Ten Songs You Might Not Know Are Covers: The Greatest Love of All (#5)

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I have a concert tonight, so I want to make sure I get this discussion posted before I leave. I'm getting into "wow, no kidding!?" territory here with these top five. Some of them may really shock you. Others, if you're a certain age (like, my age ) and listened to the radio "way back then," might just rekindle some memories. This song will do one or the other. #5: The Greatest Love of All I'm one of the few people who didn't really care for Whitney Houston. I thought she butchered "I Will Always Love You" (which isn't on this list because most people do know that she covered Dolly Parton on that song). I really did like "How Will I Know," but by and large I just wasn't a fan. So when everyone fawned over her big hit "The Greatest Love of All" my mind went back to the first time I heard the song. That was in 1977, when jazz/R&B singer/guitarist George Benson did the song. Benson's version was the opening theme for the biopic The Greatest, about -- and starring -- Muhammad Ali. The song's lyricist, Linda Creed, wrote the song about a different kind of fight than Ali participated in: she wrote it while she was battling breast cancer. She eventually died of the disease, a year after Houston's version became a big hit. And here's your worthless trivia: Gordon Lightfoot sued for plagiarism because the song sounded too much like "If You Could Read My Mind." He later dropped the suit. The Greatest Love Of All Written by Linda Creed and Michael Masser Originally recorded by George Benson, 1977 Famously covered by Whitney Houston, 1985 Here's the George Benson version: