Whitney Houston Live: Her Greatest Performances

Whitney Houston Live: Her Greatest Performances[5] is a posthumous live album by American recording artist Whitney Houston. It was released on November 10, 2014 by Legacy Recordings, a division of Sony Music Entertainment.

Whitney Houston Live: Her Greatest Performances
Live album by Whitney Houston
Released	November 10, 2014
Recorded	1983–2009
Genre	R&B, soul, pop, gospel
Length	CD 79:38 - DVD 101:58
Label	Legacy Recordings
Whitney Houston chronology
I Will Always Love You: The Best of Whitney Houston (2012) Whitney Houston Live: Her Greatest Performances (2014) I Wish You Love: More from The Bodyguard (2017)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
NY Daily News	[2]
Buffalo News	[3]
Newsday	A[4]

Content and release

Following the week of the album's release on November 10, Whitney Houston Live: Her Greatest Performances made Billboard chart debuts,[6] Whitney Houston Live: Her Greatest Performances sold 22,000 copies in the week ending Nov. 16, according to Nielsen SoundScan, by debuting at #1 on the Billboard Top R&B Albums chart, #2 on the R&B/Hip Hop chart, and #19 on the Billboard 200.[7] 30% of the album sales were digital, the first time Houston has achieved that.[8]

Critical reception

Upon its release, Whitney Houston Live: Her Greatest Performances garnered enormous critical acclaim and praise. Giving it 5 stars, Jim Farber of NYDAILYNEWS, praised the album saying, 'The recordings here—with their odd echoes, imperfect playing, and wavering ambiences—show that Houston performed even better without a net than with one. The performances also work wonders in disproving the image of her, in her shiniest years, as a too-perfect wax figure of a star.' He further added, 'Only in concert did Houston, who died in 2012, show the full range of her talent. Shorn of the studio’s confining arrangements and gauzy production, the Newark native had the freedom to display those hairpin turns of phrase, last-second switches in key and playful improvisations that rank her among the greatest singers of all time.' Glenn Gamboa of Newsday gave it Grade A and wrote, 'Houston was an extraordinary singer, an artist who rarely delivered a song the same way twice. Early on, her improvised inflections, her runs, her stops and starts—they all seemed brilliantly planned and elegantly executed. "Whitney Houston Live" documents how great the singer was before her death in 2012 and builds a strong case that her talent should outlast her tabloid exploits.'

Jeff Simon of BuffaloNews, gave the album 4 stars and wrote, 'While three quarters of the female singers on TV singing contests seem to want to be Houston, what she does on this disc makes them all seem like kindergarten kids wiping their noses on their sleeves.' He further stated, 'She wasn’t long for this world. But when it came to stuff like this, find me anyone in her time that did it better. Maybe, if we’re lucky no one again will ever try.'

The Slant Magazine review noted that the song list, apart from a few obvious inclusions, was inexplicable and did little to showcase the range of Whitney Houston's live talent. Andrew Chan closes with the insight that "the myth of her perfection may make her studio work definitive, but at the height of her powers, Whitney was an artist born for the stage, where her voice could pour forth unrestrained by the limits of a booth."[9]

Track listing

CD

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Taken Live From	Length
1.	"Home"	Charlie Smalls	The Merv Griffin Show, 1983	4:39
2.	"You Give Good Love"	LaLa	The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, 1985	4:16
3.	"How Will I Know"	George Merrill, Shannon Rubicam, Narada Michael Walden	The BRIT Awards, 1987	4:01
4.	"One Moment in Time"	Albert Hammond, John Bettis	31st Annual Grammy Awards, 1989	5:33
5.	"Greatest Love of All"	Linda Creed, Michael Masser	That's What Friends Are For: Arista Records 15th Anniversary Concert, 1990	6:50
6.	"I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)"	Merrill, Rubicam	That's What Friends Are For: Arista Records 15th Anniversary Concert, 1990	4:27
7.	"The Star Spangled Banner"	Francis Scott Key, John Stafford Smith	Super Bowl XXV, 1991	2:15
8.	"All the Man That I Need"	Dean Pitchford, Michael Gore	Welcome Home Heroes, 1991	5:07
9.	"I'm Your Baby Tonight"	L.A. Reid, Babyface	Welcome Home Heroes, 1991	4:28
10.	"A Song for You"	Leon Russell	Welcome Home Heroes, 1991	6:04
11.	"Medley: I Loves You Porgy / And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going / I Have Nothing"	George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin / Tom Eyen, Henry Krieger / David Foster, Linda Thompson	The 21st Annual American Music Awards, 1994	10:01
12.	"I'm Every Woman"	Nickolas Ashford, Valerie Simpson	The Concert for a New South Africa, 1994	3:55
13.	"I Will Always Love You"	Dolly Parton	The Concert for a New South Africa, 1994	5:59
14.	"My Love Is Your Love"	Wyclef Jean, Jerry Duplessis	Late Show with David Letterman, 1998	3:46
15.	"I Believe in You and Me"	Sandy Linzer, David Wolfert	The 16th Annual World Music Awards, 2004	3:45
16.	"I Didn't Know My Own Strength"	Diane Warren	The Oprah Winfrey Show, 2009	4:35
Total length:				79:38

