New Whitney Houston Music Dropping on Friday (Listen)

By Shirley Halperin

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – A 1991 recording of Steve Winwood’s “Higher Love” by Whitney Houston was released on Friday, June 29. The song was first performed at a Tokyo concert in 1990 and features Houston at the top of her vocal game. The recording was intended for her third album, “I’m Your Baby Tonight,” according to the official social media account of Clive Davis , the former Arista Records boss who discovered and developed Houston to become one of the biggest pop singers of the 1980s and 1990s.

Also according to Instagram , Norwegian DJ Kygo remixed the recording, which dropped at midnight East Coast time.

“Higher Love” was originally released by Winwood in 1986 and was co-written by Will Jennings, best known for Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven.” Its lyrics tell of a higher purpose to life, lamenting: “Think about it, there must be higher love / Down in the heart or hidden in the stars above / Without it, life is a wasted time / Look inside your heart, I’ll look inside mine.”

Listen to Houston’s version below:

Houston died on Feb. 11, 2012. She was found submerged in the bathtub of her room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel and her death was ruled as accidental, though heart disease and chronic cocaine use were said to be contributing factors to the singer’s death.