‘The Greatest Love of All’: A Song about Muhammad Ali?

By Oliver Tearle

What connects the Greatest with ‘The Greatest Love of All’? Or, to put it another way, how did the boxer Muhammad Ali inspire a famous song recorded by both George Benson and Whitney Houston?

The story behind ‘The Greatest Love of All’ is simultaneously inspirational and tinged with tragedy.

Cover Stories

Where to start with this song? The late Michael Masser was responsible for the music. Curiously enough, Masser also gave us ‘Saving All My Love for You’, another song which Whitney Houston recorded for her debut self-titled album in 1985.

Yes, that song was actually a cover version. Indeed, one might almost categorise Masser’s songwriting career as one governed by the curious ability to write songs which would become more famous as cover versions: ‘The Greatest Love of All’ (originally recorded by George Benson), ‘Saving All My Love for You’ (originally recorded by Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr.), and ‘Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love for You’ (originally recorded by George Benson).

The Lyrics

The lyrics to ‘The Greatest Love of All’ were provided by Linda Creed, who wrote them in 1976 for The Greatest, a biopic about the boxer Muhammad Ali. Masser told the Los Angeles Times that Ali was a man who had lost everything he had earned, simply because he refused to fight in the Vietnam war.

The only thing Ali didn’t lose – because nobody could take it from him – was his dignity. People may take our titles and possessions away from us, but our dignity is something that we must relinquish ourselves. Ali retained his by refusing to be cowed or intimidated by those who sought to break him.

In another interview, Masser linked Ali’s suffering to his race, arguing that Ali had been subjected to prejudice because he was a black Muslim man (following his conversion to Islam and changing his name from Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali).

So, this is a song inspired by Muhammad Ali. But a song can be inspired by something (or someone) without its meaning being circumscribed or confined to that point of origin. Or to put it another way, a song like ‘The Greatest Love of All’ is greater than that, more all-encompassing, more universal than simply ‘a song about Muhammad Ali’.

Autobiographical?

In his Los Angeles Times interview, Masser revealed a more personal meaning for the song: in order to pursue a career in music, he had turned his back on a promising career in Law.

In doing so, he also turned his back on the huge amounts of cash he could’ve earned (by the hour) if he’d stayed in chambers instead of choosing to answer his artistic calling. As he explained, he was poor, he ‘had to starve’, and his decision even cost him his marriage. But he knew he was meant to write music. That, then, was ‘the greatest love of all’ for Michael Masser.

Creed

The other songwriter responsible for the track also drew on personal experiences and emotions. Linda Creed worked on the lyrics, taking inspiration from her family. Creed was already an established songwriter who had helped to create the sound of Philadelphia soul in the mid-1970s.

Indeed, like Masser, Creed was responsible for co-writing a string of well-known hits, especially for the Stylistics: she had a hand in ‘Betcha by Golly, Wow’, ‘You Make Me Feel Brand New’, and ‘I’m Stone in Love with You’, among many others.

Together, Creed and Masser wrote ‘The Greatest Love of All’ which became, when it was recorded by George Benson and released in 1977, a sort of unofficial anthem for black Americans, especially those who identified with Muhammad Ali’s struggle against prejudice and discrimination.

Creed’s own personal struggles were even more tragic. At the age of 26 she had been diagnosed with breast cancer, but she continued to write songs. We can detect something of her struggle with cancer behind the lyrics to ‘The Greatest Love of All’, which she wrote following her diagnosis.

Eight years after George Benson’s original version of the song was released, Whitney Houston recorded it for her debut album in 1985. Houston’s cover version topped the US charts in May 1986, just a few weeks after Creed died of breast cancer, aged just 37.