Heaven Sent: Whitney Houston: “I Believe In You and Me”

There are certain pop ballads that will forever be synonymous with their vocalists. To name a few: Patsy Cline’s “Crazy,” Stevie Nicks on “Landslide,” Mariah Carey’s “Vision of Love”; Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On”— those songs that came around at the right time for the right person with the right range and because of that connected with millions. Whitney Houston’s “I Believe In You and Me,” certainly gets tacked on to that list.

Performed by Whitney’s character in 1996’s The Preacher’s Wife, it’s the similar, yet bigger-sounding studio version featured on the film’s soundtrack and on Whitney’s 2000 Greatest Hits collection that will be highlighted. The song starts out sweet and Whitney’s vocal is as such. The stomping piano serves as the precursor to the middle section, and this is where Whitney really starts to open up. As she starts out on the climb, she’s ascends up and up, slowly letting go of the controlled, pleasantly safe pop vocal: “Maybe I’m a fool/To feel the way I do/But I would play the fool forever/Just to be with you forever.”

By the time she reaches the summit of this section, her vocal transitions into gospel: “I believe in miracles/And love’s a miracle/And yes, baby, you’re my dream come true/I was lost/Now I’m free…” Whitney was blessed with a voice that could make people in the ‘80s and ‘90s shake their heads in disbelief, and would often be accompanied by the word, Wow. Devoted listeners marveled at how she could just open her mouth and out came that voice… the voice. Her vocals hit ears and headed directly to the limbic parts of brains, triggering chill bumps to travel down and back up through countless numbers of bodies and out in the form of watery eyes.

To this day, those countless listeners probably still shake their heads in disbelief, yet for a different reason. The astonished Wow now followed by a sad sigh. Nonetheless, the positive things she did with the gift are to be remembered. Easily, Whitney’s cover of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” belongs on the above-mentioned list, and although some would argue that “I Believe In You & Me” would only garner an honorable mention, it still sits as one of the best studio recordings of the female vocal… ever.