Osama Bin Laden wanted to marry her and was willing to drop his “color rule”
for her. Rush Limbaugh had a thing for her (he said so on his radio show). And,
today,
Whitney Houston
tragically died at the young age of 48 in Beverly Hills. And even just before
her death, she still had the beauty of youth (as a teen, she modeled for
Seventeen Magazine) and probably the voice, too. Houston originally came from a
church background, singing gospel, and I will never forget how she chose to
visit Israel with Bobby Brown, despite calls from many for her to boycott the
Jewish State. She originally went there with the controversial “Black Hebrews”
cult, but went with her then-husband and daughter to the Jordan River, where
they were baptized (video at the end of this post). She and Brown also met with
then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, again bucking the calls of the
Israel-haters (but she refused to shake his hand – huh?).
Although we don’t yet know why Houston died so young and so suddenly, a life
filled with drug addiction can’t be ruled out, even if she died of other causes.
A life of constant illegal drug use, including cocaine and crack, catches up
with you in the end. Such a tremendous, beautiful voice, such a tremendous
talent, such beauty–all of it thrown away to smoke crack with Bobby Brown and
have a kid with him. The victim here is their daughter, Bobbi Kristina, who–as
I’ve decried on this site–was forced to be part of their
disgusting-beyond-relief reality show . . . and then their real-life reality,
none of it good.
One of my guilty pleasures: I was a huge Whitney fan, back in the day before
she essentially became Bobby Brown’s crack whore, and many of her top hits have
always been and are still part of my workout music on my Zune and iPod. Wish I
could’ve seen her in concert in her prime. My favorites were “Love Will Save the
Day,” “Queen of the Night,” “I’m Your Baby, Tonight,” and “My Name is Not
Susan,” because people would often confuse me for my sister, Susan. My late
father even liked her singing voice. Nobody can deny that powerful voice–with
such range and such strength to stay in such high octaves for such long
notes–was one of the greats in contemporary music. My all-time favorite Whitney
Houston rendition was her Star-Spangled Banner/National Anthem delivery at the
Super Bowl (during the Persian Gulf War in 1991), a version I’ve posted on this
site, before, and which I post, again, below. It’s–in my opinion–the best Super
Bowl national anthem rendition ever.
