Whitney Houston’s “I Go to the Rock” Premieres on Top Gospel Albums Chart

Whitney Houston’s I Go to the Rock: The Gospel Music of Whitney Houston makes its debut at No. 2 on Billboard’s Top Gospel Albums chart dated April 8. The album, released on March 24, accumulated 4,000 equivalent album units during the tracking week ending March 30, according to Luminate.

This 14-track compilation features six previously unreleased songs and marks Houston’s second appearance on the Top Gospel Albums chart. Her first faith-based album, the soundtrack for the film The Preacher’s Wife, entered the chart at No. 1 in December 1996, dominating the list for 26 weeks. It has charted for 158 weeks and was most recently on the ranking in January.

Whitney Houston co-starred in the comedy-drama The Preacher’s Wife, directed by Penny Marshall, alongside Denzel Washington, Courtney B. Vance, and Lionel Richie. I Go to the Rock consists of both studio recordings and live performances. The six unreleased songs are “He Can Use Me,” “I Found a Wonderful Way,” “Testimony,” “This Day,” “He/Believe,” and a live rendition of Simon & Garfunkel’s classic “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” Houston performed the latter with gospel star CeCe Winans in June 1995 at a VH1 Honors special.

The late Whitney Houston, who passed away on February 11, 2012, at the age of 48, earned 11 No. 1 hits and 23 top 10 hits on the Hot 100 chart. On the all-genre Billboard 200 albums chart, she achieved four No. 1 hits and eight top 10 hits. The Preacher’s Wife soundtrack produced two of those top 10 singles: the No. 4 hit “I Believe in You and Me” and the No. 15 hit “Step by Step” (written by Annie Lennox).