When Whitney Houston decided to record her first non-soundtrack album in eight years, she wanted to take a different approach from the past offerings that had already made her one of the biggest-selling artists ever.
“I wasn’t into the syrupy kind of vibe,” she explained to . “I just didn’t feel like singing about ‘I Will Always Love You.’ I’m a working mother, I’m a wife, I’m an artist. There are so many things that go into that, and it’s not always like ‘everything is beautiful in its own way.’”
She also didn’t want to sound dated.
“You have to keep up with the times, no matter how you feel about your own music and what you used to do or did,” Houston added. “You have to keep it with what the [current] groove is, and I can do that. Ain’t no biggie, ain’t no biggie at all.”
When she entered the studio, Whitney was unsure whether she would be releasing a greatest hits collection with a few tracks or a brand new album, but as the songs came together, she found her answer.
As did her longtime mentor, Clive Davis.
“And it was time, Clive said, for [everyone] to hear that [I] can do whatever [today’s crop of hot female R&B singers] can do,” she said.
My Love Is Your Love, which celebrates its 25th anniversary on November 17th, was recorded in only six weeks and amassed old colleagues like Babyface and David Foster along with new collaborators like Rodney Jerkins, Wyclef Jean, Missy Elliott, Soulshock & Karlin, and Lauryn Hill.
The album proved to be exactly what Nippy intended to represent: music that reflected faith, love, production more in tune with what the current groove was at the time, and yes, that she could do whatever the other singers were doing.
Although the then 35-year-old New Jersey native had fully immersed herself in 90s R&B with teases of hip hop, the album did launch with a bit of familiarity: ”When You Believe,” a big ballad duet with Mariah Carey for the soundtrack to The Prince of Egypt.
That song was not the expected megahit it was clearly designed to be. Still, the album’s follow-up singles, “Heartbreak Hotel” with Faith Evans and Kelly Price, “My Love Is Your Love” and “It’s Not Right But It’s Okay,” which won a Grammy for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, kept Houston on the radio — Black radio specifically.
My Love Is Your Love also managed to net Houston some of the best critical reception of her career.
In his review of the project for , Rob Sheffield wrote, “It’s easily her most consistent album ever—in fact, it’s her first consistent album.”
While scouring the internet for different rankings of the best Whitney Houston albums and speaking with people I know who are big-big-big Nippy fans, it’s evident such a claim remains a highly debatable opinion.
In fact, when I shared that review with a good friend and Nippy stan, I was told, “You don’t know what you’re talking about if you agree with that.”
Fine, the Whitney Houston album is most folks’ favorite, but I imagine most Whitney Houston fans – no matter what level of standom – can agree that My Love Is Your Love is Whitney’s last good album.
(This is no shade to some of the post-MLSYL releases like “Whatchulookinat,” which I will always treasure.)
It is no easy feat for an artist that far along in her career and fame to create an album that was consistently good and sounded fresh and interesting.
However, as appreciated asis now, it was initially considered a commercial disappointment. With sales of 123,000 in its first week, it debuted and peaked on the Billboard 200 at number 13 – her lowest chair position at the time. It was Whitney’s first non-soundtrack album in over eight years, so expectations were much higher.
Eventually, though, the album would prove to be a commercial success following the release of the singles mentioned above, domestic and international tours, and a bevy of high-profile and well-received performances from Houston.
My Love Is Your Love would go on to be certified quadruple platinum in the United States by the RIAA, and thanks to its huge popularity in Europe, the album sales exceeded 10 million globally.
Much of the material on My Love Is Your Love features Whitney singing to a man who wasn’t treating her right, though she stressed even then not for listeners to assume each song was autobiographical. The lone exception was Missy Elliott’s penned “In My Business,” which came after Whitney’s conversation about life in the spotlight.
“It’s not a secret that people are always trying to be up in my business,” Whitney said in that same Billboard interview. “I don’t know what they think I am or what my husband and I do, they just want to know. They feel it’s their right, but it’s not. Missy and I talked about it, and Missy understood.”
Of course, Whitney shared more once her relationship ended with Bobby, and following her death in 2012, even greater attention has been paid to the tawdry details of her life – a trait we know she loathed.
Much as I understand the interest in the details of Whitney’s private life, considering it ended tragically and much too soon, I believe all the documentaries and biopics that have been made without her consent have clouded what matters most about her legacy: the great gift that was her voice.
Whitney is and was always more than her shortcomings and turbulent relationships. She was the greatest singer of my lifetime – and arguably the greatest singer of anyone’s lifetime. We need to celebrate that more – which starts with reflecting on some of her best work, like My Love Is Your Love.
