{"id":21366,"date":"2026-07-29T22:12:35","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T17:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=21366"},"modified":"2026-07-29T22:12:35","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T17:12:35","slug":"whitney-houston-and-brandys-cinderella-soundtrack-the-30-year-fight-to-release-the-album","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=21366","title":{"rendered":"Whitney Houston and Brandy\u2019s \u2018Cinderella\u2019 Soundtrack: The 30-Year Fight to Release the Album"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Like Cinderella\u2019s night at the ball, recording the album was a magical whirlwind. For less than 48 hours, the <em>Cinderella<\/em> 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 <em>The Little Mermaid<\/em> (1989), <em>Beauty and the Beast<\/em> (1991), <em>Aladdin<\/em> (1992), or <em>The Lion King<\/em> (1994); and would go on to produce the soundtracks for over 100 Disney movie and television projects.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Mardin, who died in 2006, was the more senior of the two, and worked closer with Houston. Montan was more focused on Brandy. \u201cShe said to me, \u2018Chris, I\u2019m a little nervous,\u2019\u201d Montan recalls. When he asked her why, Brandy\u2019s answer revealed just how far out of her comfort zone leading a Golden Age musical was: \u201cWell, I\u2019ve never sung opera before,\u201d she said. Houston was a completely different story. \u201cWe might\u2019ve done all her stuff in one night,\u201d 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. \u201cShe said, \u2018I\u2019m putting my shoes on,\u2019\u201d recalls Montan. \u201cAnd I looked at Arif, and said, \u2018Well, what does that mean?\u2019 He goes, \u2018She\u2019s done. [<em>laughs<\/em>]. When Whitney\u2019s putting her shoes on, that means you\u2019ve got everything you\u2019re going to get.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Going into recording, the <em>Cinderella<\/em> producers didn\u2019t know which label, if any, would release the album. \u201cWe decided that we would record it anyway,\u201d said Meron, \u201cbecause we thought, who wouldn\u2019t want this album? This is something that will last forever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">But for something to last forever, it has to exist.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">A lot of ink has been spilled about how risky it was for Disney to make <em>Cinderella<\/em> with a diverse cast and two Black leads. But less has been written about how risky <em>Cinderella<\/em> was for both Houston and Brandy. They were recording artists in their own right\u2014one at the height of her superstardom, the other just embarking on the journey\u2014juggling their careers with their eyes set on a passion project. Discovered by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/story\/clive-davis-obituary\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"text link\">legendary late producer Clive Davis<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">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&amp;B and soul acts into the mainstream\u2014beginning with artists like Ray Charles, Otis Redding, they\u2019ve since expanded their purview to include artists like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/hollywood\/story\/charli-xcx-interview\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"text link\">Charli xcx<\/a>, Bruno Mars, and, recently, Miley Cyrus\u2014and became an influential record label in its own right. At the time of <em>Cinderella<\/em>, Brandy was fresh off her critically acclaimed debut album <em>Brandy<\/em> and working with Craig Kallman as her A&amp;R rep. (Kallman <a data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2025\/music\/news\/craig-kallman-leave-atlantic-records-new-role-warner-music-1236604483\/\" class=\"external-link text link\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/variety.com\/2025\/music\/news\/craig-kallman-leave-atlantic-records-new-role-warner-music-1236604483\/&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2025\/music\/news\/craig-kallman-leave-atlantic-records-new-role-warner-music-1236604483\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">left Atlantic Records<\/a> in 2025 and is now the chief music officer of Warner Music Group. <em>Vanity Fair<\/em> reached out to Kallman for comment.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Like Cinderella\u2019s 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&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6a62336bff162b3b7ff5ccf4\/16:9\/w_1280,c_limit\/VF0726_Cinderella_05.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity-gossip"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}