Whitney Houston ‘I Go to the Rock’ Album to Feature 6 Unreleased Gospel Songs
A new documentary and posthumous album will explore Whitney Houston‘s lifelong connection to gospel music. Good Morning America reported on Thursday (Feb. 9) that the album, I Go to the Rock, will feature six previously unreleased tracks, including the upcoming, upbeat first taste, “Testimony.”
GMA said the full album is slated to drop later this year, with host Lara Spencer describing the collection as an example of the late R&B pop superstar “singing her first love: gospel songs.” A short preview snippet of “Testimony” finds Houston singing over a driving, spare beat, her voice as clear and strong as ever, but stripped of the lush pop production that marked her secular hits.
There will also reportedly be an accompanying documentary that will chronicle Houston’s longtime dedication to gospel, from her first performance at a local church through the release of the soundtrack to 1996’s The Preacher’s Wife, which topped the Billboard top gospel albums chart and remains the best-selling gospel album of all time.
Houston, who died in 2012 at age 48, released seven albums and two soundtracks over the course of her career, including 1992’s multi-platinum soundtrack to her starring vehicle The Bodyguard. Since her death the singer’s label has issued the 2012 greatest hits collection I Will Always Love You: The Best of Whitney Houston, as well as 2014 live collection, Her Greatest Performances, as well as a reissue of the Bodyguard soundtrack with remixes and live takes on the album’s songs.
In December of last year RCA issued the soundtrack to the Houston biopic I Wanna Dance With Somebody, with remixes of some of the singer’s biggest hits and a previously unheard cover of CeCe Winans’ “Don’t Cry” (titled “Don’t Cry For Me.”) In 2019, Kygo scored a global smash with his dance-ready remix of “Higher Love,” which laid remixed Houston vocals on a cover of the 1986 Steve Winwood hit over pounding EDM beats.
Listen to the preview of “Testimony” below.
Gil Kaufman
Billboard
