In honor of the 25th anniversary of the soundtrack's release, Legacy Recordings and the Whitney Houston Estate released I Wish You Love: More From The Bodyguard,[12] which included a collection of never-before-released live recordings from Whitney’s historic The Bodyguard Tour (1993-1995), alternate versions of the audio recordings from The Bodyguard film, and an alternate version of a remix of "I’m Every Woman".[13]
As of January 2012, it had sold over 45 million copies worldwide and is the best-selling soundtrack of all time.[14]
Background
Houston served as executive producer (as she did on her previous release I'm Your Baby Tonight), giving her full control over the song selections for this album. Houston planned to record "What Becomes of the Broken Hearted" as the film's theme song, however, when they learned it would be used in the film Fried Green Tomatoes, they searched for another song. Kevin Costner, the film's co-star, thought of recording "I Will Always Love You", originally released by Dolly Parton. While recording the album, Houston insisted on using her touring band as opposed to a studio band.[15]
Music
The album's first half features pop songs performed by Houston.[4] Houston's cover of Dolly Parton's plaintive country ballad "I Will Always Love You" is a grand pop-gospel declaration of lasting devotion to a departing lover. "I Have Nothing" and "Run to You" are ballads featuring Houston's characteristic stentorian delivery. "Jesus Loves Me" is sung with Bebe Winans and features a pop arrangement.[5]
The album is most notable for Houston's version of "I Will Always Love You" (written by Dolly Parton). The song received huge airplay, appealing to the pop, R&B, adult contemporary, and soul radio markets. The single spent 14 weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.[16] "I Will Always Love You" was successful worldwide, peaking at number one for 10 weeks in U.K., for 8 weeks in Switzerland, for 5 weeks in Austria, for 8 weeks in France, for 6 weeks in Netherlands, for 3 weeks in Sweden, for 9 weeks in Norway, for 10 weeks in Australia, for 11 weeks in New Zealand.[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]
With the next two Top 5 singles[25] "I'm Every Woman" (a Chaka Khan cover) and "I Have Nothing", following on the heels of "I Will Always Love You", Houston became the first female act to have three songs in the Top 20 simultaneously.
Two songs, "Run to You" and "I Have Nothing", were each nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song,[26] but lost out to "A Whole New World" from the animated filmAladdin. The same two songs were nominated for Grammy Awards in the category Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television. Other songs garnering significant radio airplay included "Jesus Loves Me" on gospel stations, and "Queen of the Night" on pop and dance stations.
Commercial performance
The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 chart and the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, behind Ice Cube's The Predator, selling 144,500 copies in its first week.[27][28] In its second week, the album topped both of the charts, with sales of 292,000 units.[29][30][31] While the album stayed the summit on the charts, it broke the record for the most one-week sales twice. In its fifth week, it sold 831,000 copies, breaking the old sales record of 770,000 set by Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion II in the fall of 1991.[32] The following week, the album once again set a record for the most albums sold in a single week since the Nielsen SoundScan introduced a computerized sales monitoring system in May 1991 when it sold 1,061,000 copies, making it the first album to sell over 1 million copies in one week since tracking began.[33][34][35] The soundtrack stayed at number one for 20 non-consecutive weeks on the Billboard 200 chart, and spent eight consecutive weeks atop the Top R&B Albums chart, remaining on the charts for a total of 141 weeks and 122 weeks, respectively.[36][37][38] The album held the record for the most weeks at number one, and the record for the most non-consecutive chart-topping weeks on the Billboard 200 chart in the Nielsen SoundScan era[39] until 2012 when it was overtaken by Adele's 21 which spent 24 non-consecutive weeks at the summit.
