Gerry Griffith, the former Arista Records vice president of A&R who helped discover Whitney Houston, died on Nov. 5 in Brooklyn, New York, at 87 after a five-year battle with dementia. His death closes the life of an executive whose ear helped shape one of the defining careers in pop music.
Griffith first heard Houston sing in 1979, when she was 16 and performing with her mother, Cissy Houston. He saw her again in 1983, then persuaded Clive Davis to attend a showcase that helped lead to Houston signing with Arista Records that same year. That early belief turned into one of the most consequential calls of his career.
He did not stop with Houston. During his Arista years, Griffith worked with Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Phyllis Hyman, Minnie Riperton, Jennifer Holiday and Dave Valentin, moving across pop, R&B, soul and jazz with the same instinct for talent. He later held a senior A&R post at Manhattan Records, part of EMI, where he worked with Richard Marx and contributed to the soundtracks for Pretty Woman and The Bodyguard.
That last credit tied him again to Houston, whose songs on The Bodyguard soundtrack included I Will Always Love You, I Have Nothing and Run to You. The album won the Grammy Award for album of the year, yet Griffith never received the full recognition that many in the business believed he earned for spotting Houston so early. Brenda Andrews, who said one of her proudest moments was urging him to see Houston, said he never got the accolades he deserved and praised the two hits he helped launch from the start: I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me) and How Will I Know.
Ray Harris called Griffith a truly great record executive and a truly nice guy, while Deirdre O’Hara said she was fortunate to connect with him early in her music publishing career and was proud to have urged him toward Houston in the first place. Griffith, a Chicago native who served in the U.S. Army before entering the music business, is survived by two daughters and two sons. A memorial service will be held later.
