hello, First name / music lover — hope you enjoyed your thanksliving : )
you are on the Danyel Smith
playlist list. 

so this is your 3 hours + 57 minutes of yes-Whitney-yet-also-just-vibes
THe film was released
november 25, 1992 —
30 years ago today 
Houston was at a pinnacle. In 1993, The Bodyguard soundtrack stayed at No. 1 on Billboard’s pop album charts for 20 weeks and sold 18 million copies, more than 1977’s Bee Gees-heavy Saturday Night Fever or Prince’s 1984 Purple Rain.
It remains in 2022, the No. 1 bestselling soundtrack of all time.
The Bodyguard soundtrack broke the single-week sales record — 770,000 —held by Guns ‘n’ Roses’ 1991 Use Your Illusion II. Bodyguard is the first album in history to sell one million copies — in one week.
The soundtrack has 12 songs. Six of them are Whitney’s. One of them is “I Will Always Love You,” America’s No. 1 song for 14 weeks in a row — a No. 1 hit in almost every country that keeps track.
Whitney said to me that Bodyguard changed her life, and wrecked her marriage.
PS: Kevin Costner, who spoke at Houston's funeral, says the woman in the iconic poster is not Whitney Houston.
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Your new playlist includes different iterations of Houston's “I Will Always Love You” — live, a capella-ish, and et cetera. There's also Dolly Parton's 1974 original, Linda Ronstadt's 1975 version, LeAnn Rimes' 1994 version — and Gloria Gaynor has a '94 take as well. Deborah Cox's boss cover is from 2017.
This playlist includes every single song I discuss in the “Whitney + Aretha” chapter of my Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop. From Peaches & Herb to Chaka Khan to Beyoncé to Lena Horne to Tina Turner to Irene Cara and more.
Context + connections + nostalgia + dot-connecting = a rich and emotional listening experience 🔆 🔆 🔆 🔆 🔆
Put it on shuffle and enjoy this weekend of thanksliving.
the above talk was recorded 36 hours after Houston died in 2012.

🐇🐰🐇 some rabbit holes for you ⤵
ME ON WHITNEY HOUSTON'S SUPER BOWL XXV NATIONAL ANTHEM 
PODCAST: MORE ON THAT SUPER BOWL MOMENT
PODCAST: ME TALKING WHITNEY ON QUESTLOVE SUPREME
THAT TIME IN 1995 WHEN I INTERVIEWED WHITNEY HOUSTON FOR VIBE
JUST HOW BAD THINGS GOT
NAOMI ACKIE ON PORTRAYING HOUSTON IN THE NEW CHRISTMAS BIOPIC, 
I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY
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