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Music is extremely dank. Like drinking water, breathing air, and eating food, music has become not just a constant, but a necessity in my everyday life. I know a few people who claim they don’t really listen to music, but they’re boring as hell.
Now anyone who knows me on even a surface level knows that “Return Of The Mack” by Mark Morrison is probably my all-time favorite song ever made.
You can play that song during any occasion. If it’s not played during my funeral, then consider my funeral a fucking failure. What elevates a song from great to “all-time favorite” is its versatility. Can you play it at a party? When you’re feeling down? When you just need something to drown the noise out?
It needs to be more than a party track. It has to have more than one purpose. If the answer is yes to all three of those questions, then it qualifies as an all-timer. For me, it goes 1(a) “Return Of The Mack” and 1(b) “I Will Always Love You.”
And no, I hate to disappoint all of you country fans out there, but I’m not talking about the Dolly Parton version (although I have been getting into country a little bit and I have to admit that among others, Chris Stapleton is absolutely killing it right now). Back to my point though, I’m talking about the soul-shattering, utterly jaw dropping cover version of “I Will Always Love You” from Whitney Houston, which first topped the charts when it was released as a single with the movie The Bodyguard.
“I Will Always Love You” spent time on the Billboard Top 100 in 1992 AND in 2012 after Whitney’s untimely death. That’s pretty much unheard of. It begins with an introduction in a cappella, with nothing but Whitney’s voice carrying you into a place of deep reflection and melancholia.
But it’s so much more than a song about love lost. It’s a song about remembering the good times. It’s why you can throw it on at a party and no one is going to bat an eyelash. They’re going to start singing without even thinking about it.
It’s a fucking ballad with nothing but well wishes for that one that got away. It’s beautiful and heart wrenching and terrifically awesome. You can hear her voice breaking, bursting, and tensing up as she reaches the crescendo. And just like that, it’s over before you even know what you’re supposed to be feeling. It’s four and a half minutes of soul searching, gospel declamation.
So why is this song 1(b) on my all-time heaters list? It’s simple. I can play it at a pre-game and get every single person in the room to sing along. And right around the three minute mark, there’s a pause, one single solitary drum kick, and then Whitney really turns it on. A full-out hauntingly beautiful scream. I feel like when she was recording this she had to take more than a few breaks to just get her shit together.
I can’t imagine getting into a studio with Whitney Houston and hearing this. “I Will Always Love You” is tear stained and sad in the best way possible. In some capacity, she’ll always love you. A bittersweet anthem if ever there was one. I can sing this song in the car on my way home from work, at a bar, or anything in between.
I could play it (theoretically) at a wake and have people cry-singing. It’s transcendent and relatable. So next time you’re firing up your Google Home or Amazon Echo (although I’m really hoping some of you are still on the aux cord wave) trying to get the party started, or coming home from the cubicle farm and feeling a little angsty about that ex who won’t return your calls, fire up your streaming music service of choice and put “I Will Always Love You” on. It’s a banger for any occasion..
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jduda@grandex.co
This song and I Wanna Dance with Somebody will always guarantee a good time.
This is up there with Flo Rida’s “My House” Is My Generation’s “Let It Be” By The Beatles. Hilarious Johnny D.
You may catch flack for a lot of things Duda, but your music takes are always top notch #tunesguy
In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins is that song for me.
“How Will I Know” is better. And before you retort, you’re wrong.
Probably my favorite memories from a recent trip to Miami was a 4 am cab ride home leaving the 24 hour nightclub / strip club “E11even” with my 3 best friends with this song nearly blowing out the minivan speakers..
Posting pretty early on a Friday, John? I haven’t even finished my commute. Not that I’m complaining.
I applaud your choice. You should know Whitney recorded this song in … ONE take.
She recorded it live to an empty house on the stage of the Fountain Blu Hotel Miami Beach while filming “The BodyGuard.” She did that take, it was considered by her estimation to be complete. Ms. Houston agreed to do a 2nd take in the event something happened to that recording. The 1st take was released.
Whitney Houston’s nickname amongst music professionals was “One Take Houston.”
There was virtually no one recording that entered a studio like Whitney, knowing how she would sing or style any song from beginning to end. She was a musical prodigy.
Literally remains the Gold Bar to which so many aspiring singers hope to aspire even all these decades later. For that reason alone it is horrible to believe that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has yet to include her as an honoree. Her place amongst “legends” of women in music is always within the top 5.
Needed a redemption article for spewing out pure shit all week.
“It needs to be more than a party track” – It was never a party track to begin with