Whitney Houston Popular Books
Whitney Houston Biography & Facts
Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer, actress, film producer, and philanthropist. Known as "the Voice", she is one of the most awarded entertainers of all time and among the best-selling music artists of all time, with sales of over 220 million records worldwide. Houston is known for her crossover appeal on popular music charts that influenced the breaking down of racial barriers, the recording industry, and popular culture, as well as her powerful, soulful vocal performances, the popularization of using gospel singing techniques in pop music, and film production. In 2023, she was ranked second on Rolling Stone's list of the greatest singers of all time. Houston had 11 number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and is the only artist to have seven consecutive number-one singles on the chart. She also enhanced her popularity by entering the film industry. Her accolades include eight Grammy Awards, 22 American Music Awards, two Emmy Awards, and 30 Guinness World Records. Houston's inductions include the Grammy Hall of Fame (twice), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame, the BET Walk of Fame, the Soul Train Hall of Fame, the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, the New Jersey Hall of Fame, and the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress. Houston began singing at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey, as a child and became a background vocalist while in high school. She was one of the first black women to appear on the cover of Seventeen after becoming a teen model in 1981. With the guidance of Arista Records chairman Clive Davis, Houston signed to the label at age 19. Her first two studio albums, Whitney Houston (1985) and Whitney (1987), both peaked at number one on the Billboard 200 and are among the best-selling albums of all time. Hit singles from the albums, including "How Will I Know", "Greatest Love of All" and "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)", established her as a catalyst in the acceptance of black female artists on MTV. Her third studio album, I'm Your Baby Tonight (1990), yielded two Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles, the title track and "All the Man That I Need". Houston's rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XXV in 1991 received widespread media coverage. Houston made her acting debut with the romantic thriller film The Bodyguard (1992), which despite its mixed reviews became the tenth highest-grossing film to that date. Its soundtrack won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year and remains the bestselling soundtrack album of all time. It generated multiple hit singles, including "I Have Nothing", "I'm Every Woman" and "I Will Always Love You"; the latter won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year, spent a then-record 14 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 and became the best-selling single by a woman in music history. Subsequently, she went on to star in the films Waiting to Exhale (1995) and The Preacher's Wife (1996), and she recorded their respective soundtracks; the former scored her last Billboard Hot 100 number-one single, "Exhale (Shoop Shoop)", while the latter, produced by Houston herself, became the bestselling gospel album of all time. Houston's first studio album in eight years, My Love Is Your Love (1998), spawned multiple hit singles, including the title track, "Heartbreak Hotel", "It's Not Right but It's Okay" and the Academy Award-winning Mariah Carey duet "When You Believe". As a film producer, she produced hit series such as The Princess Diaries, The Cheetah Girls and multicultural movies such as Cinderella (1997) and Sparkle (2012). Following the music and film success, she renewed her contract with Arista Records for $100 million in 2001, one of the biggest recording deals of all time. However, her personal problems began to overshadow her music career. Her 2002 studio album, Just Whitney, received mixed reviews, while her drug use and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown received widespread media coverage. After divorcing Brown, Houston returned to the top of the Billboard 200 chart with her final studio album, I Look to You (2009). In February 2012, Houston accidentally drowned in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, with heart disease and cocaine use as contributing factors. News of her death coincided with the 2012 Grammy Awards, which took place the day following her death, was covered prominent internationally along with her memorial service and created a spike in sales of her music. Coverage of Houston's death was ranked as the most memorable entertainment event in television history, according to a study by Sony Electronics and the Nielsen Television Research Company. Her assets amounted to $250 million, earned over a 25-year career. Her life and career were dramatized in the 2022 biopic I Wanna Dance with Somebody. Early life and family Whitney Elizabeth Houston was born on August 9, 1963, at Newark Beth Israel