Brides from NYC, Dallas, Denver to LA agree that the first dance at their wedding reception is a love song by Whitney Houston! The number one song they want to hear? “I Will Always Love You.”

So, it is ironic that on Saturday, the top wedding day of the week, that news comes in of her untimely death. Here is a tribute to Whitney Houston; we’ve saved the last dance for you!

Bittersweet memories
that is all I’m taking with me.
So, goodbye. Please, don’t cry.
We both know I’m not what you, you need.

And I will always love you.
I will always love you.

(Instrumental solo)

I hope life treats you kind
And I hope you have all you’ve dreamed of.
And I wish to you, joy and happiness.
But above all this, I wish you love.

And I will always love you.
I will always love you.
I will always love you.
I will always love you.
I will always love you.
I, I will always love you.

You, darling, I love you.
Ooh, I’ll always, I’ll always love you.

Whitney Houston on stage at the American Music Awards. Lester Cohen/WireImage

Whitney Houston, young gospel singer in the New Hope Baptist Church choir in Newark, New Jersey. People Magazine.com

Saturday, February 11, 2012, shortly after 8 p.m., watching CNN, Piers Morgan..

Along the way from first belting out gospel music at the New Hope Baptist Church, in Newark, New Jersey a cappella alongside her  famous mother, Cissy Houston, to the fourth floor of the Beverly Hilton Hotel last Saturday afternoon, waiting to attend her longtime champion and music industry mentor, Clive Davis’ pre-Grammy party that night, and  the Grammy’s the following evening, Whitney Houston walked into our lives. No, she tore the door down, and raised high the roof beam. Her renowned “pipes” transcended the acknowledged greats, gospel and soul, or otherwise: Aretha Franklin, her aunt; Barbara Streisand, Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey, BeyoncÃ, Sarah Brightman and Etta James. Simon Cowell calling into Piers Morgan’s CNN show last night both agreed the road to musical stardom via audition is littered with new talent attempting  to sing, “I Will Always Love You.” Often  guests would agree that as a musical triumvirate, Whitney Houston takes her place along side with Michael Jackson and Elvis. James Sullivan, writer for Rolling Stone’s Internet magazine called Whitney Houston voice, a Musical Divinity and wrote, ”The singer could turn a song into an unstopped able force in a single syllable.”

Of her own voice, she reflected back on the effect she had had on her congregation as a young child in Newark with interviewer Dianne Sawyer, ”I think I knew then that [my singing ability] was an infectious thing that God had given me.” It’s not that her voice had a profound effect on you, it is that she was also able to take you to a place you had been before and experience even more of a reaction. Just how many times have we turned the volume up on I Will Always Love You and wipe away the tears down your face as Whitney Houston turns back her private Super King Air 350 and  bolts off the plane into the arms of Kevin Costner, one more time, the last time. The Associated Press today said a member of her entourage found her; yesterday, rumor had that it was her body guard. Years from now someone will ask you as they do of President John F. Kennedy: Where were you when you heard Whitney Houston died?