On Whitney Houston's Debut Album

Recording artists who enter the industry prepared to be used by God, as messengers of the sacred, end up at the mercy of much more profane expectations. Whitney Houston, whose upbringing was rooted in gospel singing, hoped her faith would guard her on the road to fame. She possessed a combination of girl-next-door candor and impenetrable, regal reserve that allowed her to blurt out astonishing insights during interviews and then recede or detract from them with wit, elegance, and a nearly imperceptible quotient of self-abnegating humility.