Michael Masser, who has died aged 74, was a songwriter of the highest quality, though he was not quite a household name like Burt Bacharach or Lennon and McCartney. His speciality was the romantic ballad, typically featuring lush string arrangements and epic climaxes and his creations were recorded by such popular music greats as Whitney Houston, Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick, Barbra Streisand and George Benson.
In a musical career stretching back to the 1970s, Masser enjoyed his greatest period of sustained commercial success through his work with Houston. When the Arista Records chief Clive Davis was preparing Houston’s debut album (eventually released in 1985), he realised he needed some mainstream pop ballads to flesh out his blueprint for her as an artist with broad commercial appeal. Masser had been pestering the Arista A&R men Gerry Griffith and Michael Barackman to hear some of his songs. As Griffith recalled: “Clive was real tough on him and kept pushing him to come up with something great.”
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