I was a little prickly that she didn’t bother to turn up at the Houston funeral as planned, never mind that she missed the private wake the night before (she had a concert at Radio City Music Hall to perform instead).
But Aretha Franklin—Houston’s godmother—performed no fewer than two Whitney tributes on Friday night.
Above, a clip of Aretha’s version of “The Greatest Love of All.” Too bad the video doesn’t land the entire song; I really like the arrangement, from what I heard anyway.
Her version of “I Will Always Love You” is short and sweet: Aretha only trills through the refrain a couple times, not even attempting Whitney’s version. Very restrained, very nice.
Aretha! All is forgiven!