"Didn't We Almost Have It All" is a song recorded by American singer Whitney Houston for her second studio album, Whitney (1987). The song was written by Michael Masser and Will Jennings and produced by Masser, his fifth released production for Houston, and vocally arranged by Houston herself.
Initially, Houston's cover version of the Isley Brothers' "For the Love of You" was intended to be released as the second single from the album. However, the record label decided to release "Didn't We Almost Have It All", believing all Houston's material should be original. The song was released as the second single off the Whitney album in July 1987 by Arista Records.
A live performance from her September 2, 1987 concert in Saratoga Springs, New York was used alongside her performance of "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards on September 11. Subsequently, the video was used as the "official" video and aired on MTV, VH1 and BET.
The song was featured on five Houston compilations — Whitney: The Greatest Hits, Love, Whitney, The Ultimate Collection, WH1TNEY and I Will Always Love You: The Best of Whitney Houston, with the former four including the single version and the latter including the full-length album version.
"Didn't We Almost Have It All" received positive reviews from music critics, who praised its lyrics, production, and Houston's vocal performance. It became Houston's fifth consecutive chart topper on the US Billboard Hot 100, staying there for two weeks and tying her at the time with Elvis Presley and the Supremes for the most consecutive number one singles at the time. It also reached the top 10 in various countries.
"Didn't We Almost Have It All" was nominated for the Song of the Year at the 30th Annual Grammy Awards. Various outlets including Forbes and Hits Daily Double listed the song as one of her greatest vocal recordings.
Background As early as June 1986, following the success of Houston's landmark self-titled debut album, her label president Clive Davis requested submissions for Houston's sophomore album. That month, Davis received several songs from Michael Masser, the composer and producer of the hits "Saving All My Love for You", "All at Once" and "Greatest Love of All". Two of the songs he sent -- "You're Still My Man" (written with Gerry Goffin) and "Didn't We Almost Have It All" (written with Will Jennings) -- were eventually approved by Houston and Davis for the album.
Like Masser, Jennings had previously worked with Davis, helping to pen fellow Arista artist Barry Manilow's "Looks Like We Made It" as well as another Arista act, Dionne Warwick's "I'll Never Love This Way Again". Also like Masser, Jennings composed an Academy Award-nominated movie anthem, "Up Where We Belong", a number one hit for Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes. The song would be the first time the two worked together.
Development and composition Jennings recalls that the songwriting process for "Didn't We Almost Have It All" required several years. "It seems like Michael Masser and I worked off and on for years on that song. I don't know how many times I rewrote bits and pieces of the tune ... I remember distinctly that we ran (up) over two hundred dollars worth of phone calls from a hotel in Nashville ... of course, it was well worth it in the end."
Jennings told Songfacts that the song took longer to be finished than most compositions because of Masser's busy schedule, stating "I think that probably took longer than any other song. Michael was traveling and he was in the studio and doing this and that, so I think it was about a year or two after we started it that it was finished."
Jennings claimed due to this, he "lost track of the whole thing" and stated that Masser's perfectionism in "want[ing] to really nail it down", played a part into why it was a difficult process, calling it "one of those never-to-be-repeated experiences". Jennings told the same website that the song was "about wishing for reunion with someone, and making the case for it by recalling past good times." Houston performed an early version of the ballad live throughout the duration of her debut headlining world tour.
The Telegraph claimed the song was reportedly inspired by Houston's on-and-off-again relationship with American Philadelphia Eagles football star Randall Cunningham.
According to the sheet music published by Blue Sky Rider Songs and Universal Music Group, "Didn't We Almost Have It All" has a slow tempo with 60 beats per minute. The song starts and mainly stays in the key of B♭ major but shifts to G major at the beginning of the chorus before returning, repeating it in the second chorus before finishing in its original key. Houston's vocal range in the song spans from the low note of B3 to the high note of E5. Lee Holdridge and Robbie Buchanan were the arrangers of the song and helped to give the power ballad an orchestral pop sound. Houston was the song's vocal arranger.
Release
Initially, there were no plans to release the song as a single on the album. At the time, Arista had begun planning to release Houston's rendition of the Isley Brothers' 1975 smooth soul ballad hit "For the Love of You" as the follow-up to Houston's previous hit, "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)", which success had been massive and increased Houston's international status. It had actually been the first song recorded for the album and produced by Narada Michael Walden. Houston herself had included the song in the North American leg of her Moment of Truth World Tour.
But at the last minute, Davis changed direction. At the time, Houston had developed a reputation as a "covers" act as two of her big hits - "Saving All My Love for You" and "Greatest Love of All" had been renditions of previously recorded material. Davis wanted more original material released and decided "Didn't We Almost Have It All" had the best chance to top the pop charts, especially due to the hit-making potential of Jennings' and Masser's previous works.
