Because the producer of the brand new Whitney Houston biopic “I Wanna Dance With Any individual,” which opens in theaters on Friday, iconic music performer Clive Davis relives the moment he discovered the pop superstar referred to as The Voice.
“When she walked into ‘The Best Love of All,’ I used to be stunned,” Davis, 90, told The Post about Houston’s 1983 performance on the Sweetwaters club on the Upper West Side. “It was a song I personally commissioned for a movie concerning the lifetime of Muhammad Ali [1977’s ‘The Greatest’]and that was it recorded by George Benson. But once I saw this incredibly beautiful 19-year-old come up to the microphone and find meaning on this song that I had never heard before… It was such a tremendous and emotional vivid memory for me.”
Now the ultimate version of Houston “The Best Love of All” it became one in all seven consecutive No. 1 hits she had between 1985 and 1988. It’s an album that continues to be a part of the singer’s legendary legacy, celebrated 10 years after her death with “I Wanna Dance With Any individual.”
“This type of biopic was really needed because she was clearly one of the best singer of her generation,” said Davis, who approached Bohemian Rhapsody screenwriter Anthony McCarten to write a script that strikes a balance between “celebrating her once-in-a-lifetime talent but additionally honesty [her troubles]”.
While British actress Naomi Ackie stars as Houston within the film, Davis knew an actual voice was all he needed. “It was supposed to be Whitney [singing] from the start, he said.
Davis – played by Stanley Tucci – tutored each Ackie and director Kasi Lemmons within the magical musical moments that captured Houston in its element. “Before the film was shot,” he said, “I asked the director and Naomi to come over to my weekend home in Westchester, where I actually have a theater, and I went over all of Whitney’s major performances.”
Amongst meticulously recreated live performances, including Houston’s televised debut with “Home” on “The Merv Griffin Show” in 1983, her Super Bowl epic version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” in 1991, and “Whitney: The Concert for Recent South Africa”. “No concert has affected her greater than this concert in honor of Nelson Mandela,” Davis said.
“I Wanna Dance With Any individual” also revisits some classic 85’s Houston music videos. “How will I do know” until 1998 “It is not good, but it surely may very well be.” And within the context of the biopic, these songs tell more about Houston’s personal history.
“It was very much a technique of creating these songs to give Whitney a voice in her own film, so she could express what she considered that period of her life and what was going on along with her,” said music supervisor Maureen Crowe, who worked with Houston on The Bodyguard (1992), The Preacher’s Wife (1996) and Cinderella (1997). “So ‘I’ll at all times love you’ captures the highs of getting married and having a baby, all of the things she emotionally wanted so badly.”
As depicted within the video, it was Houston’s troubled marriage to Bobby Brown that made her reconsider recording “Why Does It Hurt So Much” – from the 1995 “Waiting To Exhale” soundtrack – after it was originally rejected in a rare altercation with Davis. “It’s completely accurate that when Bobby cheated one betrayal too many … I played her that song and he or she said, ‘I’m ready,'” he said.
For Davis, nonetheless, essentially the most striking moment is the non-musical moment in “I Wanna Dance With Any individual.” That is when Houston died – by accidental drowning after years of drug abuse – just hours before the 2012 Grammy Awards night on the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.
“We had spent your entire afternoon together two days earlier and he or she was herself,” he said. “She showed me how serious she is about getting back to full fitness. We were her schedule so she could record a recent album. So it was so shocking once I got the decision. There was simply no indication that spending a lot time along with her so closely would find yourself so tragically.”
Nonetheless, after Houston’s on-screen death, the film ends on a triumphant note along with her 1994 American Music Awards compilation “I really like you Porgy”, “And I’m telling you I’m not going” and “I’m nothing”. “I used to be in favor of inserting the entire thing [medley]to show her genius,” Davis said.
And Houston’s previously unreleased “Don’t Cry for Me,” a 1994 live AIDS performance Davis had never heard before, features “awesome” lyrics that play over the credits.
“You’re thinking that he sings from beyond the grave,” said Crowe. “She was a Christian, so she knew it [life] was not the tip.”