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Whitney Houston's first and final performances coming to CD/DVD

A CD/DVD featuring Whitney Houston's first public performance -- and her last one in 2012 -- will be released Nov. 11.

"Whitney Houston Live: Her Greatest Performances" is the pop singer's first live album. Her mentor, Clive Davis, said the album will showcase her legacy.

"(It) shows why she is at the absolute historic top rank up there with Aretha Franklin and Barbra Streisand as the greatest singers of our lifetime," he said in a recent interview. "It really has been a labor of love on my part to go through every concert performance, every TV appearance."

Houston was found dead in a hotel room in Beverly Hills, California, in 2012. She was 48. Her death came on the eve of music's biggest night -- the Grammy Awards.

Davis produced the album, which includes Houston's 1983 performance on "The Merv Griffin Show," where she sang "Home" from "The Wiz," and a 2009 performance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show." Some of the songs are ones that Houston performed live, but never recorded.

Davis, chief creative officer of Sony Music Entertainment, said it was hard going through videos to select the final track listing. Pat Houston, Whitney's sister-in-law, didn't find the process too difficult.

"It's such an honor even after she's gone to be able to honor her legacy and to continue working on her music and just making sure the fans all over the world have a continued moment of her greatness," she said in an interview.

But by the end of her career, Houston became a stunning cautionary tale of the toll of drug use. Her album sales plummeted and the hits stopped coming; her once serene image was shattered by a wild demeanor and bizarre public appearances.

Davis said he found the CD/DVD a success when he played it for his guests at a recent dinner party.

"It just couldn't have been a better entertainment and emotional experience because the bittersweet part of it is the greater you see she was," he said. "How tragic that she went so young, so that's the bittersweet part of it."

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