The story of Whitney Houston’s “Heartbreak Hotel”, as told by one of the producers. Featuring Bobby, fallen wigs and bad vocals.

There is a really cool podcast called Halftime Chat, where host Nnamdi Okoye (a music fan and mental health therapist) sits down with artists, songwriters, producers, singers — all the people within music. And I cannot believe I only came across it over the past couple of weeks. I’ve been throwing myself into listening to a bunch of episodes. But one which really caught my attention was the one with Carsten Schack aka Soulshock — one half of the production duo Soulshock & Karlin.

Carsten shared a story of his experience recording Whitney Houston’s “Heartbreak Hotel”. Now, this story isn’t new. He’s told it before — prior to Halftime Chat, Cartsen told the story on another music podcast, You Know I Got Soul back in 2020. He also has a book out, so there’s a likelihood he told the story in that too — because which producer who worked with Whitney Hosuton and puts out a book would NOT talk about working with Whitney? But whenever Soulshock does interviews, it’s always with these smaller podcasts and never huge publications, so tidbits from them tend not to go viral or hit wider — compared to if he were to sit with Billboard, Rolling Stone or these popular Twitter accounts like Pop Crave.

Hennyway.

Soulshock’s story of how “Heartbreak Hotel” came together is a really cool story. Not just for the laughs at how Whitney was singing down so hard in the booth that her wig fell off. But to hear the story of how “Heartbreak Hotel” even got to Whitney, and how it going to her soured his relationship with L.A. Reid, who wanted the song for TLC. And how producers sometimes have to do more than just ‘make the beat’ — they have to strategise how to get the song over the finish line by whichever means necessary.

Who woulda known that the first version that Whitney recorded sounded terrible? That Bobby Brown was originally on the song? And if the experiences that Babyface and Soulshock & Karlin had were common, then it had to have been a HEADACHE getting the My Love Is Your Love album recorded. Although when you really look back on Whitney’s life and realise how early the drug use started and the type of relationship she had with Bobby, it’s not so hard to fathom.

Listening to Soulshock tell this story really helps put into perspective how difficult it can be to pull a song together. In theory, it sounds really simple. You create the song. You get the artist in the studio to record it. And you’re good. But then there is the creative process of actually having a song to record — writing it, producing it. Then there is getting it to an artist. And if you manage that miracle, what if the artist cannot be bothered to record the song? And what if when they can be bothered, they end up sounding like shit? And if you’re a new producer in the game, how can you give feedback to an established artist that you idolise? There is every likelihood that Whitney had sessions with Babyface where she perhaps didn’t sound her best. But Babyface had worked with Whitney long enough by this point and probably had a solid enough relationship with her that he could tell her in the moment. And perhaps the relationship Whitney had with Babyface meant that she knew she couldn’t just phone it in, the way she could with new producers who wouldn’t get on her case and be like ‘Girl, you and I both know you can do better and that you gon’ have to record that shit again’.

Whilst it’s easy for Soulshock’s account to be sensationalised because it’s about Whitney and we know how bad shit got for her — instances such as this, where you have to wrangle artists to record a song and record it properly are probably very common. Recording artists are people, just like the rest of us. They go through shit. And there may also be some ego that comes with artists who are already mega successful and don’t have a lot of people to answer to. The reality of the situation is that things aren’t always going to fall in place in the most optimal way for the work properly the first time around — as is the case with most jobs in life, regardless of profession. And in the case of Soulshock, even when he and Karlin managed to get the song over the finish line in a state that they were happy with and Clive Davis was happy with to release as a single, the success of the song brought more problems. It resulted in Soulshock adopting a lifestyle which ruined one of his relationships. And whilst having a number 1 hit is obviously great — when you are the producer behind a number 1 hit for Whitney Houston, there is an expectation which is then put upon you. Record labels and A&R’s are now calling your phone because they want a number 1 hit, and that has to be an immense pressure. Because if you aren’t able to deliver more hits, then the phone will eventually stop ringing and the cheques stop coming in. And Soulpower mentions that the pressure to keep delivering is what resulted in his production partner Karlin calling it quits.

Huge success ruining lives is a story as old as time. And it’s a very relevant one in this case, because of the Whitney Houston of it all — somebody who turned to drugs, partly to escape fame that came as a result of her success. And during that process she lost the joy in the thing she once loved to do — sing. Imagine having a voice like Whitney Houson, and hating fame and what your life has become because of it so much, that you don’t even care about your voice. And choose to live a life which actively ruins it.

This music shit ain’t for everybody y’all. And neither is fame. You really have to be in it for the love of doing it. But steering that course can be rough when the red shells of business, politics and pressure to maintain success come and fuck shit up.