1992 Whitney Houston: I Will Always Love You

Here's a startling fact - of the 52 weeks that make up any given year, two songs from the soundtracks of films starring Kevin Costner sat at number one for exactly half of them. '(Everything I Do) I Do It For You' notched up a record busting 16 weeks there, while this song from 'The Bodyguard' managed a still not to be sneezed at 10. Spooky? Maybe. Something diabolic anyway - Whitney Houston's 'I Will Always Love You' is one of those songs whose popularity is almost perfectly balanced by the amount of critical bile flung its way. And it's not undeserved; bombastic, overbearing, histrionic, sonorous - 'I Will Always Love You' delivers all of these adjectives and more as Houston mangles the coy promise of Dolly Parton's original into a bug eyed, hurricane blast of obsession and threat. The Houston pipes are in fine fettle, and for the first minute or so she keeps enough of a lid on to make it a not unpleasant listen. But at 1:48 she fires a starting gun that takes 'I Will Always Love You' down into power ballad hell where hollow bluster masquerades for love and the title becomes the calling card of a stalker's unwanted attentions. I have a mate whose wife to be walked down the aisle to this at their wedding. The marriage didn't last three years - what Whitney hath joined together, let an emotional vacuum put asunder. Says it all really.