Before Whitney Houston became known as “The Voice,” she was a teenager singing alongside her mother, and Gerry Griffith was one of the first people in the music business to hear what she could become.
Griffith, the former Arista Records vice president of A&R who discovered Houston, died Nov. 5 in Brooklyn, New York, after a five-year battle with dementia, Billboard reports. He was 87.
He first heard Houston in 1979, when she was 16 and performing with her mother, gospel singer Cissy Houston. When he saw her sing again in 1983, he was even more captivated. With rumors swirling that another label was close to signing her, Griffith persuaded Arista chief Clive Davis to attend a showcase. Houston signed with the label that same year.
Looking back after Houston’s death in 2012, Griffith told Billboard that talent alone wasn’t what set her apart. Beyond her range, tone and emotion, he said, she showed “a fearless confidence and stage presence” at such a young age.
Yet Griffith’s name was rarely the one in the spotlight. “Gerry never got the accolades he so deserved for discovering Whitney Houston,” said Brenda Andrews, former senior vice president of Rondor Music International. She credited him with turning two songs from her company into early Houston hits, “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)” and “How Will I Know.” “He knew hit songs!” she added.
His fingerprints are on music that generations have grown up with. At Arista, he worked with Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Phyllis Hyman and Minnie Riperton. He also worked with Carlos Santana on the Grammy-winning album Supernatural, home to the chart-topping “Smooth” featuring Rob Thomas. Griffith also contributed to the soundtracks for Pretty Woman and The Bodyguard, the latter featuring Houston’s “I Will Always Love You.”
A Chicago native and U.S. Army veteran, Griffith later served as a senior A&R executive at EMI’s Manhattan Records, where he worked with Richard Marx. Ray Harris, co-founder of the Living Legends Foundation, remembered him as “a truly great record executive and a truly nice guy.”
Every time “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” fills a dance floor, part of the credit belongs to a man who knew a star the moment he heard one.
Griffith is survived by two daughters and two sons. A memorial service will be held at a later date.
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