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Greatest Love of All
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"Greatest Love of All" is the fourth and final single released from Whitney Houston's self-titled 13x platinum (U.S.) first studio album, Whitney Houston, released in April 1986. The single reached #1 on the U.S. Hot 100 chart. It was written by Michael Masser and Linda Creed, and originally recorded (as "The Greatest Love of All") by George Benson for the 1977 Muhammad Ali film The Greatest. The original record was a minor hit for Benson.
Label head Clive Davis was against Houston recording the song, but eventually gave in after persuasion from Masser.
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Encyclopedia
"Greatest Love of All" is the fourth and final single released from Whitney Houston's self-titled 13x platinum (U.S.) first studio album, Whitney Houston, released in April 1986. The single reached #1 on the U.S. Hot 100 chart. It was written by Michael Masser and Linda Creed, and originally recorded (as "The Greatest Love of All") by George Benson for the 1977 Muhammad Ali film The Greatest. The original record was a minor hit for Benson.
Label head Clive Davis was against Houston recording the song, but eventually gave in after persuasion from Masser. The song was included as a B-side to the single "You Give Good Love", another Top 5 hit by Houston in the U.S.
The original album version features a piano intro, while the single version begins with a keyboard intro. After the single became a success, it replaced the album version on subsequent copies of the album.
When Linda Creed wrote the lyrics, she was in the midst of her struggle with breast cancer. The words describe her feelings about coping with a terminal illness and being a young mother. She eventually succumbed to the disease and died in April 1986 (at the age of 37), the same month that the single was released.
Chart information
Houston's single reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for three weeks. The song was the fourth hit (and third #1) from her album. It was her second longest stay at number-one after I Will Always Love You. The song also reached number one on both component charts, the Hot 100 Singles Sales and the Hot 100 Airplay, her second consecutive release to do so, and stayed for fourteen weeks in the top forty.
On other Billboard charts, the song also performed well, reaching number three on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop songs chart. It topped the Adult Contemporary chart for five weeks, Houston's longest stay at the top of the chart at the time.
Internationally, the song fared well, reaching number eight in the United Kingdom and number twenty in Switzerland. It became Houston's first number one single in Australia.
It won the American Music Award for Favorite Soul/R&B Video, and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Record of the Year and a Soul Train Music Award for Single of the Year.
Gordon Lightfoot lawsuit
In April 1987, Canadian folk-rock singer Gordon Lightfoot filed a lawsuit against one of the song's composers, Michael Masser, claiming that Masser's melody stole twenty-four bars from Lightfoot's 1969 hit "If You Could Read My Mind". The case was settled out of court, with a public apology from Masser.
Music video
The music video, shot in Harlem's Apollo Theater in 1986, features Cissy Houston playing herself, encouraging and supporting Whitney from the time she was a young girl to her eventual stardom.
Alternate version
An alternate version of the song, featuring just the piano and the vocal, appeared on 200,000 limited copies of the album Whitney Houston.
In pop culture
Among the many such references in the pop culture are:
- In an episode of Felicity, R&B singer Monica plays a beauty pageant contestant and performs the song. Monica also performed this song when obtaining her recording contract, and has publicly named Houston as one of her favorite performers.
- Rapper The Game makes reference to Houston and the opening line of the song in his song "Dreams", in which he raps "We the future, Whitney Houston told me that".
- the film Camp Nowhere: Zack (Andrew Keegan) tells Trish (Marnette Patterson) that she has to stay in school, because otherwise "who's gonna sing 'Greatest Love of All' at graduation?"
- the film School of Rock: Dewy (Jack Black) says that he doesn't believe in testing because he "believes that children are the future."
- "The Puppet Show," an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Cordelia auditions for the school talent show with an off-key rendition of the song, saying, "My song is about dignity, and human feelings, and personal— hygiene or something. Anyway, it's sappy . . . ." Cordelia performs the song again in the Angel episode "Slouching Toward Bethlehem".
- Say Anything: The school's salutatorian performs an off-key rendition of the song at graduation.
- American Psycho: Patrick Bateman, the titular character, names the song as a favorite, which represents his self love and narcissism in both the film and book. During the scene in the film, the song is played in the background.
- "The Finale" of Will and Grace: Grace sings the song to her unborn baby so that the baby can become familiar with music. The baby, perceiving that it is a terrible performance by Grace, starts to kick its mother while still in the womb.
- In the Everybody Loves Raymond episode "Hackidu," Amy's brother Russell tells Ray that Ray's brother, Robert, "needs to learn to love himself." Ray responds with "Yeah, well, that's the greatest love of all, right?"
- The song appears in the game Karaoke Revolution Party.
Other versions
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