Whitney Houston - Saving All My Love For You

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When I first saw Whitney Houston's music videos, I knew she was an actress before she became one. I remember when I first saw her video, "Saving All My Love for You".  I thought, "Wow. The girl can act." As the video rolled along, I thought, "I don't know a man in this world that would try to resist Whitney." In the video, Whitney pretends to spend a lot of time in the studio with a married man. She seems to like the man and singing that she was saving her love for him. I looked at it as just entertainment, but Whitney was singing and acting it out so well. I thought, "I wonder did she actually have that experience in real life?"

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My mother sat with me and watched the video. She said, "That guy in that video look just like Jermaine Jackson." I had to rewind the tape and take a second look at the video. If my mother had never said that to me, I never would have recognized the fact that he did. Then we remembered that Whitney did sing with Jermaine. As the video continued to play my mother said, "Gail, never get involved with a married man. You'll never have him. He'll be running back and forth between you and his wife. Never get a guy with a ready made family. He'll be paying child support. You don't want that." My mother talked with me through the whole video.

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The thing that sticks in my head most about the video is the man's wife. She was looking at Whitney like she wanted to say, "Yea, I see you, and he's my man." In the video, Whitney was looking nervous. Whitney had me laughing. When I saw that lady looking down at Whitney, I thought, "Huh oh! That woman ain't stupid." The lady that played as the man's wife was also a great actress. I can't forget the look in her eyes.

At the end of the video, Whitney was walking alone. I sat wondering if Whitney really did have an affair with Jermaine Jackson. My mother always thought that Jermaine and Whitney liked each other. I didn't doubt it. My mother would say, "You can raise children, talk to them, and tell them, but that doesn't mean that children are always going to do what you say." Whitney's mom sounds a lot like my mom. Moms know their children. My mom would say, "I carried you for nine months, and I know about what you will do and what you want do." I use to tell my mother that Whitney was a good girl, and with the kind of mother that she had, she wasn't going to mess up too bad. My mom would say, "Yea, but Whitney ain't perfect. That's why her mom talks about her like she does. She had to whip Whitney's behind, like I had to whip yours. I need to whip it sometimes now."

To make a long story short, when I see Whitney, I see me. When I see her mother, I see my mother. I miss my mother, and I miss watching Whitney with hers. When Whitney died, it hurt because she felt like a part of my family. As I watch the video, "Saving All My Love for You", I can hear my mother spiritually saying, "Don't you forget Whitney."