The Bodyguard (soundtrack)

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Untitled
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[2]
Entertainment Weekly(B) [3]
Los Angeles Times[4]
New York Times(Positive)[5]
Rolling Stone(mixed)[6]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[7]
Q[8]
USA Today[9]

The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album is the soundtrack from the film of the same name, released on November 17, 1992, by Arista Records. The album's first side (in its original LP configuration) features songs by Whitney Houston, while side 2 features the work of numerous other artists. The album was co-executive produced by Whitney Houston and Clive Davis and has become one of the best-selling albums of all time. The soundtrack was the first album verified by the Nielsen SoundScan computerized sales monitoring system to have sold more than a million units within a one-week period. The soundtrack later went on to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year and was certified 17× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America on November 1, 1999.[10] It is the 15th best-selling album in the United States.[11]

As of January 2012, it had sold over 45 million copies worldwide and is the best-selling soundtrack of all time.[12]

Background

Houston served as executive producer (as she did on her previous release I'm Your Baby Tonight), giving her full control over the song selections for this album. Houston planned to record "What Becomes of the Broken Hearted" as the film's theme song, however, when they learned it would be used in the film Fried Green Tomatoes, they searched for another song. Kevin Costner, the film's co-star, thought of recording "I Will Always Love You", originally released by Dolly Parton. While recording the album, Houston insisted on using her touring band as opposed to a studio band.[13]

Music

The album's first half features pop songs performed by Houston.[4] Houston's cover of Dolly Parton's plaintive country ballad "I Will Always Love You" is a grand pop-gospel declaration of lasting devotion to a departing lover. "I Have Nothing" and "Run to You" are ballads featuring Houston's characteristic stentorian delivery. "Jesus Loves Me" is sung with Bebe Winans and features a pop arrangement.[5]

Allmusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine views that the first half is characterized by urban pop songs similar to I'm Your Baby Tonight (1990), while the second half has miscellaneous tracks more "typical of a big-budget soundtrack", including an excerpt from Alan Silvestri's score, instrumentals by Kenny G, and contemporary pop and dance songs.[2] "Someday (I'm Coming Back)", performed by Lisa Stansfield, is an intense pop-disco song.[5]

Singles

The album is most notable for Houston's version of "I Will Always Love You" (written by Dolly Parton). The song received huge airplay, appealing to the pop, R&B, adult contemporary, and soul radio markets. The single spent 14 weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.[14] "I Will Always Love You" was successful worldwide, peaking at number one for 10 weeks in U.K., for 8 weeks in Switzerland, for 5 weeks in Austria, for 8 weeks in France, for 6 weeks in Netherlands, for 3 weeks in Sweden, for 9 weeks in Norway, for 10 weeks in Australia, for 11 weeks in New Zealand.[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]

With the next two Top 5 singles[23] "I'm Every Woman" (a Chaka Khan cover) and "I Have Nothing", following on the heels of "I Will Always Love You", Houston became the first female act to have three songs in the Top 20 simultaneously. Two songs, "Run to You" and "I Have Nothing", were each nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song,[24] but lost out to "A Whole New World" from the animated film Aladdin. The same two songs were nominated for Grammy Awards in the category Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television. Other songs garnering significant radio airplay included "Jesus Loves Me" on gospel stations, and "Queen of the Night" on pop and dance stations.

Commercial performance

The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 chart and the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, behind Ice Cube's The Predator, selling 144,500 copies in its first week.[25][26] In its second week, the album topped both of the charts, with sales of 292,000 units.[27][28][29] While the album stayed the summit on the charts, it broke the record for the most one-week sales twice. In its fifth week, it sold 831,000 copies, breaking the old sales record of 770,000 set by Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion II in the fall of 1991.[30] The following week, the album once again set a record for the most albums sold in a single week since the Nielsen SoundScan introduced a computerized sales monitoring system in May 1991 when it sold 1,061,000 copies, making it the first album to sell over 1 million copies in one week since tracking began.[31][32][33] The soundtrack stayed at number one for 20 non-consecutive weeks on the Billboard 200 chart, and spent eight consecutive weeks atop the Top R&B Albums chart, remaining on the charts for a total of 141 weeks and 122 weeks, respectively.[34][35][36] The album held the record for the most weeks at number one, and the record for the most non-consecutive chart-topping weeks on the Billboard 200 chart in the Nielsen SoundScan era[37] until 2012 when it was overtaken by Adele's 21 which spent 24 non-consecutive weeks at the summit.

