Whitney Houston, “You Were Loved” | Music Lifts 🎶 🏋

In the 4^th edition of Lit Music That Lifts, we’re uplifted by the late, great Whitney Houston performing, “You Were Loved.”

W

elcome to Lit Music That Lifts (LMTL), or Music Lifts 🎶 🏋 for short! This column picks up where Sunday Refresh 🙏 leaves off, yet it hits different.  Like its predecessor, Music Lifts seeks to highlight songs that encourage, inspire, and uplift the spirit; songs that exude fortitude, positivity, and resolve, even in the face of adversity.  Featured songs aren’t genre-specific; songs may or may not be faith-based. The goal is for these songs to make you feel better – be LIFTED to new heights!  So, for the X edition of Music Lifts 🎶 🏋 (2022), we highlight 🎵 “You Were Loved” as performed by the late, great 🎙 Whitney Houston.

🎙 Whitney Houston was one of the greatest singers of all time.  Her voice, at its best, was untouchable.  Even though Houston departed this world at just 48 years old, her legacy and her prodigious catalog are enduring.  Houston put in some serious work in the 1990s with her contributions to soundtracks, none bigger than 💿 The Bodyguard, which won the highly coveted Grammy for Album of the Year.  But today, we highlight another brilliant Whitney soundtrack, 💿 The Preacher’s Wife (1996), keying in on the ballad, “You Were Loved”  

“You were loved by someone

Touched by someone

Held by someone

Meant something to someone

Loved somebody

Touched somebody’s heart

Along the way

You can look back and say

You were loved.”

That chorus is stunning. Houston’s shimmering pipes make us believe every word she is singing.  Furthermore, Whitney makes us believe that she penned those thoughtful, love-filled lyrics.  If for some reason you missed the memo, Houston wasn’t a songwriter.  But 🎼 ✍ Diane Warren is a very, very skilled one.  You know who is also skilled? 🎛 Babyface, who produced this inspiration, adult contemporary R&B gem for Houston.  It’s not surprising that this song makes me feel some type of way – loved – every time I hear it.  The chorus is the centerpiece, but those verses are sweet too. Exhibit A, the second half of the first verse:

“You’ll hold this world’s most priceless thing

The greatest gift this life can bring

Is when you look back and know

You were loved.”

Oh, the feels, the feels – the inspiration! Lit Music That Lifts 🎶 🏋 indeed!

---

🎙 Various Artists • 💿 The Preacher’s Wife • 🏷 Arista • 📅 1996

---

Whitney Houston, “You Were Loved”: Music Lifts 🎶 🏋 No. 4 (2022) [📷: Arek Socha, Arista, Benjamin Balazs, Brent Faulkner, Clker-Free-Vector-Images, Ketut Subiyanto, The Musical Hype, Pexels, Pixabay]

---