Due to its staying power on the charts, The Bodyguard soundtrack was ranked #1 in several categories of 1993 Billboard year-end charts, including Top Billboard 200 Album and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Album.[40] In addition, the album was the first in Nielsen SoundScan history to rank among the top three albums in two consecutive years (#3 for 1992, #1 for 1993), and the best-selling soundtrack by the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) in 1993–1994.[41][42] When the soundtrack to The Bodyguard was credited as a Whitney Houston album in Billboard's archives, she became the only artist with three albums to remain on top of the Billboard 200 chart for over ten weeksㅡWhitney Houston (14 weeks), Whitney (11 weeks) and The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album (20 weeks). Houston also broke the record for the most cumulative weeks at number one by a female artistㅡa record she still holds at 46 cumulative weeks.[43]
The album received the largest initial certification of any album for 6× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America(RIAA) on January 18, 1993.[44] The record was broken by 'N SYNC's No Strings Attached, certified 7× Platinum initially in April 2000.[45] On March 16, 1999, when the RIAA launched the Diamond Awards, honoring sales of 10 million copies or more of an album or single, the album received the award with 62 other albums initially.[46][47] It was certified 17× Platinum by the RIAA on November 1, 1999, becoming the best-selling soundtrack album of all-time in United States.[48][49][50] . According to a new update from Whitney Houston's estate, particularly, Arista, The Bodyguard OST has been certified 18x Platinum by RIAA on November 2017[51]. It is the first album to reach both the 10 million and 11 million sales mark in the US since 1991, when Nielsen SoundScan started tracking music sales.[52] As of October 2014, it has sold 12,140,000 copies; it is the sixth best-selling album of the SoundScan era in the United States.[53]
In 1992–1993, with the huge international success of the film The Bodyguard, the soundtrack was also a phenomenal hit worldwide.[54] The album reached the number one in almost all countries. It topped the albums chart in Australia for five weeks,[55]Austria for nine weeks,[56]Canada for 12 weeks,[57]France for eight weeks, Germany for 11 weeks,[58]Hungary for two weeks,[59]Italy for two weeks, Japan for two weeks,[60]Netherlands for six weeks,[61]New Zealand for eight weeks,[62]Norway for six weeks,[63]Sweden for four weeks[64] and Switzerland for nine weeks.[65] In the United Kingdom, the album didn't chart on the main albums chart because compilation albums were excluded from the main albums chart from January 1989.[66] Instead, the album reached the top on the official compilation albums chart and stayed there for 11 weeks, spending 60 non-consecutive weeks in the top 10 and for a total of 107 weeks on the chart. Through its massive success across Europe, it topped the European Top 100 Albumschart for 15 non-consecutive weeks.[67]
In the U.K., the album was certified 7× platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on January 1, 1994,[68] and has sold 2,138,030 copies, landing at number fifty-three on the list of UK's 100 best-selling albums of all time, announced by The Official UK Charts Company in November 2006.[69] In Japan, it was certified 2× million by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) in 1994, the first time a foreign artist achieved that feat in Japanese music history, and eventually became the best-selling foreign album with 2.8 million copies sold.[70][71] The record was later broken by Mariah Carey's #1's, certified 3× million in 1998.[71] In Germany, the album has sold more than 1.7 million, earning 3× platinum awards by the Bundesverband Musikindustrie (BVMI).[72][73] In addition, it was awarded Diamond for the sales of over 1 million in both France and Canada.[74][75] It has sold 1.1 million in Brazil, becoming the best-selling international album by a female artist,[76] and set a record for the best-selling foreign album with the sales of 1.2 million over in South Korea.[77][78] In Australia, it became the best selling album of 1993.[79] In Mexico, the soundtrack sold more than 500,000 copies, making it the best-selling English-language record in 1994.[80] To date, the album has sold over 45 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling soundtrack of all time.[14]
German Special Commemorative Edition (bonus tracks)
No.
Title
Writer(s)
Performer(s)
Length
14.
"I'm Every Woman" (Clivillés & Cole House Mix)
Nickolas Ashford
Valerie Simpson
Whitney Houston
10:37
15.
"Queen of the Night" (CJ's Master Mix)
Whitney Houston
Antonio "L.A. Reid"
Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds
Daryl Simmons
Whitney Houston
6:35
Notes
On the U.S. Edition, Kenny G's "Waiting for You" was not included; with "Theme from The Bodyguard" appearing in its track place (before "Trust in Me").
A^ In U.K., compilation albums were excluded from the main album chart from January 1989.[66]The Bodyguard Soundtrack was classified as a compilation album for chart purposes and peaked at #1 on the compilations chart, not the main albums chart.[116]
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.
Notes:
On the article of Billboard magazine, the issue dated October 16, 1993, according to Arista Records and BMG International, the album's sales were said that it sold 343,000 copies. The album was certified platinum on January 21, 1993 by IFPI Sweden, but it should be 3× platinum over because platinum awards were given to albums and singles with sales of 100,000 in Sweden until September 1996.
^James T. Jones IV (November 17, 1992). "Houston heroic on `Bodyguard' album". USA Today. Archived from the original on September 12, 2012. Retrieved September 1, 2010. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
^ abBill Harris (November 17, 2006). "Queen Rules – in album sales". Toronto Sun. Retrieved September 22, 2009. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
^"Les Albums Diamant :" (in French). Infodisc.fr. Archived from the original on January 10, 2016. Retrieved July 30, 2012. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
^"Rock And Roll". rockandroll.gr. Archived from the original on August 6, 2010. Retrieved April 19, 2012. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
