Whitney Has Retailers Holding Their Breath : A greatest-hits package and the all-star soundtrack album for her ‘Bodyguard’ follow-up are both due Oct. 10.

Record retailers are already dreaming of a . . . Whitney Christmas.

That’s because there’ll be not one but two albums featuring Whitney Houston to attract droves of holiday shoppers.

Besides her own greatest-hits package featuring several new tracks, Houston will be the main lure in the soundtrack album for “Waiting to Exhale,” her movie follow-up to the hugely successful “The Bodyguard.” Both are scheduled for release Oct. 10, with a Houston single from “Exhale” expected in September.

She’ll be joined on the soundtrack by a roster of top contemporary pop divas, all performing songs written and produced by hit machine Kenny (Babyface) Edmonds. Among the “Exhale” singers: Toni Braxton, Aretha Franklin, Patti LaBelle, Chaka Khan, Mary J. Blige, TLC and Brandy.

That gathering reflects the theme of the film, which stars Houston and Angela Bassett as members of a group of four African American female friends in Phoenix.

It was just three holiday seasons ago that Houston provided retailers with one of their best Christmas presents ever: “The Bodyguard” soundtrack. The album, which featured the massive hit “I Will Always Love You,” set a one-week sales record of more than 1 million in the week before Christmas.

The thought of two albums involving Houston has retailers salivating. But can either or both match or top “The Bodyguard”?

“You’re always measured by your biggest success--whether it’s Carole King with ‘Tapestry’ or Michael Jackson with ‘Thriller,’ ” says Lew Garrett, vice president of purchasing for the 400-store, Canton, Ohio-based Camelot chain of record stores. “But with Whitney we have an artist who I don’t think has peaked yet.”

At one point, Houston wasn’t planning to do any songs for “Waiting to Exhale.” Unlike her pop star role in “The Bodyguard,” her part in the new film didn’t call for any on-screen singing, and she was approaching the project solely as an actress. But the involvement of Edmonds changed that.

“There might have been some question at some point about her singing,” says Robert Kraft, vice president of music for 20th Century Fox Films and an executive producer of the soundtrack album. “But after speaking to Kenny and hearing the songs he’d written, that was all she needed to hear.”

Edmonds himself called Forest Whitaker, the film’s director, and offered to handle the music for the project--his first soundtrack, for which he is writing score material as well as songs.

“The music is all directly inspired by the film,” Kraft says. “It’s really a body of work coming from the script. Forest and Kenny have been working as a collaborative unit on the direction of the material.”