In 1991, Whitney Houston topped the charts with “All The Man I Need,” a great ballad that became one of her most popular songs. But what many SoulTrackers may not know is that another diva, the great Linda Clifford, had made the song her own nearly a decade earlier. Linda was working on her I’ll Keep On Loving You album with songwriters Michael Gore and Dean Pitchford (“Fame”), and the writing duo wrote for the song as a tribute to Clifford and her husband Nick.
While Clifford didn’t release “All The Man I Need” as a single, it was a glorious album cut and the highlight of I’ll Keep On Loving You, which is sadly out of print. For music fans who only thought of Linda Clifford as a disco singer, “All The Man I Need” showed that she had the whole package. It also carried a special meaning to Clifford and her husband, whom I was fortunate to meet at the first SoulTracks Readers’ Choice Awards show in 2007.
So, while I love Whitney’s take on the song, for me the definitive version of “All The Man I Need” will always be the original. Check out Linda Clifford’s beautiful original version below.
By Chris Rizik
