{"id":154649,"date":"2023-03-25T22:29:28","date_gmt":"2023-03-25T22:29:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/culture.org\/?p=154649"},"modified":"2023-06-12T13:52:39","modified_gmt":"2023-06-12T13:52:39","slug":"whitney-houstons-unreleased-gospel-songs-resurface-in-new-album-and-documentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/culture.org\/art-and-culture\/music\/whitney-houstons-unreleased-gospel-songs-resurface-in-new-album-and-documentary\/","title":{"rendered":"Whitney Houston’s Unreleased Gospel Songs Resurface in New Album and Documentary"},"content":{"rendered":" \r\n\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n
<\/p>\n
A new Whitney Houston album is set to be released, featuring six previously unreleased songs, alongside a documentary TV special titled I Go to the Rock: The Gospel Music of Whitney Houston.<\/span><\/p>\n The documentary will explore the late singer’s history with gospel music and will air on March 24 on UPtv and Aspire TV.<\/span><\/p>\n The album’s first single, “Testimony,” was released on Friday, with the project also featuring songs from previously released soundtracks for The Preacher’s Wife, Sparkle, and The Bodyguard.<\/span><\/p>\n Four decades ago, music executive Steven Abdul Khan Brown encountered a teenage Whitney Houston singing at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey.<\/span><\/p>\n With the blessing of Whitney’s mother, Cissy Houston, Khan Brown booked studio time to record with the promising star.<\/span><\/p>\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n Whitney’s self-titled debut was released in 1985, featuring hits such as “Saving All My Love for You,” “Greatest Love of All,” “How Will I Know,” and “You Give Good Love.”<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>\r\n\r\n In February 1981, 17-year-old Whitney recorded three songs that Khan Brown believes helped her land her first record deal.<\/span><\/p>\n Whitney’s self-titled debut was released in 1985, featuring hits such as “Saving All My Love for You,” “Greatest Love of All,” “How Will I Know,” and “You Give Good Love.”<\/span><\/p>\n The documentary will feature highlights of Houston’s gospel background, including her first show in front of a live audience, performances at the American Music Awards, and additional moments from the NAACP Image Awards and Ebony’s 50th anniversary special.<\/span><\/p>\n Pat Houston, executor of the singer’s estate, has called the new project “a testament of Whitney’s heart.”<\/span><\/p>\n The album includes live covers of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and Edwin Hawkins’ “This Day,” both recorded at VH1 Honors in 1995, as well as a live medley of the religious songs “He” and “I Believe,” recorded in 1990 at the Yokohama Arena in Japan.<\/span><\/p>\n The other unreleased tracks are “I Found a Wonderful Way” and “He Can Use Me.”<\/span><\/p>\n The release of the new project comes shortly after Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody \u2014 a biopic starring Naomi Ackie as the music legend \u2014 arrived on Blu-ray and DVD on February 28.<\/span><\/p>\n The British actress spent six months preparing for the role, mastering the late singer’s movements, mannerisms, and accent.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":154650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[410,398,3588],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art-and-culture","category-music","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154649"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Whitney Houston’s Gospel Roots<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Documentary and Album Details<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Continuing Houston’s Legacy<\/strong><\/h2>\n