Whitney Houston Album: “One Wish: The Holiday Album”

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Personnel: Whitney Houston (vocals); Bobbi Kristina Brown (vocals); Phil Hamilton (acoustic & electric guitars); Paul Jackson, Jr., Dean Parks (guitar); Gerald Tarack, Max Ellen, Regis Iandiorio, Sandra Billingslea, Carol Pool, Kathy Livolsi (violin); Michael Morton (flute); Mervyn Warren (electric piano, keyboards, background vocals); Troy Taylor (keyboards, bass, drums, background vocals); Ron Jenkins, Reggie Hamilton (bass); Scott Frankfurt (drums, programming); Bernard Davis (drums); Bashiri Johnson (percussion); Ezekiel Lewis (background vocals); The Georgia Mass Choir. <p>Producers include: Troy Taylor, Mervyn Warren, Gordon Chambers. <p>Whitney Houston's soulful, elastic voice was practically made to wrap around Christmas standards, but despite the naturalness of the match, ONE WISH, out for Christmas 2003, as the singer neared her third decade of performing, marks her first holiday album. What lies within shouldn't disappoint as she covers many familiar tunes with just a sprinkle of recent music, the sweet-as-sugar title track originally by Freddie Jackson. <p>While Houston's been through her share of publicized drama over the years, her voice betrays no hint of the strife on ONE WISH. She begins in the vein of a female Nat "King" Cole, smoothly crooning "The First Noel" and "The Christmas Song" in a manner shifting between agreeable acrobatics and welcome subtlety. Her daughter Bobby Kristina Brown joins in to provide rum-pa-pa-pum backup on a cute version of "The Little Drummer Boy." The best moments sneak up on the listener when Houston gets lost in the classics, delivering unabashedly sentimental and lovable songs perfectly suited for her style, as with "I'll Be Home for Christmas" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." ONE WISH fulfills the promise laden in a long-awaited Christmas record from a larger-than-life performer.

I own all her albums & soundtracks, and I think that with this christmas album, she has delivered her best work yet! Her delivery is so full of emotion (something that lacked on her earlier records) and her vocals are extremely strong. Highlights are the haunting and powerful O Holy Night, the very original and uplifting Deck the Halls/Silent Night and basically every track.

The production is TOP NOTCH! And the vocals are TOP NOTCH! It doesn't mean that she sounds like "Saving All My Love For You" when she was 21, the innocence is gone, but she sounds close to the Preacher's Wife, just a little deeper. Her voice is now mature and full of emotion and soul. In my opinion, her voice and singing is superior now because it's not bland like it was in the 80's. But do not worry, with this album, she hits all the high notes and her vibrato is back. She sounds much better then her last effort last year.

All the clips on amazon are taken from the beginning of the songs, so each song builds up later into something VERY special.

Its very easy for listeners to take cheap shots at Whitney because of the previous difficult years heightened by bad press, obviously having a reflect on the negative reviews and opinions. If there is one thing for sure, One Wish is an exceptionally fabulous CD and unique in a not so typical holiday fashion. With a gospel twist in most of the songs stemming back to her strongest vocal roots. The proof speaks for itself One Wish has sold over an estimated half million copies for a Christmas Album. This is obviously one of the most popular Christmas CD's this 2003 if not the best.

Every song on this christmas album is perfect. It's too bad that some people still can't get over that Whitney is human and that she has done mistakes like the rest of us. All the negative reviews have the words Crack or Bobby in them, it's getting ridiculous. The *MUSIC* on this album is what matters and Whitney did EXCELLENT. Her voice is very warm , she belts powerful notes, she sings soft, she does it all.

The highlights for me are O Holy Night (wait til you see the powerful notes she does late in the song), also Joy to the World taken from the Preacher's Wife is perfect. Other highlights include One Wish, the Christmas Song (where she belts the word "fly" extremely high you will be amazed), Silent Night/Deck the Halls which is BRILLIANTLY arranged, and The Little Drummer Boy with her daughter again with very interesting arrangements once the song evolves. Also on the song "I'll be Home For Christmas", Whitney ends the song with a perfect soft note that is 15 seconds long.

I'm telling you, if you want a perfect christmas album full of great singing and great arrangements, then this is it. Whitney is not perfect as a human being, she's done mistakes like the rest of us, but it is clear that she's putting her life back together. This album is AMAZING.

This CD is one of the best Christmas Cd's I have ever heard. Many people talk about how she doesn't sound like the "Old Whitney", but given the events in her life, I think she sounds wonderful. The only complaint I have about this CD is there aren't enough songs. I would have loved to her Whitney sing, "What Child is This", "Oh Come All Ye Faithful", "White Christmas", "Ave Maria", and "Go Tell It on the Mountain", but I guess there's always next year. God Bless You Whitney.