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PHOTO: ARETHA FRANKLIN (1942-2018)
The undisputed Queen of Soul, her gospel-tinged R&B displays one of the greatest voices in recording history
Aretha Franklin
(1942-2018)
Biography
by Richie Unterberger
Aretha Franklin was one of the giants of soul music, and indeed of American pop as a whole. More than any other performer, she epitomized soul at its most gospel-charged. Her astonishing run of late-'60s hits with Atlantic Records -- "Respect," "I Never Loved a Man," "Chain of Fools," "Baby I Love You," "I Say a Little Prayer," "Think," "The House That Jack Built," and many others -- earned her the title Queen of Soul. Franklin never rested on her laurels. Following the early-'70s LPs Spirit in the Dark and Young, Gifted and Black, she scored more hits on the R&B charts than pop, adeptly following the progression of soul in the '70s and '80s thanks to her collaborations with Curtis Mayfield (1976's Sparkle) and Luther Vandross (1982's Jump to It). Franklin made a triumphant return to pop with 1985's Who's Zoomin' Who? and its Top Ten single "Freeway of Love," which was followed in 1987 by the George Michael duet "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)," which became her first number one hit on the Billboard charts since "Respect" in 1967. Franklin spent the next three decades performing and recording regularly, maintaining her status as the Queen of Soul until her death in 2018.
Franklin's roots in gospel ran extremely deep. With her sisters Carolyn and Erma (both of whom would also have recording careers), she sang at the Detroit church of her father, Reverend C.L. Franklin, while growing up in the '50s. In fact, she made her first recordings as a gospel artist at the age of 14. It has also been reported that Motown was interested in signing her back in the days when it was a tiny start-up. Ultimately, however, Franklin ended up with Columbia, to which she was signed by the renowned talent scout John Hammond.
Franklin would record for Columbia constantly throughout the first half of the '60s, notching occasional R&B hits (and one Top 40 single, "Rock-a-bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody") but never truly breaking out as a star. The Columbia period continues to generate considerable controversy among critics, many of whom feel that Franklin's true aspirations were being blunted by pop-oriented material and production. In fact, there are a number of fine items to be found on the Columbia sides, including the occasional song ("Lee Cross," "Soulville") where she belts out soul with real gusto. It's undeniably true, though, that her work at Columbia was considerably tamer than what was to follow, and suffered in general from a lack of direction and an apparent emphasis on trying to develop her as an all-around entertainer, rather than as an R&B/soul singer.
When Franklin left Columbia for Atlantic, producer Jerry Wexler was determined to bring out her most soulful, fiery traits. As part of that plan, he had her record her first single, "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)," at Muscle Shoals in Alabama with esteemed Southern R&B musicians. In fact, that was to be her only actual session at Muscle Shoals, but much of the remainder of her '60s work would be recorded with the Muscle Shoals Sound Rhythm Section, although the sessions would take place in New York City. The combination was one of those magic instances of musical alchemy in pop: the backup musicians provided a much grittier, soulful, and R&B-based accompaniment for Franklin's voice, which soared with a passion and intensity suggesting a spirit that had been allowed to fly loose for the first time.
In the late '60s, Franklin became one of the biggest international recording stars in all of pop. Many also saw her as a symbol of Black America itself, reflecting the increased confidence and pride of African-Americans in the decade of the Civil Rights movement and other triumphs for the Black community. The chart statistics are impressive in and of themselves: ten Top Ten hits in a roughly 18-month span between early 1967 and late 1968, for instance, and a steady stream of solid medium to large hits for the next five years after that. Her Atlantic albums were also huge sellers, and far more consistent artistically than those of most soul stars of the era. Franklin was able to maintain creative momentum, in part because of her eclectic choice of material, which encompassed first-class originals and gospel, blues, pop, and rock covers, from the Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel to Sam Cooke and the Drifters. She was also a fine, forceful, and somewhat underrated keyboardist.
