Greatest Love of All: A Story of Cancer, Courage and Collaboration By Sheldon Taylor

 In April 1986, Whitney Houston's Greatest Love of All was rising fast on the charts. Released a few weeks earlier as the final single from her triple-platinum debut Whitney Houston album, it was looking to be every bit the success of her previous hits like You Give Good Love, How Will I Know, and Saving All My Love For You. Composed, arranged, and produced by Michael Masser and lyrics penned by Linda Creed, Houston’s thrilling rendition of the 1977 original is permanently lodged in the public consciousness but the song's history and lyrical inspiration have been lost with time.    

         

By 1976, Linda Creed was looking to spread her wings. As a staff writer at Philadelphia International Records, she joined forces with producer Thom Bell’s to create some of the greatest songs in the Philly Soul songbook.

 In just four and a half years they'd racked up over 20 platinum and gold singles and albums. Creed was just twenty-three when she launched her prolific career. Three years later, she'd earn a half-million dollars in royalties. Now at twenty-seven, she wanted more.

Creed's Betcha By Golly Wow, Rubberband Man and You Make Me Feel Brand New and other compositions helped make Philly International's Mighty Three Publishing one of the most lucrative catalogs of the decade. After a request to become an equal partner in the label's publishing arm was rebuffed, Creed parted ways with her Philly soulmates and relocated to the West Coast to new writing and producing opportunities. She ended up linking up with a new partner whose rapid career ascension mirrored her own.

 A failed singing career led Creed to songwriting. A fateful trip to a psychiatrist prompted Masser to leave his stockbroker career behind to fulfill his dream of writing songs. Honing his craft under legendary Tin Pan Apple lyricist Johnny Mercer, he would abide by his mentor's cardinal rule---never rush a song.  

 While Creed penned hits for the Stylistics and the Spinners, Masser orchestrated Diana Ross' post-Supremes chart domination. Touch Me in The Morning gave Ross her first #1 pop solo record in 1973. He followed it up with Do You Know Where You're Going (The Theme from Mahogany).  Another #1 single, It ended up being nominated for an Academy Award. On a hot streak, Masser was tapped to compose the soundtrack to Muhammad Ali biopic The Greatest. Creed was enlisted to write lyrics for the film’s theme song.

 As Creed basked in the public adulation for her hit songs, she was waging her own private health battles. At twenty-four she'd been diagnosed with breast cancer. Now she needed a radical mastectomy operation to keep her cancer from spreading.  

A month after surgery, Creed emerged with an anthem ripped from the pages of her personal struggles. It would be entitled The Greatest Love of All.

In the song's first verse, Creed stressed the need for instilling character and self-worth in young people---“teach them well/ and let them lead the way/show them all the beauty/ they possess inside." Expressing the importance of preserving child-like innocence and youthful optimism lost by jaded adults hardened by life's realities, the second verse peered through vulnerability's window of solitude and offered solutions---“a lonely place to be/so I learned to depend on me”.

As Masser’s stark piano chords give way to sweeping strings, Creed lyrically hits her mark like a seasoned actor and speaks truth to power---"I decided long ago/never to walk in anyone’s shadow/if I fail/if I succeed/ at least I'll live as I believe/no matter what they take from me/they can't take away my dignity."  

As the song ends, Creed offers the listener a final jewel---"And if by chance that special place/that you’ve been dreaming of/leads you to a lonely place/find yourself in love."

The Greatest Love of All's impact would be felt long after The Greatest faded from theaters. Destined to be a staple at school assemblies and talent shows. Love would join Donny Hathaway's Someday We'll All Be Free (1973), Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes' Wake Up Everybody (1975), and McFadden and Whitehead's Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now (1979 ) on the shortlist of anthems resonating with a post-civil rights Black America. It was also Clive Davis' first R&B hit on Arista Records, peaking at # 2.

In his 2013 memoir, The Sound Track of My Life,  Davis envisioned the song being heard by a "certain 14-year-old girl in New Jersey hearing the song on the radio and being moved by it and maybe singing it in her young and glorious voice.” Coming off the commercial success of Breezin,' George Benson was tapped by Masser to perform the song because he felt the jazz guitarist's "foggy" voice was similar to Ali’s. It would further legitimize Benson as a singer. 

As usual, Creed’s success was dogged by the realities of cancer that were never far away. Creed's husband Stephen "Eppy" Epstein reflected on her most challenging moments:

"The night we went to the preview for the Ali movie, she went out and bought a gorgeous gown, a limousine was picking us up…All of a sudden, I hear glass break... She had looked in the mirror and couldn't stand what she saw, and she broke the mirror. She felt like less of a woman. She wouldn't let me touch her for months."

Epstein revealed that Creed knew Greatest Love of All was her best work. "She used to say, 'I don't know when that day is going to come, but somebody is going to sing that song the way I hear it.’’ She saw Whitney sing it a couple of times.’’ 

A nineteen-year-old Whitney Houston sang the song at a New York club, spawning a record label bidding war. Davis was also in attendance and shocked “that a teenager could bring such overwhelming passion” to the song. When Masser witnessed Houston's performance, he was reduced to tears. 

Now signed to Arista---Houston was paired with Masser to work on Whitney Houston. The Masser/Creed composition now retitled Greatest Love of All---was added to the album. After her debut spun off four hit singles, Masser and Houston convinced Davis to release it.

 It was the first in a trilogy of career-defining moments that included Houston's Gulf War-era rendition of the National Anthem and her remake of Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You. 

Creed never had the chance to enjoy the success of her song the second time around. Bone and liver cancer had taken their toll. Arista expressed a copy of the song to Creed while she was in the hospital. Her husband played it at her bedside. As Creed fell into a coma, Greatest Love of All closed in on the number one spot. By the time it topped the chart for three weeks in May 1986, Creed had succumbed to the disease she fought so bravely against. 

Posthumously nominated for a BMI songwriter award, her family accepted it on her behalf. Her old Philly colleagues Gamble, Huff, and Bell eulogized her in Billboard.

In the three decades since Creed’s death emphasis on her songwriting prowess has waned. Benson’s 2014 memoir makes no mention of Creed. Ali’s query of the song's origins to Benson upon the song's release (“Were you thinking of me when you cut that?”) is a testament of her ability to inject human sentiment into her writing. With the exception of Benson, all of the song's major players are gone. Epstein---Creed’s champion, beloved husband, and executor of her estate passed away in 2006. Houston was found dead in her hotel room in 2012. Masser passed away due to stroke complications in 2015.

 Ever his wife's protector and faithful steward of her legacy, the late Epstein would have the last word, courtesy of an interview with the Philly Inquirer after Creed’s untimely passing:

"The lyrics in that song were totally different from anything she'd ever written before, from the boyfriend/girlfriend songs to almost like she was facing death. She wrote 'I believe that children are the future. . .."That song was really about Linda. She used to say to me that if you can't wake up in the morning and love yourself, don't walk out the door, because how can you deal with anybody else?"

                                                         

Linda Creed: 1948-1986

Michael Masser:1941-2015

                                                          

Whitney Houston: 1963-2012