Hospital (now Newark Beth Israel Medical Center) in Newark, New Jersey, the daughter of Emily "Cissy" (née Drinkard) and John Russell Houston Jr. (1920–2003). Houston's mother Cissy was a Grammy-winning gospel and soul singer, who was a member of The Drinkard Singers and the founder of The Sweet Inspirations, a popular session vocal group that recorded background vocals for the likes of Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix and Elvis Presley. The group later earned a Grammy nomination for their hit, "Sweet Inspiration". Cissy later left the Sweet Inspirations, starting a solo career that later resulted in two Grammy Award wins for gospel work. Her father John was a former Army serviceman who later became an administrator who worked for Newark mayor Kenneth A. Gibson. Her parents were both African-American. On her mother's side, Houston was alleged to have partial Dutch and Native American ancestry. Through Cissy, Houston was a first cousin of accomplished singers Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick as well as a distant cousin of opera singer Leontyne Price. Aretha Franklin became an "honorary aunt", while Darlene Love later became Houston's godmother. Through her father, her great-great-grandfather Jeremiah Burke Sanderson was an American abolitionist and advocate for the civil and educational rights of black Americans during the mid-19th century. Houston was the youngest child of her parents. She had three older brothers, paternal half-brother John III (1943–2021), maternal half-brother Gary Garland, a former basketball player and singer, and Michael Houston, a songwriter and road manager. The family later relocated to a suburban area of East Orange three years following the Newark race riots of 1967. Houston attended Franklin Elementary School (now Whitney E. Houston Academy of Creative and Performing Arts) before transferring to Mount Saint Dominic Academy by sixth grade. Houston was raised in the Baptist faith by her parents and joined the church choir of the New Hope Baptist.... Discover the Whitney Houston popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Whitney Houston books.
Best Seller Whitney Houston Books of 2024
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A Song for You
Robyn CrawfordThe New York Times Bestseller!After decades of silence, Robyn Crawford, close friend, collaborator, and confidante of Whitney Houston, shares her story. Whitney Houston is as big a...
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My Life, as I See It
Dionne WarwickDionne Warwick made her singing debut in church at the request of her grandfather, the Reverend Elzae Warrick, when she was six years old. No one knew then that she would become an...
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The Soundtrack of My Life
Clive DavisMusic legend Clive Davis recounts an extraordinary fivedecade career in the music business, while also telling a remarkable personal story of encounters with some of the greatest m...
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Behind The Voice
Anthony CalleaAn honest and candid memoir from one of Australia’s most phenomenal voices. A story of determination, humility and selfdiscovery. Top 10, Booktopia’s FAB Award All Anthony Callea w...
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Whitney Houston
Mark BegoDie aktualisierte und erweiterte Neuausgabe der Biografie eines Weltstars, der im Chaos von Drogen und Skandalen versank, ein glänzendes Comeback feierte und im Februar 2012 auf tr...
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Whitney
Pat HoustonWhitney Houston’s extraordinary voice made her a star. Her beauty, style, and spirit made her an icon. In this magnificent collection, more than twenty of the world’s top photograp...
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A History of Western Music
August KleinzahlerIn a careerspanning selection of poems, August Kleinzahler captures the essence of the West's greatest music.In A History of Western Music, August Kleinzahler’s rhythmic, wry, kine...
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Conversations with Whitney Houston
Ronald RitterWhitney Houston is one of the bestselling musical artists of all times. Her career, personal life and marriage to the high profile singer Bobby Brown is well documented. This amazi...
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Whitney Houston
Nick ReiderAn amazing singing and movie career that spanned three decades and touched millions of people around the world. 'Whitney Houston The Queen of Pop' tells the compelling story...
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Fall into Me
Mila GrayAn unexpected and searing romance unfolds between a young recording artist and her exMarine bodyguard trying to outrun his difficult past in this wrenching novel from the author of...
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All About Dad
Dahlia Porter & Gabriel CervantesWith quotes from Whitney Houston, Cybill Shepard, Burt Reynolds, William Shakespeare, and Harry S. Truman, All About Dad is the best way to show a father that he is loved.