Franklin's commercial and artistic success was unabated in the early '70s, during which she landed more huge hits with "Spanish Harlem," "Bridge Over Troubled Water," and "Day Dreaming." She also produced two of her most respected, and earthiest, album releases with Live at Fillmore West and Amazing Grace. The latter, a 1972 double LP, was a reinvestigation of her gospel roots, recorded with James Cleveland and the Southern California Community Choir. Remarkably, it hit the Top Ten, making it one of the greatest gospel-pop crossover smashes of all time.
![Aretha [1986]](https://rovimusic.rovicorp.com/image.jpg?c=9N5gSid0wWTtsdvnoaRzLj6KsMttLlyBmmVTZ6_CLs0=&f=2)
Franklin had a few more hits over the next few years -- "Angel" and the Stevie Wonder cover "Until You Come Back to Me" being the most notable. Her Atlantic contract ended at the close of the '70s. She signed with the Clive Davis-guided Arista and scored number one R&B hits with "Jump to It," "Get It Right," and "Freeway of Love." Many of her successes were duets, or crafted with the assistance of contemporaries such as Luther Vandross and Narada Michael Walden. In 1986, Franklin released her follow-up to Who's Zoomin' Who?, the self-titled Aretha, which saw the single "I Knew You Were Waiting for Me," a duet with George Michael, hit the top of the charts. In 1987, Franklin became the first woman inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and she made another return to gospel that year with One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism. She shifted back to pop with 1989's Through the Storm, but it wasn't a commercial success, and neither was 1991's new jack swing-styled What You See Is What You Sweat.
After 1994, Franklin eased into elder stateswoman territory, performing regularly and releasing albums every few years. A Rose Is Still a Rose went gold upon its release in 1998, thanks to two number one R&B hits: its title track and "Here We Go Again." It also contained the Grammy-winning song "Wonderful." Following 2003's So Damn Happy, Franklin left Arista after A Rose Is Still a Rose -- the label would release Jewels in the Crown: All-Star Duets with the Queen in 2007; she formed her own imprint, Aretha's Records, for 2008's This Christmas. After 2011's A Woman Falling Out of Love, she reteamed with Clive Davis at RCA, who connected her with the likes of Babyface and OutKast's André 3000 for 2014's Sings the Great Diva Classics, where she covered Gladys Knight, Barbra Streisand, and Adele. A Brand New Me, an archival release featuring classic Aretha vocals in front of newly created orchestral arrangements by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, appeared in 2017.
Also in 2017, Franklin canceled several concerts due to health problems, but she managed to appear at a show celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Elton John AIDS Foundation that November. It turned out to be her last public performance. Over the course of 2018, her health worsened due to pancreatic cancer. Franklin started to receive hospice care on August 13 and died at her home in Detroit three days later. The memorial service held on August 31 at Detroit's Greater Grace Temple featured testimonials from peers, Civil Rights leaders, and politicians, and was televised around the world.
The first posthumous Franklin release was the compilation The Atlantic Singles Collection 1967-1970, which appeared in September 2018. It was followed in March 2019 by the re-release of Amazing Grace: The Complete Recordings. The career-spanning four-disc box set Aretha appeared on Atlantic in July 2021, timed to coincide with the release of the Jennifer Hudson-starring biopic Respect. A Portrait of the Queen 1970-1974, issued in 2023, boxed her first five studio albums of the '70s.
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin is one of the giants of soul music, and indeed of American pop as a whole. More than any other performer, she epitomized soul at its most gospel-charged. Her astonishing run of late-'60s hits with Atlantic Records—"Respect," "I Never Loved a Man," "Chain of Fools," "Baby I Love You," "I Say a Little Prayer," "Think," "The House That Jack Built," and several others—earned her the title "Lady Soul," which she has worn uncontested ever since. Yet as much of an international institution as she's become, much of her work—outside of her recordings for Atlantic in the late '60s and early '70s—is erratic and only fitfully inspired, making discretion a necessity when collecting her records.
Franklin's roots in gospel ran extremely deep. With her sisters Carolyn and Erma (both of whom would also have recording careers), she sang at the Detroit church of her father, Reverend C.L. Franklin, while growing up in the 1950s. In fact, she made her first recordings as a gospel artist at the age of 14. It has also been reported that Motown was interested in signing Aretha back in the days when it was a tiny start-up. Ultimately, however, Franklin ended up with Columbia, to which she was signed by the renowned talent scout John Hammond.
