Valentine’s Day and the Passing of a National Treasure

Valentine’s Day is a day associated with love dating back to Geoffrey Chaucer and the ritual of courtly love in the middle ages. It slowly evolved into a day set aside in which lovers expressed their love for each other by offering chocolates and other sweets, flowers and greeting cards called “valentines”. All primary schools in the States celebrate this day transforming each desk into a post office where “puppy love” can be expressed on cards which children compose themselves…an excellent way to “socialize” young people and help them discover the attachments that they can feel towards each other.

Of course there are many ways to celebrate Valentine’s Day and one of them is to offer a CD of romantic love songs to the one you favor. Perhaps the number one song on that list of “love” songs played on Valentine’s Day is Whitney Houston’s rendition of Dolly Parton’s song “And I will always love you”. As everyone knows she passed away 2 days ago of unknown causes just before she was to appear at the annual Grammy Awards ceremony. American has just lost one of its greatest female vocalists. The Grammy Awards 2012 paid tribute to her as her passing was announced just before the show was to be televised. Here’s Noah Levy from Intouch Magazine Weekly talking about Whitney: So to honor this great American singer fondly called “The Voice” because of her Gospel roots which allowed her to “feel” the songs to her bones (another definition of “Soul Music”), here is her interpretation of that song in the film “The Bodyguard” with Kevin Costner…a real tearjerker! (read about how some songs can spontaneously make us cry)  I lift my glass of champagne to you Whitney and may you R.I.P. (Rest In Peace) for having enriched the American Popular Music scene with your incredible voice which covered 3 octaves in its heyday.