The Ben Mulroney Show - Whitney Houston's "I will always love you". Ben was there when she recorded it. Here's the story

Episode Date: June 22, 2026

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This podcast is brought to you by the National Payroll Institute, the leader for the payroll profession in Canada, setting the standard of professional excellence, delivering critical expertise, and providing resources that over 45,000 payroll professionals rely on. Welcome back to the Ben Moor Rooney's show, and we've got to talk about the passing of Clive Davis. If you are, if you're of my vintage or even earlier than me,

then Clive Davis is responsible in large part for the soundtrack. of your life. And if you're my kids, you have no idea who he was. But he was a titan in popular music. He was the head of Columbia Records, Arista Records, J. Records, widely regarded as a guy who could sniff out talent, right? Alicia Keys, he found, let's see, who are some of the other ones he found? Billy Joel signed, Davis signed Billy Joel to Columbia after hearing a live performance tape. He wasn't responsible for discovering Bruce Springsteen, but he was one of the executives who supported him earlier in his career at Columbia. I mean, the list is long, but at the top of the list has got to be Whitney Houston. And there was a really special relationship between the two of them.

As a matter of fact, I believe it was at the Golden Globes. Because she died inside the Beverly Hilton during the Golden Globes. And she was supposed to go down to the Clive Davis party. I think it was the Golden Globes. Yeah, because I was there. And she never showed up. And he definitely had a really close, close relationship with her. But I, my only, my only.

my only link to Clive Davis is the following. I turned 16 on March 9th, 1992. And I guess my dad had been talking with David Foster, the Canadian music producer. So it's Ben's birthday. And he said, oh, like, hey, I'm going to be in New York City, Mr. Prime Minister, in the next couple of weeks. And I'm going to be laying down the tracks for a few new songs.

because I'm producing the bodyguard soundtrack. And I'm going to be with Whitney Houston. And I bet Ben would get a real kick out of being there with me in the studio to see what I do. So my parents put me on a plane and sent me down in New York City alone. It was kind of cool. And I was in the studio with David Foster when Whitney Houston came in. And she tried to lay down, I will always love you. which came out November 2nd, 1992.

And we sat there for hours as she tried to hit the high notes. And she couldn't. She said she had a, she said she was ill, either cold or a flu or something like that. It was 1992. So there could have been something else going on. If you know the history, you know. But she said she was sick. And at one point, after a few hours of trying to get her.

to do that that one thing. David said, take a minute, take a minute, Whitney, and he turns to me and goes, I'm so sorry, Ben. I thought that you were going to see me do this, this thing. You're going to see a song get created. But you just have bad take after bad take after bad take. I was like, it's okay, I'm having a great time. And then she knocked on the window or signaled to us from the booth. And she just said, like, let's do it.

And the next notes out of her voice were this. And David just about fell out of his G.D. chair. He couldn't believe it because there was nothing like that in her for hours. But all of a sudden, this, one take. I was there for this. That's incredible. I was there for this. It is, I mean, it's a great, incredible moment in history.

Yeah, I, listen, I didn't know, I didn't know, I didn't know, uh, the bodyguard and I didn't know this song. I didn't know it was a Dolly Parton song. I didn't know what it was going to become. But the guy who knows music and knew what she was, what level she was operating on for an entire day. And then he could not believe that she had this in the tank. Well, you, you don't even know that it was like, the, all that happened. Yeah, yeah.

Because it sounds so solid. And it was unbelievable. She said, she looked at it. I got one and that was the one. And then we were done. And what did you think when you heard it? Well, I thought it was cool. But again, like, the song didn't mean anything to me at the time, right?

The song was just what she was singing. No, but those notes, hitting those notes. Well, that didn't mean anything. No, I appreciated that she was doing something in that moment that she hadn't done all day. But David has been in the studio with so many greats over so many years. And he was willing to throw in the towel. He's like, that's it. We've tried.

We've tried. We can't get her there. She can't get herself there today. And then she pulled that out. It was amazing. And then of course, oh, and then what happened afterwards was a lot of fun because she didn't leave the studio immediately. Her mother came and I hung out with her and her mother in the studio as we looked through

a catalog of yachts that she was going to, she was looking to rent because she wanted to go on vacation with Bobby Brown. Bobby Brown. He wasn't there, though. No, Bobby was not there. But I sat there as they leaped through this catalog. As, you know, we used to leaf through the Consumer Electronics Catalog. Yeah. She was leafing through a catalog of yachts.

Nice yachts? Yeah, probably the nicest. How much did you see the prices? I mean, man. Who knows? Do you remember that? No, I don't. I'll tell you another side story of that. And this is not about Clive Davis because it's not about Whitney. but I was there for a second recording.

Do you remember the French-Canadian musician at Hug Voisin? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So Hugg Voisin was in town. He had written a song. Maybe you can find it. It's called I'll always be there. And he had written it as a love song.

It sounds like a love song. But the subtext for it was keeping Canada together. He was huge in Quebec. And so I was there with him as he. recorded this song. I believe David probably wrote it with him as well. And so he recorded the song and the goal was going to be, he was going to perform

it on, yeah, on Canada. Play it while I talk. On Canada Day as in front of the queen. I follow the trace laid by people of faith and bright

with hungry eyes. Did you offer to do back vocals? No, he's a great song. It's a good song. That would have been great. But there was a, so he lays this down, right? And then when it's done, he comes out and they're talking about the Canada Day performance.

It's coming up in a few months. And David says, you're going to lip sync. Really? Yeah. He's got a beautiful voice. That's a David Foster thing. David is known for that big, that big orchestral boom, boom, boom. And that's him on the piano.

And David was like, no, you're going to lip sync. He said, no, I want to do it live. He said, this is the most important concert of your life because you're doing it in front of the Queen on Canada Day, on a Parliament Hill. And this will be used in imagery by federalists. So you're not going to mess it up. So you're going to lip sync.

And he took the recording was on a digital audio tape, a dat. Yeah. You know dats. Yeah. It's like an old VCR. except really small. Yeah, and he took it and he like shoved it in his chest and he goes, learn the lyrics because you're lip-syncing it.

And that was the end of it. And he had no, and Ruck had no choice in the matter. Yes, you listen. I mean, the tears in your eyes. Keep on asking. You remember the song? Of course.

I do. You remember this song as well? Well, I don't remember this song. I mean, I don't actually even remember his voice being this fantastic. Here's David doing what David does. Years of Canadian music. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

But so, yeah, so that was my time at the hit factory. That's what it was called. The hit factory in New York City. And it's a memory. It was such a gift by David for my 16th birthday. Did you know young 16 Ben Mulroney is now one step away by meeting Whitney Houston's mom from the king, Elvis Presley? She's saying in his backup group. I didn't know that.

Yeah. I didn't know. Look at that. If anybody's going to know anything about Elvis. Are you telling me that I'm becoming the Canadian Kevin Bacon? Yes. I think you are. Oh, it's too bad we don't have footloose queued up.

Anyway, Clive Davis has passed away at 94. The work that he did over the course of his life has led to, honestly, what Casey Kasem said is the soundtrack to our lives. So thank you very much, Clive Davis. May you rest in peace. It's Charles Barkley with Wayfair. It's outdoor season, and my patio set up, better be ready to play.

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