Franklin would record for Columbia constantly throughout the first half of the '60s, notching occasional R&B hits (and one Top Forty single, "Rock-a-bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody"), but never truly breaking out as a star. The Columbia period continues to generate considerable controversy among critics, many of whom feel that Aretha's true aspirations were being blunted by pop-oriented material and production. In fact there's a reasonable amount of fine items to be found on the Columbia sides, including the occasional song ("Lee Cross," "Soulville") where she belts out soul with real gusto. It's undeniably true, though, that her work at Columbia was considerably tamer than what was to follow, and suffered in general from a lack of direction and an apparent emphasis on trying to develop her as an all-around entertainer, rather than as an R&B/soul singer.
When Franklin left Columbia for Atlantic, producer Jerry Wexler was determined to bring out her most soulful, fiery traits. As part of that plan, he had her record her first single, "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)," at Muscle Shoals in Alabama with esteemed Southern R&B musicians. In fact, that was to be her only session actually at Muscle Shoals, but much of the remainder of her '60s work would be recorded with the Muscle Shoals Sound Rhythm Section, although the sessions would actually take place in New York City. The combination was one of those magic instances of musical alchemy in pop: the backup musicians provided a much grittier, soulful, and R&B-based accompaniment for Aretha's voice, which soared with a passion and intensity suggesting a spirit that had been allowed to fly loose for the first time.
In the late '60s, Franklin became one of the biggest international recording stars in all of pop. Many also saw Franklin as a symbol of Black America itself, reflecting the increased confidence and pride of African-Americans in the decade of the civil rights movements and other triumphs for he Black community. The chart statistics are impressive in and of themselves: ten Top Ten hits in a roughly 18-month span between early 1967 and late 1968, for instance, and a steady stream of solid mid-to-large-size hits for the next five years after that. Her Atlantic albums were also huge sellers, and far more consistent artistically than those of most soul stars of the era. Franklin was able to maintain creative momentum, in part, because of her eclectic choice of material, which encompassed first-class originals and gospel, blues, pop, and rock covers, from the Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel to Sam Cooke and the Drifters. She was also a fine, forceful, and somewhat underrated keyboardist.
Franklin's commercial and artistic success was unabated in the early '70s, during which she landed more huge hits with "Spanish Harlem," "Bridge Over Troubled Water," and "Day Dreaming." She also produced two of her most respected, and earthiest, album releases with Live at Fillmore West and Amazing Grace. The latter, a 1972 double LP, was a reinvestigation of her gospel roots, recorded with James Cleveland & the Southern California Community Choir. Remarkably, it made the Top Ten, counting as one of the greatest gospel-pop crossover smashes of all time.
Franklin had a few more hits over the next few years—"Angel" and the Stevie Wonder cover "Until You Come Back to Me"—being the most notable—but generally her artistic inspiration seemed to be tapering off, and her focus drifting toward more pop-oriented material. Her Atlantic contract ended at the end of the 1970s, and since then she's managed to get intermittent hits — "Who's Zooming Who" and "Jump to It" are among the most famous — without remaining anything like the superstar she was at her peak. Many of her successes were duets, or crafted with the assistance of newer, glossier-minded contemporaries such as Luther Vandross. There was also another return to gospel in 1987 with One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aretha_Franklin
Aretha Franklin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Aretha Louise Franklin (/əˈriːθə/ ə-REE-thə; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist.[2] Honored as the "Queen of Soul", Rolling Stone magazine has twice crowned her as the greatest singer of all time.[3][4]
As a child, Franklin was noticed for her gospel singing at New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, where her father C. L. Franklin was a minister. At the age of 18, she was signed as a recording artist for Columbia Records. While her career did not immediately flourish, Franklin found acclaim and commercial success once she signed with Atlantic Records in 1966. She recorded albums such as I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You (1967), Lady Soul (1968), Spirit in the Dark (1970), Young, Gifted and Black (1972), Amazing Grace (1972), and Sparkle (1976), before experiencing problems with the record company. Franklin left Atlantic in 1979 and signed with Arista Records. Her success continued with the albums Jump to It (1982), Who's Zoomin' Who? (1985), Aretha (1986) and A Rose Is Still a Rose (1998).
