a megamix, or an extended mix by a premiere DJ. This song, and the remix of Deborah Cox's "Nobody's Supposed to Be Here" were ubiquitous in every gay club everywhere from late 1998 through, um, now. This could be the blueprint for background music in every sitcom scene taking place in a gay bar (over time, like 30 years, that might total 26). Also I love this song because a considerable part of Whitney's anger is predicated on the inability of a waiter to split a fucking check. Seriously, 6 people have dinner but only 2 on that receipt? Yes, all the time. Never mind, it's a quintessential "you done me wrong" dance hit, don't ask questions (like if you changed that stupid lock, why would you also need him to leave his key?... exactly).


Whitney won 6 Grammys and an Emmy. And she wore the exact same dress as Mariah Carey (on purpose) at the Oscars. Rest in peace dude.