Background and Recording
Jud Friedman and Allan Rich had previously written a No. 1 hit for James Ingram, "I Don't Have the Heart", but that didn't necessarily give them an edge in placing a song for The Bodyguard soundtrack. After all, they had to compete with many of the top songwriters in the industry for the hot soundtrack project. Firstly, Rich began working on the lyric for "Run to You". Rich said that "I was going through a break-up in my life at the time, which may have helped me write a lyric which reflected the feelings I was experiencing. I wrote the lyric in a few days, then I presented the lyric to Jud." Friedman, who was inspired by Rich's lyric wrote most of the music, then they finished the song together. When it was completed, they recorded a very simple demo with just piano, guitar samples and strings and then brought in Valerie Pinkston to sing the demo.
Rich then delivered the demo to his publisher, Carol Ware, Vice President of Creative at MCA Music. She loved the song, and immediately sent the tape to Gerry Griffith, Vice President of A&R at Arista Records. Griffith loved the song also, and played the demo for Clive Davis, the chairman/CEO of Arista. Eventually, the song was not only approved by Davis and Houston, but by Mick Jackson, the director of The Bodyguard, actor/producer Kevin Costner and Gary LeMel, President of Music at Warner Bros. Pictures. But about a month later, they received a phone call from director Mick Jackson. Jackson called and said,
"We still love your song, but there's just one little detail. We love the song so much, we want to use it earlier in the movie when they fall in love, instead of when they're breaking up. So could you change the lyric to make it a love song instead of a break-up song?"
Davis who answered the phone from Rich and Friedman, said, "I love the song the way it is; it's a hit. Of course, take a shot at rewriting the lyric, but whatever you do, don't lose the hitness of it. If the rewrite doesn't work, we can use the song on a future Whitney project, maybe her greatest hits album." Rich and Friedman ultimately rewrote the entire lyric except for the title. They then redemoed the song and sent the new version to Davis. Davis, Jackson and everyone involved loved the new version of "Run to You", so the song was finally set for the movie.
Soonafter, producer David Foster started plans for recording the song. Because he loved the arrangement of the original demo, he hired Friedman to do the programming and playing on the record. When the tracks were completed, it was time for Houston to record her vocals for the song. Friedman described his experience with playing the song with Houston:
"It was on a Friday night that Whitney came into the studio. It was great to meet her, and she was just a pleasure to work with. She was totally professional. Whitney actually had a cold that night, and her speaking voice was whispery and hoarse. But when she started singing, she sounded incredible. For Allan and me to be in the studio to hear her sing our song so beautifully, it was one of the greatest moments in our lives."
Read more about this topic: Run To You (Whitney Houston Song)
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