I Will Always Love You: The Best of Whitney Houston is a posthumous greatest hits album by American recording artist Whitney Houston. The album was released on November 13, 2012 via RCA Records.
The album spans most of Houston's entire career and includes 29 of Houston's biggest chart hits from five of her seven studio albums and all of her soundtracks, including The Bodyguard and The Preacher's Wife. It includes all of the singer's eleven number one Billboard Hot 100 singles and 21 of her 23 top ten singles spanning from 1985 to 2000. The original issue of the album included two new tracks, a duet version of "I Look to You" with singer R. Kelly and the Jermaine Dupri-produced "Never Give Up".
It was re-released in August 2021 and included Houston's first posthumous hit, "Higher Love". The duet version of "I Look to You" with R. Kelly was replaced with the original 2009 solo version on this reissue.
I Will Always Love You: The Best of Whitney Houston is Houston's second greatest hits collection to receive a worldwide release (two of her prior compilations, Love, Whitney and The Ultimate Collection were not released in North America). The album features remastered versions of hits from nearly all of Houston's studio and soundtrack albums, with the exception of Just Whitney (2002) and One Wish: The Holiday Album (2003). The tracks featured on I Will Always Love You: The Best of Whitney Houston appear either as their original album versions or as radio edits, in contrast with Whitney: The Greatest Hits, which featured many of Houston's hits in remixed form. The album also includes new liner notes written by Clive Davis. Internationally, the compilation was released in both standard and deluxe versions.[4][5] In North America, the album was issued as a single-disc release, which contains the same track listing as disc one of the international deluxe edition. An alternate two-disc edition of the album was released in North America available only through HSN. This version contains the standard 18-track version of the album and a second disc comprising five duets Houston recorded with other artists.
Among the tracks are two previously unreleased songs, a new composition titled "Never Give Up" and a new version of "I Look to You", recorded as a duet with R. Kelly, who wrote the song for Houston in 2009 and performed it at her funeral service earlier in 2012. "I Look to You" was released on September 25, 2012 as the sole single from the album.[6] On November 6, 2012, "Never Give Up" was released as a lyric video on Whitney Houston's official YouTube (Vevo) channel.[7]
In 2021, Houston's official website announced that the album would be released on vinyl on October 29. The double vinyl includes an additional track, the 2019 remix of "Higher Love" by Norwegian DJ Kygo.[8] The original version of "Higher Love" first appeared as a bonus track on the Japanese edition of Houston's third studio album, I'm Your Baby Tonight (1990).
Commercial performance
The week of its release, the album peaked at number 14 on the Billboard 200 and number 2 on BillboardTop R&B/Hip Hop Albums. Following the return of the Top R&B Albums chart on the week of January 26, 2013, the album landed and peaked at number 8 on that chart. On March 3, 2020, the album was certified gold by the RIAA for selling over 500,000 copies, becoming the eleventh consecutive record from Houston to do so.[9] The duet version of "I Look to You" became a hit on various Billboard charts, reaching number 90 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, giving Houston her career 46th chart entry. On the Adult R&B Songs chart, the same song registered at number 29, becoming Houston's 26th entry on that chart. The song found bigger success on the gospel charts, debuting at number one on the Gospel Digital Songs chart on the week of October 13, 2012, where it stayed for a week becoming Houston's fourth number one single on that chart.
The album has spent 219 weeks on the Billboard 200 and is her longest charting album ever on the chart.[3][10] It is also the longest charting female compilation in the history of the Billboard 200, replacing H.E.R.'s 2017 compilation as the longest charting female compilation of all time on the chart, where it charted for 181 weeks.[11] It is also currently the longest-charting female greatest hits compilation after it surpassed Madonna's The Immaculate Collection after reaching 149 weeks for the week of May 27, 2023.[12]
On the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, it has spent a cumulative total of 58 weeks while on the Top R&B Albums chart, it has spent a cumulative record-setting 285 weeks on the chart so far.[3][13]
