The young lady did something that Houston could not...she could sell the song..Houston could not sing naked like this young lady...Houston needed all the studio production tools.I can recall her trying a live venue and it was a disaster..
Hey Fran, you know I luv' you so you know I'm not trying to start a pissin' contest, but REALLY! Saying Whitney can't sell a song is like saying Rembrandt can't produce art without a 'paint-by-numbers' coloring book. I mean, the woman is a legend, with a once in a lifetime voice, and with some performances that will be imitated, admired, and endure until the end of time. Sure, towards the end, drugs and alcohol took their toll and it's sad that some people choose to remember that sad period rather than the brilliant career that few artists achieve.
When you take into account the subjectiveness of (opinions of) music, it's not possible for any individual to say which artist is better than another, so what we generally accept as 'truth' is what the plurality of people say. I listened to this lady very carefully and had I been asked to describe her, I would probably have used a term like 'pleasant'. In fact, I was more impressed by the smoothness of her skin (at her age). But that's just MY opinion. What it comes down to is, if that's your 'cup of tea', then that's who you should be listening to for your enjoyment and possibly taking your musical cues from. Me, I'd rather hear Joe Cocker sing 'You are so Beautiful' (which might actually make you throw up
), but that just goes to show how different artist affect different people.
Truth is, I consider this young lady more of a 'stylist' than a pure 'singer'. Sarah Vaughn was a singer, Billy Holiday was a stylist; Aretha is a singer, Gloria Lynne is a singer, Shirley Horn is a sytlist, Carmen McRae is a stylist. Hope you see what I'm trying to say here. No animosity, JMO.
chas