1988 · Behind the Songs
“An Olympic anthem imagined for Elvis, delivered by a once-in-a-generation voice.”
In the summer of 1988, American television needed a sound for the Seoul Olympics, and NBC Sports found it in a new Whitney Houston single. Written by Albert Hammond and John Bettis and produced by Narada Michael Walden, “One Moment in Time” was released on August 27, 1988, on Arista as the lead single from the compilation 1988 Summer Olympics Album: One Moment in Time, which also featured the Four Tops, the Bee Gees, Eric Carmen, Taylor Dayne, and John Williams.
The recording, made between May and July 1988 at AIR Studios in London — George Martin’s studio — paired Houston with the London Symphony Orchestra. Hammond had written the melody with Elvis Presley in mind, imagining him singing it in grand style at an opening ceremony; Walden drew on the high trumpet of the Beatles’ “Penny Lane” and the Chariots of Fire score. Martin himself dropped by the studio and marveled at Houston’s voice, and after hearing a July playback, Clive Davis asked for still more vocal takes.
The record performed like an anthem. It reached number one on the Eurochart Hot 100, in Britain — her third British chart-topper — and in Germany, and number five on the American Hot 100, with two weeks atop the Adult Contemporary chart, her seventh AC number one. With Madonna, she became the second female artist to land ten consecutive Hot 100 top tens, and the song remains the only Olympic song ever to reach the Hot 100’s top ten. The B-side was “Love Is a Contact Sport,” and the album cut ran 4:44.
Its afterlife was ceremonial. Houston gave the song its live debut opening the 31st Grammy Awards telecast on February 22, 1989, to a standing ovation; it earned a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance — losing to Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” — and a Sports Emmy for Hammond, Bettis, Walden, and Houston through NBC’s coverage. The video wove in Seoul’s stars: Florence Griffith Joyner, Greg Louganis, Steffi Graf, Carl Lewis, and Janet Evans. She never put the song in her regular concert setlists — it belonged to special occasions.
The personnel list reads like a summit: Walden producing, arranging, and drumming; Walter Afanasieff on keyboards; Randy Jackson on Moog Source synth bass; Ren Klyce on Fairlight; Vernon “Ice” Black on guitar; the London Symphony Orchestra; and a backing choir including Claytoven Richardson, Jeanie Tracy, Jim Gilstrap, Karen “Kitty Beethoven” Brewington, Lynette Stephens, Rosie Gaines, and Walter Hawkins. Houston’s own vocal arrangement sits at the center of it all.