So somehow a rumor got spread that I would be including an essay with each post here. Of course as soon as I read that the ink dried up. Please don’t hold me to that or it will be 6 months in between posts. I also realized that my music collection is organized in a system that can only be described as complete chaos and typing “white label” into my iTunes wasn’t as fruitful as I had hoped when planning out tracks to posts. One track did come to mind though. I ended my boiler room in 2016 with it and have been hounded for an ID ever since. I’m never protective of track IDs. Whats mine is yours, so on and so forth. But with this one for years I couldn’t bring myself to share the track. It was my secret baby, only discussed amongst close friends.

Jameson vs. Whitney – Fine (Untitled Mix 1) [2000]

Whitney houston greatest hits mediafire youtube

In many ways “Fine” marks the beginning of the first stumbles in Whitney Houston’s discography. After perfecting an anthemic pop sound in the late 90s, she began to transition to grown and sexy r&b. She wouldn’t fully emerge from the lull until 2009’s “Million Dollar Bill.” “Fine” was included as a new song on her Greatest Hits in 2000, which always used to drive me crazy. Just give us the hits, please! The original version produced by Raphael Saadiq and Q-Tip has a middlingly funky vibe that would feel at home in a Disaronno commercial, heavily laden with ribbed sweaters and leather blazers. The video, like all music videos from 1999-2001, features a dance battle on a roof (but I will say Whitney looks good in a fingerless glove!)

Jamie Williams, aka Jameson, was a stalwart producer and MC out of England, who started with a string of excellent hardcore singles in the early 90’s as Kenetic and eventually covered just about every shade of UK house. Shortly after hitting his stride at the turn of the century he adopted the ever so slightly different alias Jamieson and had mild crossover success with a handful of bubblegum 4×4 records. In “Fine (Untitled Mix 1)” we have evidence of the producer at his peak as he pitches up the vocal and swaps in an original instrumental, turning the whole thing into glittering garage magic. When I first got this 12″ it made me forget that “Fine” wasn’t actually one of Whitney’s greatest hits. While a good white label takes a familiar track that you love and helps you see it from a new perspective, a great one takes a track that you don’t care about and breathes life into it.

Nearly everything about Jameson’s take is perfect but the star of the show here is the bass line. When the first “boing” hits at 15 seconds it penetrates deep into the chest. I have never not started doing gun fingers in the club at that moment. Each time I play this out and see the reaction I’m shocked it never made it into the pantheon of classic UK garage flips. But I guess thats the way of the genre. With such a massive volume of white labels coming out of the UK around 2000 , the difference between gold record and dollar bin oddity was a flip of a coin or a prime time rinse on KISS FM.

If you are staring at the discogs entry for this record right now and dying to know if “Untitled Mix 2” is as good as this one, don’t waste your money! But its definitely worth buying the first 4 or 5 white labels that came out on Cherry Pie Records.

Whitney Houston Greatest Hits Full Album Download

Bonus : For my fam in the contemporary soulful house massive I’m including my second favorite remix of “Fine” made by Rob Hayes in 2014. Going to have to see if I can sway the rest of you on soulful house another time 🙂

Whitney Houston - The Greatest Hits (2000)

Although Whitney Houston's Greatest Hits is a double-disc package (and is priced as such), only the first disc actually contains original versions of Houston's hit singles; the second disc, 'The Greatest Remixes', collects remixes new and old to appeal to hardcore fans. Of course, it would be impossible to fit all of Houston's 20-plus chart singles onto one disc, but that single-disc format still could have produced a fantastic and near-definitive collection. That is, if Arista hadn't made the absolutely ridiculous choice not to include 'How Will I Know,' 'So Emotional,' 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me),' and 'I'm Your Baby Tonight,' all of them number one hits. Granted, those songs are all present on the accompanying second disc, The Greatest Remixes, but fans who want the original versions are out of luck and will have to purchase the three different albums on which those songs first appeared. That said, the compilation does do fans a few favors; there are three new tracks, including one duet apiece with Deborah Cox and Enrique Iglesias, and there are also two hits that have never actually appeared on a Houston album: 'One Moment in Time' (the 1988 Olympic theme) and 'If You Say My Eyes Are Beautiful,' a duet with Jermaine Jackson from his 1986 Precious Moments album. For the completist, Houston's Top 20 hit recording of 'The Star-Spangled Banner,' performed at Super Bowl XXV, is tacked on at the end of the remix disc as well. Overall, the Greatest Hits disc amply reinforces once again what a fine singles artist Houston has been for the entirety of her career. Still and all, though, it's a frustrating package marred by record company greed -- not only because of the glaring omissions designed to force consumers to buy the original albums as well, but also because casual fans won't appreciate having to pay double the money for a second disc of remixes that they probably aren't interested in owning. Overall, it's a wasted opportunity. ---Steve Huey, AllMusic Review

Whitney Houston Greatest Hits Mediafire Album

download (mp3 @320 kbs):