Fans of Whitney Houston and vinyl collectors alike can rejoice. According to the late music icon’s official social media channels, five of her albums will be released on vinyl in 2023.
Those five albums include Whitney Houston (1985), Whitney (1987), I’m Your Baby Tonight (1990), Preacher’s Wife (1996) and My Love Is Your Love (1999).
There are not many details for the mass vinyl rollout, from release dates or vinyl types. However, it was said that they’d be released “throughout the year,” suggesting the albums won’t be issued all at once.
In February 1985, Houston emerged with self-titled debut album. The 10-track album established the 6x Grammy winner as a household name, surpassing U.S. sales of 13 million. It featured “Saving All My Love,” one of three songs from Whitney Houston to peak atop the Billboard Hot 100.
Whitney fared better, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200. It marked the first album by a female artist to ever open at the top spot of the main albums chart.
Whitney had four singles that reached number one on the Hot 100, including “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me), “Didn’t We Almost Have it All,” “So Emotional” and “Where Do Broken Hearts Go.” With these smashes and her previous three, Houston notched an airtight record for seven consecutive Hot 100 chart-toppers.
In 2020, Whitney entered Houston’s name in the RIAA history books by becoming the first Black artist to have three diamond-certified albums. More on that here.
I’m Your Baby Tonight, the follow-up to Houston’s 1987 best-seller, arrived in November 1990. The R&B-centric LP featured contributions from Babyface and L.A. Reid, resulting in the title track firing up the R&B charts.
In 1996, Houston contributed the soundtrack to The Preacher’s Wife, in which she starred. The gospel-driven compilation, nominated for Best R&B Album at the 40th Grammy Awards, is the best-selling gospel album of all time, with six million copies sold worldwide.
Lastly, Houston’s fourth studio album, My Love Is Your Love, was released in the fall of 1998. It marked Houston’s first non-soundtrack-based album since 1990’s I’m Your Baby Tonight.
My Love Is Your Love, another Grammy-recognized album, included guest appearances from Mariah Carey, Faith Evans, Kelly Price and Missy Elliott. The album’s sassy kiss-off “It’s Not Right But It’s Okay” won Best Female R&B Vocal in 2000.
It should be noted that Houston’s final album I Look to You was released in August 2009.
In other Houston-related news, earlier this year, Houston garnered her fourth diamond award for “I’ll Always Love You.” Rated R&B also unveiled an archived interview with Mary J. Blige’s former manager Kirk Burrowes, who shared he pitched for Houston and Blige to duet for 1999’s Mary.