Whitney Houston: An Unauthorized Biography

By Belmont and Belcourt Biographies

She still wondered, "Am I good enough? Am I pretty enough? Will they like me?" It was the burden that made her great and the part that caused her to stumble in the end. If you could hear me, no I would tell you, you weren't just good enough, you were great. — Kevin Costner

We all read the same stories and found ourselves believing the rumors. The stories of drug use and drunken nights out, her problems with money and marriage, and even those about how much Kevin Costner despised working with her on the film, The Bodyguard, because of her diva-like ways. But quotes like the one above, along with everything else Kevin Costner shared about his friendship with Whitney Houston, can't help but make you wonder just how misunderstood she really was.

This book takes you full circle through Whitney Houston's life, starting with her first solo in her mother's choir at the New Hope Baptist Church in New Jersey to her funeral in that very same church. Every page will give you more and more insight into the tragic superstar, leaving you with an understanding of just how incredible she was, even when the tabloids were declaring otherwise.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Price World Publishing
• Release date: Mar 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781619840638

Book preview

The Early Years

New Hope Baptist Church

Whitney Houston was a legendary musician, one of the most important of the twentieth century. Her story is a rollercoaster, a tragedy in the truest sense, led by a current day heroine with a fatal flaw. In her short lifetime, she accomplished so much, from influencing the sound of popular music, as we know it today, to making milestone achievements for the equal place of women and African-Americans in the music industry and in society. From her birth, she was in a prime position to fulfill her destiny as the incredible musician she would grow up to be. She was born into a star-studded musical family: her mother, Cissy Houston, was a Grammy-award-winning gospel singer; her cousins, Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick, were hit pop and gospel singers; and most prestigious of all was Whitney’s godmother, Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, one of the biggest musical names of her century. Whitney was the youngest of three children, born on August 9, 1963, in Newark, the largest city in New Jersey. Her family was a middle class one; her father, John Russell Houston Jr., was a soldier in the Army. Although she spent the first four years of her life in Newark, the family moved four miles away to East Orange after riots broke out in Newark in 1967.

Her mother was the choir minister at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, and it was there that Whitney got her first taste of performing live. She sang with the choir and also learned to play that staple instrument of solo performers, the piano. For her first solo recital at the church, Whitney sang Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah, a popular hymn allegorizing a Christian’s journey through life. The congregation of New Hope received the young Whitney adoringly, an experience that gave her the encouragement she needed to devote herself to her talents. From the beginning, Houston felt that her musical talent was a gift given to her by God, and the success she found performing in church certainly helped to cement this impression.

Seventeen Magazine

Her experiences performing were not limited to church, however. She toured the nightclubs where her mother, who was well known as a singer in secular circles, performed, and mother and daughter sometimes performed together on stage at these venues. Around this time, Whitney found her first real avenue into the world of popular