THE GREATEST LOVE

Normally I would not have considered writing about this song, except for the fact that Story of Songs has a fan. "The Greatest Love of All" is her favorite song, which she's mentioned to me, Twice. She'd like for us to do a story on this. The fact that she's from France sort of had something to with it as well. Now that we live in the age of Obama and we want people from other countries to like us. I suppose you could say this is my feeble attempt at that concept.

It's actually an interesting story. It was written by Michael Masser and Linda Creed and recorded by George Benson in 1977 for a Muhammad Ali biopic called “The Greatest.” The movie did not do well. We found out that it's not easy to play yourself in a movie. Even a charismatic figure like Muhammad couldn't do it. I guess it does take talent to act. The song, however, did reasonably well. It went to number two in the R&B charts.

Linda Creed was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 26, but kept on writing while fighting it. She helped write several of The Stylistics greatest songs, including "Bet You by Golly Wow" and "You are Everything." Her favorite song that she wrote, however, was "The Greatest Love of All." About a month after getting radical mastectomy, she was hired to write a song. That's when she wrote it. Linda was concerned about losing her life and leaving her one year old daughter at a young age. The lyrics reflect this concern.

Almost ten years later, Whitney Houston wanted to record “The Greatest Love of All” for her first album. Clive Davis, the founder of Arista records, didn't want her to do it. Michael Masser eventually persuaded Clive to let her. It turned out to be a good thing because Whitney Houston's version became a real hit in 1986. It was number one on Billboards music chart for three weeks. In fact Whitney's first tour was called the Greatest Love tour. Sadly, Linda was not around at the time. She died weeks before the song reached number one after a ten year battle with breast cancer.

In 1987, Gordon Lightfoot filed a lawsuit naming Michael Masser, among others. The lawsuit claimed that Michael stole part of the melody from his song "If You could read my mind". The case was settled out of court. Michael publicly apologized. Interestingly enough, Gordon didn't file a lawsuit when George Benson recorded it.

The video to the song has Whitney singing in an auditorium. There is a little girl there with other kids and I imagine that little girl turns into Whitney because at one point they walk towards each other and merge as one. It's a powerful song and Whitney has a powerful voice. At the end, Whitney walks over to an older lady that looks a bit like Dionne Warwick and they hug. That would've been a good move if she is Dionne Warwick, because they are cousins. “Greatest Love of All” has become a standard song for auditions and for good reason. Whitney's voice is a measure by which other singers compare their voices.