At the time, Houston had made history as the first female artist to record four consecutive number one singles and the producer wanted the pattern to repeat. "For the Love of You" still managed some success and acknowledgement, later winning Houston the Grammy Award nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance in 1988. It also became the b-side of Houston's follow-up hit, "So Emotional" in Europe, and as the b-side of Houston's "Run to You" in the US, where it was granted heavy airplay on R&B radio stations in 1993. It also found moderate chart success in New Zealand, peaking at number 35 in September 1996, nine years after its recording.
"Didn't We Almost Have It All" was released in July 1987 just as "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" began peaking on the global charts and featured the Jermaine Jackson duet, "Shock Me", a synth-rock tune produced by Michael Omartian that the pair recorded back in 1984, as its b-side. The dance tune had been first placed in the soundtrack to the Jamie Lee Curtis and John Travolta 1985 vehicle, Perfect, which became Houston's first appearance singing in a film soundtrack.
Critical reception About.com ranked the song number 7 in their list of "Top 20 Best Whitney Houston Songs". Editor Bill Lamb deemed it "a big, emotional production that pulls out all of the stops vocally". Rob Wynn of AllMusic highlighted the song in his review of the Whitney album. Los Angeles Times editor Robert Hilburn wrote, "Houston's stardom will be boosted most by "Didn't We Almost Have It All", a sweeping Masser-Will Jennings ballad with the kind of big, emotional finish that will make Liza and hundreds of other singers wish they had been given first crack at the song. I'll save my champagne for pop singers who don't add that overblown song to their repertoire." Pop Rescue noted it as "an 80s power ballad", adding that Houston's "vocals take centre stage" on the song.
Rolling Stones Vince Alleti wrote, "Masser reprises the show-tune schmaltz of "Greatest Love of All" in his even cornier "Didn't We Almost Have It All". According to Whitney fanpage, "But there is a cut on the album whose title inadvertently sums up Houston at this stage of her development -- "Didn't We Almost Have It All". St. Petersburg Times editors Eric Snider and Annelise Wamsley described "Didn't We Almost Have It All" as "an overblown tune co-written by Michael Masser (...) that finds Houston stripped of subtlety - with her wire-to-wire belting, you can just see the fetching songstress looking skyward, arms outstretched."
In his column post about every number one Billboard Hot 100 hit, Tom Breihan of Stereogum called the ballad among Masser's other ballads he gave Houston "the sorts of tastefully sleepy howlers that seem custom-designed for banks and credit-card companies to use as hold music. They’re numb, reassuring nothings, made without pulse or rhythm or urgency. It takes an extremely gifted person to elevate songs like those. Whitney Houston was an extremely gifted person," acknowledging Houston's talent in delivering on the song. Breihan compared the studio version to Houston's Saratoga Springs performance of the song, preferring the latter to the former, writing "Houston uses the song’s melody as a mere suggestion, and she comes up with her own runs and ad-libs and exhortations. You can see her starting to gain steam as the song trundles along, until she’s wailing out her own embellishments: “Didn’t we! Didn’t we!” On the record, she never fully takes flight like that, but she still delivers the song with gale-force determination. If “Didn’t We Almost Have It All” is a worthwhile song at all, it's because Houston made it worthwhile through sheer sense of will, using her vocal firepower to give a sense of drama."
Breihan also felt due to Houston being just 23 at the time of its recording and subsequent release that she was too young to sing a song like "Didn't We Almost Have It All", explaining "it’s a grown-up song, in both execution and subject matter. Musically, “Didn’t We Almost Have It All” is sleepy and obvious, full of strings and glassy pianos and watery guitars. Lyrically, it's a look back on a long-dormant relationship... at this stage of her career, [Houston] was absolutely transcendent when singing about things being new and exciting, and that's probably because she herself was new and exciting."
Chart performance
"Didn't We Almost Have It All" debuted at No. 50 as the "Hot Shot Debut" on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week of August 1, 1987, a week later, it entered the top 40. On its fifth week, it entered the top ten at number 8. Four weeks later, it reached number one for the beginning of two weeks, from September 26 to October 3, 1987, becoming her fifth consecutive number one on the Billboard Hot 100, replacing Michael Jackson's "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" at the top spot.
This accomplishment made her just the fifth artist in chart history to score five consecutive number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100. Houston also became the first act - and first solo artist in history to have two consecutive number one albums with multiple singles topping the Hot 100 joining the Bee Gees in achieving the then-rare feat as they had done it a decade earlier with the multi-artist soundtrack, Saturday Night Fever, and their own Spirits Having Flown.
Houston also became the first black musical act since The Supremes two decades before to have five consecutive number ones. The accomplishment also tied her with Elvis Presley for the most consecutive number one hits on the Hot 100 by a solo artist, as well as the first female solo artist in history to achieve five number ones in a row. It was Masser's fifth and last number one single and Jennings' fourth.