Hear Britney Spears' Whitney Houston Cover That Landed Her A Record Deal

Believe it or not, Britney Spears’ late ‘90s burst onto the pop scene with “…Baby One More Time” was reportedly due to her cover of Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” as the song landed her a record deal, and a snippet of her rendition has made its way onto the blogosphere.

In the brief teaser, which surfaced on Instagram user @MichaelDCoogan’s account, the pop vet’s sugary (but distinct) tone that we know her for are gone, only to be replaced with deep vocals that Spears previously flexed in her early days around the recording of her debut LP. 

Rumor has it this is the cover that Spears submitted to Jive Records in the mid-‘90s that scored her a record deal, something Steve Lunt, an A&R executive for Jive, alluded to in John Seabrook's The Song Machine. "Britney was trying to sing like Toni Braxton, which was way too low for her. It sounded pretty awful in places," he said. "But when her voice went up high, you could hear the girlish quality, and there was something really appealing about that. I said, 'This is something we should look at seriously.'”

She'd later go on to sing two Whitney tracks a capella for the entire Jive A&R department and was signed to the label shortly afterward. 

Interestingly enough, the cover of “I Will Always Love You” arrived after it was revealed that her first boyfriend, Reg Jones, is hosting a sleazy auction of the singer’s early intimate apparel as well as her demo recordings on cassette tapes. With his low plea for money still in the works, it seems like someone has beaten him to the punch by slowly sharing Spears’ surprising cover. Scroll on below to hear a snippet of Britney’s rendition!

Photo: Getty Images