A&R legend, Gerry Griffith has returned to post another guest blog for us. This time he completes the tale of how he discovered and signed Whitney Houston and found the first hits that would propel her to a career that has seen her sell nearly 200 million recordings.
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As I look back, I can recall a time before we signed Whitney Houston to a full contract, and Bruce Lundvall still wanted to bring the young diva to Elektra. I would drop in to see her perform with Cissy at the New York soul food cabaret Sweetwaters, and there he was sitting in the room…we would always gesture with a smile and wave. I’d worked with Bruce during his tenure as the president of Columbia Records. He’d promoted me to West Coast Product Manager, and later into the A&R ranks in Los Angeles.
My first project as Product Manager was Weather Report’s “Heavy Weather,“ and my first A&R assignment was to work with of one his artist signings, Bill Withers on his “Menagerie” album. Bill’s “Lovely Day” came from that album. Bruce had also worked for Clive Davis at Columbia in the 70’s as VP of Marketing. So now I’m the protégé in competition with one of my mentors… interesting times.
Bruce never got the chance to sign Whitney because from what I understood, the Chairman of Elektra “was not in to her.” But Bruce does have the distinction of releasing two tracks with her before we released a single recording on Arista; the song “Memories” with Archie Shepp on Bill Laswell’s 1982 Material LP, and with Teddy Pendergrass on his1984 duet “Hold Me,” on the ”Love Language” LP (with Arista‘s permission).Over the two years since signing with us, she was maturing into a star, as was evident on “Hold Me,” but we were recording big hits too.
Clive appeared on the nationally televised Merv Griffin show and introduced Whitney to the country. According to their producer, her appearance generated more positive letters and phone calls than any other artist in the show’s history! Unfortunately, this didn’t lead to creating interest from any A-list producers we approached. So Clive had the idea to showcase Whitney and her aunt Dionne Warwick in Los Angeles, where we would invite the top west coast songwriters and producers to see them perform. Our effort did not lead to one great song or interested producer, so we returned to NY and continued our search.
MERV
The Pendergrass hit duet “Hold Me’ was produced by Michael Masser. He’d had previous successes with headliners; George Benson, Peabo Bryson, and Diana Ross. Clive hired him for the project, and I brought in our new artist producer Kashif who was coming off his top 10 solo hit, and Evelyn King’s “Love Come Down” to write and produce. Jermaine Jackson had recently signed to the label and immediately asked to produce Whitney. Three talented producers, three interesting stories.
In the course of looking for song material, I got a call from producer Dennis Lambert. At the time, Dennis was a hit maker with diverse productions like; Glen Campbell’s “Rhinestone Cowboy, The Four Tops “Ain’t No Woman Like The One I Got,” and all of Tavares‘ hits. He wanted me to hear a song for Whitney’s project that he’d co-written with Siedah Garrett and Franne Golde. We met and I absolutely loved the song. I convinced Clive to have Jermaine produce and sing the duet with our budding star.
We completed the track and Clive loved it, but there was a problem. A few weeks after the basic production was completed, an apologetic Dennis called me to explain that he had to pull the tune from the project. He was producing (former Temptations lead singer) Dennis Edwards at Motown, and since our album was not slated for release any time soon, (Motown founder) Berry Gordy needed an immediate first single on Edwards. If you haven’t guessed by now, the song was ”Don’t Look Any Further.” We were devastated. Jermaine replaced the duet with a beautiful ballad “Take Good Care of My Heart.”
The next song came from my friend Brenda Andrews at Almo-Irving Publishing. The company signed two British writers Merrill and Rubicam, who wrote a song “How Will I Know.” Great song, now who could produce it? I was introduced to Narada Michael Walden by Angie Bofill at the time he worked on her Arista/GRP Records album “Something About You” in 1981. I had always loved his aggressive production style and attitude, he was producing Aretha’s Franklin‘s, “Freeway of Love” at the time for us. Taking time from Aretha, we had him produce “How Will I Know” for Whitney. Looking back, it seems the Columbia Records connection was at work again. Narada was the drummer for the Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Weather Report’s “Black Market” LP, two of my all time favorite bands, and Clive, Bruce and I were all with Columbia Records when these records were released.
Masser was creating pure love in the studio with his songs, especially “Saving All My Love for You,” and “Greatest Love of All.” He was perfect for Whitney. My good friend Kenneth Reynolds, who was an Arista product manager at the time, recently reminded me that the first mix of the song Masser delivered was so soulful that one would think Aretha was singing, and Clive announced at our staff meeting when he heard it, that it was “too black.” I really wish I had kept that mix!
Kashif bought Jackie Robinson’s home in Stamford Connecticut and built a studio there. One day while we were listening to songs, Kashif asked one of his writers LaLa Cope to sit and play a song she wrote titled “You Give Good Love.” The memory of this moment still resonates within my soul…the song was perfect for the project. A few weeks later at the final vocal session, Whitney aced the lead vocal in one take, we were speechless…this was to be my final contribution to her debut album.
I resigned from Arista in September 1984. Lundvall had formed a new label, Manhattan Records, with EMI America. He asked me to join him as head of A&R. It seems both of us needed greener pastures, and a fresh start.