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Whitney Houston
Triumph BooksProviding an unprecedented glimpse into the fascinating and often difficult life of Whitney Houston, this biography documents the star's career from her burst onto the R&B scen...
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Untenable
Jack CashillLong accused of racism and “white flight,” the ethnic Americans driven from their homes and neighborhoodsthe author includedfinally get the chance to tell their side of the story.“...
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I Will Always Love You
Robyn CrawfordIm Musikbusiness gibt es kaum einen größeren Superstar, als Whitney Houston es gewesen ist. Nachdem ihr 1985 veröffentlichtes Debütalbum sie auf Anhieb an die Spitze katapultierte,...
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Whitney Houston
Narada Michael Walden & Richard BuskinWhitney Houston’s voice. A voice of raw power and angelic sweetness, tremendous range, and incredible control. When the world first heard it back in 1984, a new chapter was written...
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I Wanna Dance with Somebody
Weldon Owen & Naomi AckieThe film I Wanna Dance with Somebody tells the joyous, emotional, and heartbreaking story of Whitney Houston's journey from obscurity to musical super stardom. This stunning accomp...
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Pete Doherty
Alex HannafordPete Doherty, erstwhile singer with The Libertines, is a British icon. Whether he is playing impromptu gigs in his front room or performing at Live 8, he possesses a sense of drama...
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Jolly Green Giant
David BellamyDavid Bellamy is a natural story teller whose memoir will be packed full of funny anecdotes and observations. It is the story of how a city boy, brought up in the middle of London,...
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All Things Must Pass
Marc ShapiroGeorge Harrison was always known as the 'quiet Beatle' As part of the biggest band in pop history, he took a back seat to Paul McCartney and John Lennon, but his talent shone throu...
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Whitney Houston
Triumph BooksA chronicle of the meteoric career and tragic demise of one of the most beloved and gifted pop vocalists in the world Providing an unprecedented glimpse into the fas...
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PopMaster
Phil Swern, Neil Myners & Ken BruceDO YOU STOP FOR POPMASTER?Test your pop music knowledge with the official PopMaster quiz book based on Ken Bruce’s legendary radio and TV quiz show covering songs and artists in th...
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The Mammoth Book of Hollywood Scandals
Michelle MorganMurders, suicides, unexplained deaths, scandalous romances, illegitimate children, coverups, and more, from the 1920s to Hollywood's Golden Age in the 1960s and right up to the pre...
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The FBI File on Whitney Houston
The Federal Bureau of InvestigationReleased on March 6, 2013, The Whitney Houston FBI File contains dozens of letters from a crazed fan who just wanted to be noticed by the singer, details of an investigation into a...
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Soul Train
Insight EditionsCelebrate the culture of cool with this compact, paperback edition of the heartfelt tribute to Soul Train, a worldwide phenomenon of dance, music, and fashion. From Ahmir "Que...
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Whitney Houston
Belmont & Belcourt BiographiesShe still wondered, "Am I good enough? Am I pretty enough? Will they like me?" It was the burden that made her great and the part that caused her to stumble in the end. If you coul...
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The Whitney I Knew
BeBe Winans & Timothy WillardA virtual album of BeBe Winans' treasured memories of his friend and "sister," Whitney Houston. In the years between the first time BeBe Winans and Whitney Houston met in 1985, to...
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Delitti rock
Ezio GuaitamacchiBrian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison: quattro grandi star della “musica che ha cambiato il mondo” muoiono (in circostanze misteriose) nel giro di soli due anni. Tu...
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Sparkle
Denene Millner, Howard Rosenman, Joel Schumacher & Mara Brock AkilFrom celebrated New York Times bestselling author Denene Millner comes Sparkle, the official novelization of the highly anticipated Motowninspired film starring Whitney Houston in ...
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Longe Magazine Issue 5 Whitney Houston
Longe MagazineThe Special Issue with the Late Whitney Houston on the cover. This issues also includes ADELE, Chris Brown, Brandy & Monica, Sean "P.Diddy", Combs TeKay Designs,The Happenings ...