The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album is the first soundtrack album by American singer and actress Whitney Houston, released on November 17, 1992 by Arista Records to promote the film of the same name. It also contains songs by her label mates Lisa Stansfield, Kenny G, The S.O.U.L. S.Y.S.T.E.M. and Curtis Stigers as well as Joe Cocker. The album is credited as a Houston album, since she recorded the majority of the tracks.
The Bodyguard was Houston's first box office film. Initially, Houston was reluctant to take on the role but was convinced by co-producer and co-star Kevin Costner to take it, to which she agreed. Arista Records president Clive Davis had apprehensions of Houston's role in the film without much music from the script, convincing Costner and the film's distributor Warner Bros. Pictures to add songs to the film, in which Houston made a deal for back royalties for its music and attained creative control. Houston agreed to record six tracks, five of which were featured in the film. Houston began working on the soundtrack in November 1991, and contacted previous producers of her work, including Babyface, Antonio "L.A." Reid, BeBe Winans and Narada Michael Walden, to participate in the album. It also marked the first time Houston worked with renowned producer David Foster, who would produce three of the six Houston tracks, as well as the production duo of Clivillés and Cole, while Houston herself co-produced two songs. Both Houston and Clive Davis were listed as executive producers on the album.
Upon its release in November 1992, The Bodyguard received mixed-to-positive reviews from music critics, who praised Houston's vocal performance but criticized certain aspects of its songwriting and production. The album was a global commercial success, topping the record charts in 21 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Germany, Austria, Belgium, France, Italy and Japan as well as the European album chart. In the United States, the album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, before climbing to number one in its second week of release, remaining there for 20 non-consecutive weeks, making it the first album by a female artist to top the charts for that many weeks. In its sixth week, it sold one million copies within a single week, making Houston the first artist to accomplish this following verification by Nielsen SoundScan. It would continue to sell a million copies per week for several weeks in a row and would eventually be certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America for sales of ten million copies in November 1993, becoming the first female album to sell that many copies in the United States and would be one of three Houston albums to receive that milestone, eventually selling 19 million in the country alone. Overall, the album would sell over 50 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling soundtrack album of all time, the best-selling album by a female artist in music history, and the best-selling album of the decade.The Bodyguard Soundtrack worldwide sales:
The album was supported by five Houston singles — "I Will Always Love You", "I'm Every Woman", "I Have Nothing", "Run to You" and "Queen of the Night". All five singles achieved chart success of varying degrees, with "I Will Always Love You" being the most successful, topping the charts in 34 countries and selling over 24 million copies worldwide, going on to become the best-selling single by a female artist of all time. Houston set a US chart record after three of the soundtrack's singles landed at the top twenty simultaneously on the Billboard Hot 100. Two of the songs — "I Have Nothing" and "Run to You" — each received nominations at the Academy Awards for Best Original Song. Though not officially released to promote the soundtrack, the non-Houston songs, "Someday (I'm Coming Back)" by Lisa Stansfield and " It's Going to Be a Lovely Day" by The S.O.U.L. S.Y.S.T.E.M., found moderate chart success as well. Houston further promoted the soundtrack with a lengthy world tour that lasted seventeen months between May 1993 and November 1994.
The soundtrack received several awards and accolades for Houston, including seven American Music Awards, a Brit Award, a Juno Award and the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, marking only the second time in Grammy history that an African American woman won the Grammy in that category. In 2017, a 25th anniversary re-release, I Wish You Love: More from The Bodyguard, was issued. In 2024, The Bodyguard was included in Rolling Stone's list of the 101 Greatest Soundtracks of All Time. As of 2026, music videos for "I Have Nothing" and "I Will Always Love You" have surpassed one billion views on YouTube, making the soundtrack the first 1990s album to have two videos with over 1 billion views. Houston is the first artist ever to have two 1990s videos to do so.
Background
In late 1989, while planning work on her third studio album, I'm Your Baby Tonight, Houston received a call from actor Kevin Costner to accept a leading role in a film titled The Bodyguard. Back in December 1986, Billboard magazine mentioned that Houston would take part in the film, only with Clint Eastwood as the co-lead. Costner convinced Silverado director and friend Lawrence Kasdan to let him be a co-producer for the project. Kasdan had originally written the script for the film back in 1975 and after his script was sold off to Warner Bros. Pictures, the film had originally been pegged as a project for Steve McQueen and Diana Ross in 1977, but stalled. An attempt to make the film a vehicle for Ross and Ryan O'Neal by 1979 was also stalled after Ross rejected the film.
