As the story goes, when Whitney Houston was offered one of the lead roles in Waiting to Exhale, she was still reeling from the huge success of her movie debut in The Bodyguard and its award-winning soundtrack. With her next role, Whitney didn’t want the pressure of holding double duties as actor/singer and wanted to keep the focus primarily on her acting. Clive Davis, in an effort to keep his star diva from putting her singing on hold, recruited Whitney’s long-time friend and collaborator, Babyface, to help convince her to lend her voice to the movie soundtrack. After several approaches, Whitney finally agreed to do three songs for the Waiting To Exhale soundtrack under one condition: that the rest of the tracks all be sung only by women to reflect the mood and subject-matter of the movie. Babyface and Clive Davis obliged and the rest is history.

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Whitney’s great idea, Babyface’s songwriting/production, and the great collection of artists turned out to be pure magic. The album debuted at #1 in November of 1995 and remained at the top of the charts for five weeks and sold over six million copies. It spawned a plethora of major hits on the Billboard Hot 100 including the #1 singles Whitney Houston’s “Exhale (Shoop Shoop)” and Toni Braxton’s “Let It Flow”, the #2 hits Brandy’s “Sittin’ Up In My Room” and Mary J. Blige’s “Not Gon’ Cry”. This soundtrack brought together some of the greatest voices in R&B old and new. It also seemed to reflect a wide array of emotions from blissful love to bitter heartbreak. And to think that the person to capture the essence of all of these female R&B singers was a man! Enjoy one of favorites, love muffins!