Whitney & Amy

Two incredible voices, two very different styles. Whitney Houston has been singing pop and gospel tinged R&B since the early '80s, Amy Winehouse came on the scene just a few short years ago. Both women had undeniably enormous talents, and both ladies died because of their inability to live a life without delving into harmful and addictive substances. Both losses are huge to music, and it continues to fascinate me how these two beautiful, talented women with so much to live for could allow themselves to sink to those depths.

Whitney's voice was such that all you needed to hear was a few notes of it, and you knew it was her. Her string of huge pop radio hits in the '80s were not necessarily great songs. Actually, songs such as "Saving All My Love" and "I Wanna Dance with Somebody", and even the much touted "I Will Always Love You" were not of themselves great songs necessarily. And while the productions were excellent, nothing ground breaking. But that just is another testimony to what a huge gift she had. These songs were transformed into classics, I believe, singlehandedly by her monumental voice. And of course, you only need to listen again to her "Star Spangled Banner" on YouTube too remember what a phenom she really was.

Amy, in some ways, was the antithesis to Whitney. Ms. Houston's MO was to play the pure-as-the-driven-snow for most of her career, while hiding the partying side for as long as she could. (The Bobby Brown reality show probably didn't help her cause.) Amy on the other hand was drunk on stage most of the time, and did not try to present any type of squeeky clean image. (Check out her Rehab video - definitely not the gal you'd race to bring home to mom & pop.) But what was so incredible about Amy was the way she sang pop music. She sung Rehab with an amazingly strong jazz sensibility and a grasp of phrasing and timing that would be the envy of jazz singers twice her age. I still remember the first time I heard Rehab. It was on my car radio, and I nearly pulled over as I was staggered by how far she was singing that classic "No, no, no!" line behind the beat. "She is a jazz singer," I said to my wife, "no doubt!" Of course, Tony Bennett secured her place in history as just that by extolling the virtues of her jazz chops on the 2011 VMA's shortly after her death. Mr. Bennett's quote: "She was a true jazz artist in the tradition of Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. She had the gift." THE GIFT! That, my friends, is a pedigree worth 3 Berklee doctorates. And then some.

I loved the voices these two incredibly lovely ladies brought to Planet Earth. I will listen to them for the rest of my life, and will probably shed an occasional tear when I do so. Many years ago, Woody Allen's manager Jack Rollins made this comment upon hearing of legendary comedian Lenny Bruce's death from abusing drugs: "He sinned against his talent". And for Whitney and Amy, ain't that the truth.