DVD

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Taken Live From	Length
1.	"Home"	Charlie Smalls	The Merv Griffin Show, 1983	7:28
2.	"You Give Good Love"	LaLa	The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, 1985	4:59
3.	"How Will I Know"	George Merrill, Shannon Rubicam, Narada Michael Walden	The BRIT Awards, 1987	4:12
4.	"One Moment in Time"	Albert Hammond, John Bettis	31st Annual Grammy Awards, 1989	5:49
5.	"Greatest Love of All"	Linda Creed, Michael Masser	That's What Friends Are For: Arista Records 15th Anniversary Concert, 1990	7:03
6.	"I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)"	Merrill, Rubicam	That's What Friends Are For: Arista Records 15th Anniversary Concert, 1990	5:41
7.	"The Star Spangled Banner"	Francis Scott Key, John Stafford Smith	Super Bowl XXV, 1991	2:22
8.	"All the Man That I Need"	Dean Pitchford, Michael Gore	Welcome Home Heroes, 1991	6:41
9.	"I'm Your Baby Tonight"	L.A. Reid, Babyface	Welcome Home Heroes, 1991	4:27
10.	"A Song for You"	Leon Russell	Welcome Home Heroes, 1991	6:17
11.	"Medley: I Loves You Porgy / And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going / I Have Nothing"	George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin / Tom Eyen, Henry Krieger / David Foster, Linda Thompson	The 21st Annual American Music Awards, 1994	10:05
12.	"I'm Every Woman"	Nickolas Ashford, Valerie Simpson	The Concert for a New South Africa, 1994	5:17
13.	"I Will Always Love You"	Dolly Parton	The Concert for a New South Africa, 1994	9:13
14.	"My Love Is Your Love"	Wyclef Jean, Jerry Duplessis	Music Video, 1998	4:23
15.	"My Love Is Your Love"	Wyclef Jean, Jerry Duplessis	Late Show with David Letterman, 1998	3:46
16.	"When You Believe" (with Mariah Carey)	Stephen Schwartz, Babyface	The 71st Annual Academy Awards, 1999	4:11
17.	"I Believe in You and Me"	Sandy Linzer, David Wolfert	The 16th Annual World Music Awards, 2004	4:54
18.	"I Didn't Know My Own Strength"	Diane Warren	The Oprah Winfrey Show, 2009	5:10
Total length:				102:00

Charts

Weekly charts Chart (2014) Peak position Belgium Albums Chart Vl 111 Belgium Albums Chart Wa 84 Dutch Albums Chart[10] 63 French Albums Chart[11] 123 Irish Albums Chart[12] 63 Italian Albums Chart[13] 34 South Korean Albums Chart[14] 60 Spanish Albums Chart[15] 43 UK Albums Chart[16] 66 UK R&B Albums[17] 2 US Billboard 200[18] 19 US Top R&B Albums (Billboard) 1 US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)[19] 2 US Top Album Sales (Billboard)[20] 19 Chart (2015) Peak position US Billboard 200[21] 184

Year-end charts Chart (2014) Position US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)[22] 100 Chart (2015) Position US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)[23] 50

References

1. Live: Her Greatest Performances|Whitney Houston. AllMusic
2. Five Star Review for Whitney Houston's Live Album.NY Daily News
3. Review: Whitney Houston, 'Live: Her Greatest Performances'.Buffalo News
4. Whitney Houston Live' review: Whitney at her best.Newsday
5. https://www.whitneyhouston.com/music/whitney-houston-live-her-greatest-performances/
6. Billboard 200 Chart Moves: Whitney Houston Returns to the Top 40.Billboard Music News
7. Houston's first live album, "Whitney Houston Live" makes impressive debuts at #1 on Billboard Top R&B Albums, #17 on Billboard 200.PRNewswire.com
8. Whitney Houston's First-Ever Live Album 'Whitney Houston Live: Her Greatest Performances' Makes Impressive Debut.legacyrecordings.com
9. Chan, Andrew. "Music Review: Whitney Houston, Whitney Houston Live: Her Greatest Performances". Slant Magazine. Slant Magazine.
10. "Whitney: The Greatest Hits on Dutch Albums Chart". dutchcharts.nl. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
11. "Official French Charts - Whitney Houston - Artist Chart History". snep. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
12. "Chart track - Top 100 artist album, week ending 17 November 2014". GFK Chart-Track. Archived from the original on 3 May 2014. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
13. "Artisti - Classifica settimanale WK 46 (dal 10-11-2014 al 16-11-2014)" (in Italian). Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
14. "South Korea Gaon Albums Chart (Week: November 09, 2014 to February 15, 2014)". Gaon Chart. Retrieved November 15, 2014.
15. "Spanish Albums Charts - Whitney Houston Artist Chart History". The Spanish Album Chart. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
16. "Official UK Charts - Whitney Houston - Artist Chart History". The Official Charts Company. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
17. "2012 Top 40 R&B Albums Archive - 3rd March 2012". Official Charts Company. 16 November 2014. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
18. "Whitney Houston Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved November 19, 2014.
19. "Whitney Houston Chart History (Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved November 19, 2014.
20. "Whitney Houston Chart History: Top Album Sales". billboard.com. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved 14 December 2014.
21. "Whitney Houston Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
22. "Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums – Year-End 2014". Billboard. Retrieved July 7, 2020.
23. "Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums – Year-End 2015". Billboard. Retrieved July 7, 2020.

External links

• Legacy Recordings|Whitney Houston
• whitneyhouston.com official site
• classicwhitney.com
• whitney-fan.com