“I hope life treats you kind; I hope you have all you’ve dreamed of; And I wish you joy and happiness; But above all this I wish you love;…And I ….will always love you”…Whitney Houston
When music super star Whitney Houston died in February 2012, I was on holiday in the UK with my family. I intended to do a tribute to her in this column, and indeed sketched out some research and a draft format for the proposed article. But like happens often when you are abroad, by the time I returned to Nigeria, some really “Nigerian” stuff had happened and the limitations of writing one column a week postponed the Whitney Houston article and it then never happened.
The “I will always love you” song was originally written by Dolly Parton in 1973. Whitney’s cover for the 1992 Bodyguard film and the phenomenal single spent 14 weeks at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It’s one of my all time favourites!
Life is not all about the things that stress and exhaust us – work, recession or is it going to be depression (!), politics, US elections, ISIS etc. I am particularly passionate about these things but I couldn’t imagine how the world would be without music, and literature, sports especially football… and love, romance and friendship! On a recent long distance flight from Dubai to Lagos (which became an adventure as the plane was directed to Khartoum Airport in Sudan due to “technical issues”) I cast aside all concerns and buried myself in music – Whitney’s as well as those of Mariah Carey and Diana Ross, playing their entire track list and thoroughly enjoying myself. It was without doubt one of the most memorable and enjoyable flights I have been on in recent times!
I love virtually every song Whitney Houston sang, but my real favourites include “Saving all my love you”, “How will I know”, “Greatest love of all” (a George Benson cover), and “One Moment in Time.” I also particularly love “Didn’t we almost have it all” and “Where do broken hearts go,” preferences along with others that suggest that behind all my active intellectualism probably lies a romantic!
Whitney Houston’s duet with Mariah Carey, “When you believe” in 1998 is another strong favourite of mine. I somehow feel that Mariah Carey does not get sufficient recognition of her mega-super star status! Just like Whitney Houston, you could play twenty or thirty Mariah Carey songs and each would be a star hit – “One sweet day”, “We belong together”, “I’ll be there”, “Heartbreaker”, “I don’t wanna cry”, “Always be my baby”, “Dream lover” and much more! Mariah Carey, like Whitney Houston found a way to sing heartfelt love songs in a happy danceable way!
One of my best Mariah Carey songs helps to establish a link with perhaps my biggest favourite of all these female superstar singers – Diana Ross. Diana Ross and Lionel Richie sang “Endless love” in 1981 and Mariah Carey and Luther Vandross did a cover of it in 1994-It is difficult for me to decide which one of the versions I prefer. Diana Ross however has a really special place in my heart as her songs “reigned” at our moments of self-discovery in secondary school and university. In Ife, in the early 1980s, my then girlfriend (now my wife) and I shared a favourite song, “Missing You”, a song Diana sang for Marvin Gaye – “Since you’ve been away; I’ve been down and lonely; Since you’ve been away; I’ve been thinking of you; Trying to understand; The reason you left me; What were you going through….I’m missing you; Tell me why the road turns; Ooh Ooh; I’m missing you; Tell me why the road turns;…”
I also had an earlier Diana Ross favourite and that one reached back to those “Literary and Debating” parties in secondary school-“It’s my house and I live here” which Diana Ross released in 1979 when I was 14 years old at Igbobi College. I wonder today what, at that age, I was doing with what was essentially a love song!
Diana Ross sang many other songs that hold great and sweet memories – “I’m coming out,” “Upside down”, “Ain’t no mountain high enough,” “If we hold on together”, “Reach out and touch”, “It’s my turn”, “You are everything”, “My old piano”, “Muscles”, “Why do fools fall in love”, and another great favourite, “Touch me in the morning”.
God created a wonderful world full of big and important challenges; where men will strive and stress, but then he created love and music to soothe their pains.
Columnist’s note – These reflections on music, love and life are dedicated to my wife, Oluwatoyin in commemoration of our 25th wedding anniversary today November 23, 2016.
Opeyemi Agbaje
