{"id":566638,"date":"2026-04-05T20:47:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T20:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/566638\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T20:47:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T20:47:14","slug":"4-early-whitney-houston-hits-that-prove-she-is-one-of-the-best-artists-of-all-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/566638\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Early Whitney Houston Hits That Prove She Is One of the Best Artists of All Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whitney Houston released her debut single, \u201cHold Me\u201d, in 1984. A duet with Teddy Pendergrass, the song was not a big hit at first, but it didn\u2019t take long for her to start dominating the charts. Houston, also a talented actress, gained worldwide fame with her performance of the Dolly Parton classic, \u201cI Will Always Love You<\/a>\u201c. Used in the film The Bodyguard, starring Houston and Kevin Costner, the 1992 single became the biggest hit of Houston\u2019s career. <\/p>\n

But long before that song, she was already hinting that she was meant to be a superstar, which is evident in these four early hits.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou Give Good Love\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou Give Good Love\u201d is Houston\u2019s second single, and first Top 10 hit. Written by La Forrest \u2018La La\u2019 Cope, \u201cYou Give Good Love\u201d appears on Houston\u2019s eponymous freshman album.<\/p>\n

The song, out in 1985, says, \u201cYou give good love to me \/ Baby, it\u2019s so good \/ Take this heart of mine into your hands \/ You give good love to me \/ It\u2019s never too much \/ Baby, you give good love.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, Houston received some criticism that the song was too explicit, not that she cared.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that, as far as children are concerned, parents should have control over what they listen to,\u201d Houston says (via Songfacts<\/a>). \u201cIf they don\u2019t want them to listen to records that are very sexual or explicit or outrageous, they should have control over that situation. As for adults, they\u2019re going to buy whatever kind of music they want to hear, so if they buy music with explicit lyrics, they must like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSaving All My Love\u201d<\/p>\n

Also on Whitney Houston is \u201cSaving All My Love\u201d. Written by Michael Masser and Gerry Goffin, the song is Houston\u2019s first No. 1 single. It also gave her her first Grammy Award<\/a>, for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female.<\/p>\n

A song about a woman in love with a married man, \u201cSaving All My Love\u201d says, \u201cIt\u2019s not very easy living all alone \/ My friends try and tell me find a man of my own \/ But each time I try, I just break down and cry \/ \u2018Cause I\u2019d rather be home feeling blue \/ So I\u2019m saving all my love for you.\u201c<\/p>\n

\u201cOne Moment In Time\u201d<\/p>\n

If Houston had a shining moment in her career, it\u2019s with \u201cOne Moment In Time\u201d. The empowering anthem is part of the record 1988 Summer Olympics Album: One Moment in Time.<\/p>\n

Written by Albert Hammond and John Bettis, \u201cOne Moment In Time\u201d says, \u201cI want one moment in time \/ When I\u2019m more than I thought I could be \/ When all of my dreams are a heartbeat away \/ And the answers are all up to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)<\/p>\n

On her sophomore Whitney record is \u201cI Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)<\/a>\u201c. The biggest-selling song of her career at the time, the 1987 single was written by George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam.<\/p>\n

\u201cI Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)\u201d says, \u201cOh, I wanna dance with somebody \/ I wanna feel the heat with somebody \/ Yeah, I wanna dance with somebody \/ With somebody who loves me \/ Oh, I wanna dance with somebody \/ I wanna feel the heat with somebody \/ Yeah, I wanna dance with somebody \/ With somebody who loves me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo by CBS via Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Whitney Houston released her debut single, \u201cHold Me\u201d, in 1984. A duet with Teddy Pendergrass, the song was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216,17172,143782],"class_list":{"0":"post-566638","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-pop-music","11":"tag-whitney-houston"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}