During a trip to Los Angeles Bruce asked me to join him at Bobby Colomby’s house to hear a new artist named Richard Marks perform. Bobby was our west coast representative. When Richard ended his set, Bruce walked over to the piano, praised the performance and asked him to join the label. Traveling back to the office, I asked Bruce if I could A&R the project, he said yes…
WHITNEY, THE AUTHOR DISPLAYING THE ART OF GENTLE PERSUASION & DIONNE WARWICKE
EPILOGUE
From the time Whitney Houston released “I Look To You“, many of my colleagues have asked my opinion of the songs and performances on her new album. It’s been difficult not to read the many reviews, so after listening to the record and viewing the much anticipated Oprah and Good Morning America appearances, I now have a refreshed opinion of our world renowned superstar, not her music. The question (for me) is not whether the vocals are as remarkable as her past performances, if the song selection is brilliant, if the production values are fresh, or even if she will sell millions of albums.
The song “I Love” is her courageous triumph over odds that would stop most of us in our tracks. I choose to celebrate Whitney’s strength to walk into a studio, stand in front of the microphone and sing. For her to make music in the face of all the negative criticism that has haunted her over the years, to cast out the demons and sing her song, that’s what I honor. No matter how many albums she sells, my stand for Whitney is that we all realize that this human being is still the most celebrated vocalist in the world, or should I say the boldest and most celebrated vocalist in the world? The lady sings, and that is what matters.
Thank you, Very fulfilling. Very powerful, and a lot of love. (Thats how you make the perfect cake) peace.. Smile
I’ve really enjoyed reading these memoirs about Whitney’s early days. They’re really well written and I learned a lot that I didn’t know. Thanks so much for sharing these stories with us.
I read Gerry Griffith’s account of the early days of Whitney’s signing and the events that unfolded before and after. I feel obliged to comment on and correct the part of his story relevant to me and my song, “Don’t Look Any Further”. I don’t want to sound contrary but this episode caused a great deal of grief between Clive Davis and me and the details are forever etched in my mind.
While I always liked, admired and worked with Gerry Griffith, I never called him to say I had a song for Whitney. If someone called, it might have been my publishing administrator’s professional manager. I never personally reached out to ANYONE regarding this song in an attempt to get it recorded. I wrote it with Franne Golde and Duane Hitchings (not Siedah Garrett…she sang the duet with Dennis Edwards) SPECIFICALLY for Dennis EDWARDS, recorded it with him and always planned that it would be on his debut solo album. When the Edwards project temporarily stalled due to internal issues at Motown, I played my “roughs” for my songplugging friend at Careers Music. There may well have been a misunderstanding as to what could and couldn’t be done with any of the songs I played. My mistake was leaving a copy for then friend and President of Careers Music, Billy Meshel, to hear.
Weeks passed. I resumed production on the Edwards album and completed it. All of us including the Motown executives (Steve Barri, Skip Miller…RIP…Miller London…Eddie Lambert) loved “Don’t Look”. It was quickly scheduled to be the first single from the album. The next contact I had with anyone about “Don’t Look Any Further” outside of Motown was a call I received from Clive Davis. He was beyond upset and demanded that my Edwards record by shelved. He told me that the Whitnet/Jermaine duet was incredible and it was coming out on both albums, Whitney’s debut and Jermaine’s. Earlier that same day, I had heard, FOR THE FIRST TIME, that this recording even existed. Now-very-upset-and- concerned about the consequences, my songplugger friend tells me that Clive would be calling me and he was livid. There was absolutely nothing I could do or wanted to do to pull Dennis Edwards’ release. It was totally out of my personal control and it was hitting the street less than a week later.
The rest is history, albeit tainted with some negative memories of the ill will created by these unfortunate events. “Don’t Look Any Further” was a smash hit for Dennis…one of the biggest R&B hits of the year and remains to this day a major song in my catalogue. Whitney’s debut was astoundingly successful and so well deserved. Her career has done just fine without “Don’t Look Any Further”. Jermaine remains an artist I greatly admire and one I came to work with later on. Finally, Gerry Griffith and I worked closely together on the reemergence of Natalie Cole’s career on EMI which launched hits like “Pink Cadillac” and “I Live For Your Love”, both of which I produced.
I was Gerry’s Administrative Assistant at the time and yep, it happened just like that!
Letitia,
Thx for weighing in.
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Fabulous write up:-) thanks
Sabrina,
You’re very welcome.
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Thanks for finally putting it in writing. As usual what was left unsaid jumps off the page. Kudos Mr. Griffith!
Great article by Gerry, Gary! I read Dennis Lambert’s retort as well, and it helped to fill out Gerry’s remembrance of what happened during Whitney’s debut, and subsequent rise to fame. It helps to hear from all sides, if possible.
Nonetheless, we know who Whitney Houston was and is, from our own observations of her, and she is a gift from God!
Peace and blessings to you, Ms. Houston!!
Carol,
Glad you enjoyed Mr. Griffith’s guest blog.
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Gerry Griffith, being a music executive, may not have been a household name but he is a giant in the music industry. The 80′s and 90′s were a revolutionary time in music. Shows like MTV, videos and cassettes evolving into CD’s allowed the world to be exposed to talent in a way never seen before and Gerry was directly responsible with working to find and develop the talent that the world would hear.
Having been around Gerry and producer Narada Michael Walden in the beginning I can attest to all that Gerry has written in the above blog. Gerry is greatly admired and loved by the music community. My esteem for him is great. Thank you Gerry for such an informative article. We are devastated by the loss of Whitney but I am comforted that her music lives forever.