Like Cinderella’s night at the ball, recording the album was a magical whirlwind. For less than 48 hours, the Cinderella team gathered at Capitol Records, the famous studio where greats like Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra recorded their albums. Arif Mardin, the late legendary Turkish-American music producer who worked with greats like Aretha Franklin, The Bee Gees, and Dionne Warwick served as music producer alongside relative newcomer Chris Montan. Montan had already overseen the soundtracks for major Disney hits like The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), or The Lion King (1994); and would go on to produce the soundtracks for over 100 Disney movie and television projects.
Mardin, who died in 2006, was the more senior of the two, and worked closer with Houston. Montan was more focused on Brandy. “She said to me, ‘Chris, I’m a little nervous,’” Montan recalls. When he asked her why, Brandy’s answer revealed just how far out of her comfort zone leading a Golden Age musical was: “Well, I’ve never sung opera before,” she said. Houston was a completely different story. “We might’ve done all her stuff in one night,” says audio mixer Frank Wolf, who was in the studio with both Montan and Mardin. Like many divas, Houston had a habit of showing up late, and when she was finished, she was finished. “She said, ‘I’m putting my shoes on,’” recalls Montan. “And I looked at Arif, and said, ‘Well, what does that mean?’ He goes, ‘She’s done. [laughs]. When Whitney’s putting her shoes on, that means you’ve got everything you’re going to get.’”
Going into recording, the Cinderella producers didn’t know which label, if any, would release the album. “We decided that we would record it anyway,” said Meron, “because we thought, who wouldn’t want this album? This is something that will last forever.”
But for something to last forever, it has to exist.
A lot of ink has been spilled about how risky it was for Disney to make Cinderella with a diverse cast and two Black leads. But less has been written about how risky Cinderella was for both Houston and Brandy. They were recording artists in their own right—one at the height of her superstardom, the other just embarking on the journey—juggling their careers with their eyes set on a passion project. Discovered by the legendary late producer Clive Davis, Houston was signed to Arista Records, which Davis founded in 1974. Now an arm of Sony Music, Arista Records was one of the most commercially successful and defining pop labels of the late 20th century, with Davis, arguably the most renowned executive producer of his generation, managing the careers of superstars like Houston, Barry Manilow, Patti Smith, Toni Braxton, Usher, or, Aretha Franklin.
Meanwhile, Brandy was signed to Atlantic Records. Founded in 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson, Atlantic Records helped define modern popular music, specializing in launching Black R&B and soul acts into the mainstream—beginning with artists like Ray Charles, Otis Redding, they’ve since expanded their purview to include artists like Charli xcx, Bruno Mars, and, recently, Miley Cyrus—and became an influential record label in its own right. At the time of Cinderella, Brandy was fresh off her critically acclaimed debut album Brandy and working with Craig Kallman as her A&R rep. (Kallman left Atlantic Records in 2025 and is now the chief music officer of Warner Music Group. Vanity Fair reached out to Kallman for comment.)
