Marcia's Musings

Fast-forward a couple of years later and that same model who had become a staple within the pages of "Seventeen," had an album out. I remember the cover: her hair slicked back, wearing what seemed like a toga-styled dress and surrounded by a tropical background. That album's music became the soundtrack to my college years. Within an instant Whitney, with her big, bold 3-octave range replaced Diana Ross as the go-to singer for me to listen to comiserate about joy and pain.

I watched as the media praised that debut bow, then tore her apart for the voice that defined a generation of singers after her. Who could forget how music critics panned her version of Dolly Parton's song, "I Will Always Love You," saying she over-sang the song. Yet women and men who were touched by her angelic range and those exact emotions proved them wrong and turned it into a multiplatinum-selling hit.

Whitney's untimely demise, which early reports say might have been an accident, is a terrible loss to the music industry. Personally, it feels similar to when Michael Jackson passed away because it seems just too much, way too soon for a light that shined so brightly. 

Whitney, we will always love the talent that you were born with and will forever be blessed by the legacy you left.

Here is one of my favorite duet she did with CeCe Winans. Many forget that she was primarily responsible for helping CeCe and BeBe onto the international secular stage.