What Was Wrong with the Whitney Biopic? Not Enough Thunderpuss

, the third installment of Lifetime's series of unauthorized biopic "tributes" to beloved artists who've met a tragic demise premiered this past Saturday, January 17 and I don't know about you but I watched the shit out of it. Call me a dreamer, but I thought this one has potential to not totally suck. Its director is Angela Bassett—friend of Whitney Houston's, all-around fierce Queen and no stranger to the genre, having served up some serious Tina Turner realness in 1993's . Plus, unlike the Dollar General tragicomedies dedicated to Brittany Murphy and Aaliyah, they hired an actress who actually physically resembles Whitney and purchased the rights to use her songs, voiced by formidable R&B singer Deborah Cox. Give it a chance, is all I'm sayin'.

While the Houston family may not have embraced the film's (sometimes painful) biographical details, Whitney gives us a perfect excuse right now to revisit one of the greatest dance remixes ever and celebrate the legendary producers who transformed the diva's middling comeback hit "It's Not Right, But It's OK" into an iconic gay anthem.

If you turned on the radio or set foot in a gay bar at any point around the turn of the century, then you're well versed in the work of tribal house duo Thunderpuss. From 1999-2003, LA based producers Barry Harris and Chris Cox racked up nearly 400 remix credits for a vast array of artists including a Who's Who of pop and R&B royalty like Janet, Madonna, Britney, Mary J. Blige and countless others.

Thunderpuss' treatment of "It's Not Right" and other songs like 2000's "My Love of Your Love" was a career game changer for Whitney, who'd been experiencing a bit of a lull in the preceding years. The driving, infectious house track combined with the song's strong and independent message really struck a chord and introduced Houston into the canon of gay icons. As one friend puts it, "It was kinda like an 'I Will Survive' for the New Millennium."

Already seasoned pros when they formed Thunderpuss, Cox and Harris didn't need to lean on mainstream pop artists to create the kind of tracks that you can't get out of your head, demonstrating as much with their second big hit, a remix of "Sexual (Li Da Di)" by vocal house diva Amber in 1999, which spent 17 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Dance/Club chart.

There were less glorius moments too. Stacie Orrico, Billie Myers, Boomrat and other lower-grade popstars pepper the duo's remix disocgraphy. The guys also released a series of their own original singles before parting ways in 2003. Cox continued on with the momentum that Thunderpuss had created, producing a string of popular remixes on his own and helping Cher nab a Grammy nomination in 2004 for her record "Love One Another." He continues to produce and tour with a packed schedule of DJ and radio gigs. After a long break from the game, Harris is also back at it; making up for lost time with a bunch of revamped old mixes and new ones for artists like Sia, Ariana Grande and Azalea Banks.

Here's Thunderpuss' interpretation of Whitney's duet with her future posthumous voice-double Deborah Cox in 2000, "Same Script, Different Cast":

Whoa. Meta.

Thunderpuss on Twitter // Chris Cox // Barry Harris

Malina Bickford remixes divas on the daily on Twitter.