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
The Voice was Whitney Houston's nickname, a faculty recast as a superlative because the pop-R&B powerhouse was in possession of her generation's most quintessential one. With a three-octave span inherited from her gospel-performer mother, she had a voice that rang with a bell's clarity and a pearl's elegance. But it was also forceful. Houston didn't wield it so much as pilot it—on “Saving All My Love For You” like a hot-air balloon; on “I Will Always Love You” like a 747.