Due to its staying power on the charts, The Bodyguard soundtrack was ranked #1 in several categories of 1993 Billboard year-end charts, including Top Billboard 200 Album and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Album.[38] In addition, the album was the first in Nielsen SoundScan history to rank among the top three albums in two consecutive years (#3 for 1992, #1 for 1993), and the best-selling soundtrack by the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) in 1993–1994.[39][40] When the soundtrack to The Bodyguard was credited as a Whitney Houston album in Billboard's archives, she became the only artist with three albums to remain on top of the Billboard 200 chart for over ten weeksㅡWhitney Houston (14 weeks), Whitney (11 weeks) and The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album (20 weeks). Houston also broke the record for the most cumulative weeks at number one by a female artistㅡa record she still holds at 46 cumulative weeks.[41]

The album received the largest initial certification of any album for 6× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America(RIAA) on January 18, 1993.[42] The record was broken by 'N SYNC's No Strings Attached, certified 7× Platinum initially in April 2000.[43] On March 16, 1999, when the RIAA launched the Diamond Awards, honoring sales of 10 million copies or more of an album or single, the album received the award with 62 other albums initially.[44][45] It was certified 17× Platinum by the RIAA on November 1, 1999, becoming the best-selling soundtrack album of all-time in United States.[46][47][48] It is the first album to reach both the 10 million and 11 million sales mark in the US since 1991, when Nielsen SoundScan started tracking music sales.[49] As of October 2014, it has sold 12,140,000 copies; it is the sixth best-selling album of the SoundScan era in the United States.[50]

In 1992–1993, with the huge international success of the film The Bodyguard, the soundtrack was also a phenomenal hit worldwide.[51] The album reached the number one in almost all countries. It topped the albums chart in Australia for five weeks,[52] Austria for nine weeks,[53] Canada for 12 weeks,[54] France for eight weeks, Germany for 11 weeks,[55] Hungary for two weeks,[56] Italy for two weeks, Japan for two weeks,[57] Netherlands for six weeks,[58] New Zealand for eight weeks,[59] Norway for six weeks,[60] Sweden for four weeks[61] and Switzerland for nine weeks.[62] In the United Kingdom, the album didn't chart on the main albums chart because compilation albums were excluded from the main albums chart from January 1989.[63] Instead, the album reached the top on the official compilation albums chart and stayed there for 11 weeks, spending 60 non-consecutive weeks in the top 10 and for a total of 107 weeks on the chart. Through its massive success across Europe, it topped the European Top 100 Albums chart for 15 non-consecutive weeks.[64] In the U.K., the album was certified 7× platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on January 1, 1994,[65] and has sold 2,138,030 copies, landing at number fifty-three on the list of UK's 100 best-selling albums of all time, announced by The Official UK Charts Company in November 2006.[66] In Japan, it was certified 2× million by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) in 1994, the first time a foreign artist achieved that feat in Japanese music history, and eventually became the best-selling foreign album with 2.8 million copies sold.[67][68] The record was later broken by Mariah Carey's #1's, certified 3× million in 1998.[68] In Germany, the album has sold more than 1.7 million, earning 3× platinum awards by the Bundesverband Musikindustrie (BVMI).[69][70] In addition, it was awarded Diamond for the sales of over 1 million in both France and Canada.[71][72] It has sold 1.1 million in Brazil, becoming the best-selling international album by a female artist,[73] and set a record for the best-selling foreign album with the sales of 1.2 million over in South Korea.[74][75] In Australia, it became the best selling album of 1993.[76] In Mexico, the soundtrack sold more than 500,000 copies, making it the best-selling English-language record in 1994.[77] To date, the album has sold over 45 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling soundtrack of all time.[12]

Track listing

International edition
No.TitleWriter(s)Performer(s)Length
1."I Will Always Love You"Dolly PartonWhitney Houston4:31
2."I Have Nothing"
Whitney Houston4:48
3."I'm Every Woman"
Whitney Houston4:45
4."Run to You"
  • Allan Rich
  • Jud Friedman
Whitney Houston4:22
5."Queen of the Night"
Whitney Houston3:08
6."Jesus Loves Me"
Whitney Houston5:11
7."Even If My Heart Would Break"
4:58
8."Someday (I'm Coming Back)"
Lisa Stansfield4:57
9."It's Gonna Be a Lovely Day"
4:47
10."(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding"Nick LoweCurtis Stigers4:04
11."Waiting for You"Kenny GKenny G4:58
12."Trust in Me"
Joe Cocker featuring Sass Jordan4:12
13."Theme from 'The Bodyguard'"Alan SilvestriAlan Silvestri2:40
Total length:57:44
German Special Commemorative Edition (bonus tracks)
No.TitleWriter(s)Performer(s)Length
14."I'm Every Woman" (Clivillés & Cole House Mix)
  • Nickolas Ashford
  • Valerie Simpson
Whitney Houston10:37
15."Queen of the Night" (CJ's Master Mix)
  • Whitney Houston
  • Antonio "L.A. Reid"
  • Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds
  • Daryl Simmons
Whitney Houston6:35

Notes

  • On the U.S. Edition, Kenny G's "Waiting for You" was not included; with "Theme from The Bodyguard" appearing in its track place (before "Trust in Me").

Personnel

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