*The recent death of Whitney Houston has left many of us in deep sorrow.In this five part series, “African American Publicists Remember Whitney Houston,” Whitney’s former label [Arista Records] publicists Ken Reynolds, Tracey Jordan, Mary Moore, Jackie Rhinehartand Gwendolyn Quinn recall the genius and brilliance of a one-of-a- kind icon””one of the best voices of all time! (Unfortunately Audrey LaCatis Onyeike was not able to submit an essay at press time.)RIP Whitney Houston! We miss you and will always love you!
Whitney Houston and Ken Reynolds
“Whitney Houston: Remains the Same“
By Kenneth R. ReynoldsIt was during the mid 70’s when I returned back to Manhattan from Barcelona , Spain. While working with veteran African American Producer, Ellis B Haizlip. I was introduced to an incredible songstress, Cissy Houston. She was known for singing background for Elvis, Aretha, and many others. She worked around isle of Manhattan quite a bit and had a steady following of fans with just as many celebrities. Her rendition of the Jerry Butler classic “Make It Easy On Yourself” should be archived somewhere!Fifteen years later, while working as Director of RB Product Manager for Arista Records in New York City, I was not surprised at all to learn that my first project would be to work with the Arista team to develop a marketing plan for their newly signed artist, Whitney Houston. CBS Records, PolyGram Records, and a couple of boutique PR firms, is where I made my first impression, so people still assumed that I had been Whitney’s publicist. Also, coupled with the fact that Arista did not have a Black pr person, I did work very cohesively with Melanie Rodgers in bringing Whitney to Susan Taylor at Essence Magazine, Bob Johnson at Johnson Publishing, and a few other major Black publications.My first meeting with Whitney was to help her put together her personal thank you credits for the record. She was meeting me in my office at Arista. I didn’t find her particularly warm but