Following Houston's career rise in the mid-1980s, she was sought after for film work by Robert Townsend, Spike Lee and Robert De Niro. Costner reportedly was convinced of Houston being Rachel Marron after viewing the music video for her 1988 hit single, "Where Do Broken Hearts Go". Houston, who had only taken brief acting cameos on television shows such as Silver Spoons, was reluctant but agreed to read the script. A nervous Houston still held off on the film until Costner convinced the singer in another phone call around late 1990 that he will "not let [her] fall".
Despite some concerns from film executives as well as its director Mick Jackson of Houston's potential, the singer passed a screen test in January 1991. That April, Houston and Costner announced that they would co-star in The Bodyguard. Costner delayed production on the film until Houston finished her world tour that year to late November 1991.
Recording
Prior to shooting the film, Arista Records CEO Clive Davis was not sure about the film that, at the time, had little music attached to it and didn't understand why Houston's character, Rachel Marron, "needed a bodyguard". Davis admitted later he was "nervous" of Houston's acting aspirations. After reading the initial script, Davis, who was on the board of directors of CBS when CBS first went into film back in the 1960s and who was at the time, on the board of directors of Columbia Pictures, wrote a letter to Costner and Jackson, arguing to them that the film "is nowhere near fulfilling the potential of what Whitney could contribute to the role".
Davis further wrote in the letter: "The songs that she can sing, the respect and appeal from that, so directly ties into a need for a bodyguard, and provides the foundation of chemistry, potentially, between the two [characters]."
Costner and Jackson agreed with Davis and Houston, in a deal with Warner Bros Pictures, signed a deal for rights to the soundtrack's back royalties and agreed to record at least six tracks, with five of them to be featured on the film. Maureen Crowe became the film's music supervisor and worked with Houston and Costner on finding songs for the film.
Through the deal, Houston received executive producer credit on the album, attaining full creative control. Houston was executive producer of her last studio album, I'm Your Baby Tonight, in which the singer experimented with new jack swing, funk and soul music, as a response to black music critics who decried her work on her sophomore album, Whitney, of "selling out" to a white audience.
Houston began work on the soundtrack in mid-November 1991. For the first time in her career, Houston picked the producers she wanted to work with. According to singer and producer BeBe Winans, who worked on the project with Houston, the singer was "truly in control. She grew into that confidence. She was playing catch-up for the first and second album, and then she caught up to how to become immune to what people would do or say... For the Bodyguard soundtrack, she was who she was." He added that by the time of the soundtrack recording, Houston had become "more understanding of a song, more so than just singing the song, and was part of those decisions of what songs she was going to sing. Now if she trusted you, as she did other musicians and songwriters, she would allow you to do what you do, and again take that song and make it her own." For a while, Houston kept the music to herself, later stating "... I kept the music to myself for a long time. I didn't want anybody to hear it. I was very careful." Despite not being as heads on with the project as he had with Houston's previous albums, Davis's name was added as co-executive producer as he was in charge of deciding its single releases. Houston and Crowe, with additional help from Costner, were in charge of choosing songs for the soundtrack.
The first song Houston worked on was the rock song "Queen of the Night". Initially composed by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds and Daryl Simmons, the song had been left unfinished for weeks due to them being preoccupied by other songs they had penned for the soundtrack to the film, Boomerang, at the time. When Houston visited them at a Hollywood studio on November 9, they encouraged her to help out. As a result, Houston added lyrics and composition. Longtime collaborator Antonio "L.A." Reid became a fourth contributor after suggesting a drum intro. Canadian record producer David Foster had been booked to produce at least three songs for the album. The first of which, "I Have Nothing", was recorded on November 12, followed by "Run to You" three days later, on November 15. During shooting of the film, which had begun principal photography on November 25, Houston and Foster continued to make edits to the songs. Foster later recalled that after picking Houston up following the shooting of the movie, the duo would work on vocals "at 9, 10 o'clock at night" and that the singer "was a laser beam". Foster further stated of Houston: "She'd walk into the studio, rip off her coat, get up and say 'Let's go.' Like a racehorse, no warm up, no nothing." Houston returned to the recording studio between January and February 1992 to co-produce a R&B-oriented rendition of the old gospel hymn, "Jesus Loves Me" with BeBe Winans. Houston arranged the session and advised Winans on adding new lyrics not included in the original hymn, as well as a bridge. According to Winans, neither Arista nor Warner executives felt it was necessary to add a gospel song but Houston insisted. Eventually it was agreed to add the song to both the film and on the soundtrack, fulfilling Houston's wish to professionally record gospel music.