SOUNDS LIKE `PREACHER'S'.

Byline: Billboard

With the soundtrack to Whitney Houston's new movie, ``The Preacher's Wife,'' due to invade retail today, Arista is beginning a complex multisingle campaign that is designed to illuminate the various musical styles showcased on the album.

The singer's inspirational power ballad ``I Believe in You and Me'' started the ball rolling when it hit radio Nov. 20, drawing instant raves from pop programmers. In its first day, the song received 151 spins on 82 radio stations, according to Broadcast Data Systems.

Within 10 days of that cut's release, Arista plans to issue ``Somebody Bigger Than You and I,'' an all-star funk jam that teams Houston with Bobby Brown, Faith Evans, Johnny Gill, Monica, and Ralph Tresvant.

The United Kingdom and European singles story also began to unfold Nov. 20, with the onset of ``Step by Step,'' an up-tempo dance/pop tune written by and featuring as guest vocalist Annie Lennox. A promotional pressing of the cut, sporting rhythmically varied remixes by Teddy Riley, Junior Vasquez and Soul Solution, will be offered to radio and clubs stateside and in Canada shortly before the Dec. 13 North American opening of the Touchstone Pictures film.

And if that's not enough, today, Arista will begin circulating to gospel radio stations a four-song promotional CD of the album's songs, with Houston paired with the Georgia Mass Choir.

On Thursday, Houston performs material from the album on Ebony's 50th-anniversary special on ABC TV.