Franklin is one of the best-selling music artists, with over 75 million records sold worldwide.[5] She recorded 112 charted singles on the US Billboard charts, including 73 Hot 100 entries, 17 top-ten pop singles, 96 R&B entries[6] and 20 number-one R&B singles. Her best-known hits include "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)", "Respect", "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman", "Chain of Fools", "Think", "I Say a Little Prayer", "Ain't No Way", "Call Me", "Don't Play That Song (You Lied)", "Spanish Harlem", "Rock Steady", "Day Dreaming", "Until You Come Back to Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do)", "Something He Can Feel", "Jump to It", "Freeway of Love", "Who's Zoomin' Who", "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" (a duet with George Michael) and "A Rose Is Still a Rose". Aside from music, she appeared in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers.
Franklin received numerous honors throughout her career. She won 18 Grammy Awards (out of 44 nominations),[7][8] including the first eight awards given for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance (1968–1975), a Grammy Awards Living Legend honor and Lifetime Achievement Award. She was also awarded the National Medal of Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1987, she became the first female artist to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Her other inductions include the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005, the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2012,[9] and posthumously the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2020.[10] In 2019, the Pulitzer Prize jury awarded her a posthumous special citation "for her indelible contribution to American music and culture for more than five decades".
Early life
Aretha Louise Franklin was born on March 25, 1942, to Barbara (née Siggers) and Clarence LaVaughn "C. L." Franklin. She was delivered at her family's home located at 406 Lucy Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee. Her father was a Baptist minister and circuit preacher originally from Shelby, Mississippi, while her mother was an accomplished piano player and vocalist.[12] Both Mr. and Mrs. Franklin had children from prior relationships in addition to the four children they had together. When Aretha was two, the family relocated to Buffalo, New York.[13] By the time Aretha turned five, C. L. Franklin had permanently relocated the family to Detroit, Michigan where he took over the pastorship of the New Bethel Baptist Church.[14]
The Franklins had a troubled marriage due to Mr. Franklin's infidelities, and they separated in 1948.[15] At that time, Barbara Franklin returned to Buffalo with Aretha's half-brother, Vaughn.[16] After the separation, Aretha recalled seeing her mother in Buffalo during the summer, and Barbara Franklin frequently visited her children in Detroit.[17][16] Aretha's mother died of a heart attack on March 7, 1952, before Aretha's 10th birthday.[18] Several women, including Aretha's grandmother, Rachel, and Mahalia Jackson, took turns helping with the children at the Franklin home.[19] During this time, Aretha learned how to play piano by ear.[20] She also attended public school in Detroit, going through her first year at Northern High School, but dropping out during her second year.[21]
Aretha's father's emotionally driven sermons resulted in his being known as the man with the "million-dollar voice". He earned thousands of dollars for sermons in various churches across the country.[22][23] His fame led to his home being visited by various celebrities. Among the visitors were gospel musicians Clara Ward, James Cleveland, and early Caravans members Albertina Walker and Inez Andrews. Martin Luther King Jr., Jackie Wilson and Sam Cooke all became friends of C. L. Franklin, as well.[24][25] Ward was romantically involved with Aretha's father from around 1949 until Ward's death in 1973, though Aretha "preferred to view them strictly as friends".[26] Ward also served as a role model to the young Aretha.[27][28]
Musical career
1952–1960: Beginnings
Just after her mother's death, Franklin began singing solos at New Bethel Baptist Church, debuting with the hymn "Jesus, Be a Fence Around Me".[19][29] When Franklin was 12, her father began managing her; he would take her on the road with him, during his "gospel caravan" tours for her to perform in various churches.[30] He also helped her sign her first recording deal with J.V.B. Records. Recording equipment was installed inside New Bethel Baptist Church and nine tracks were recorded.[when?] Franklin was featured on vocals and piano.[31] In 1956, J.V.B. released Franklin's first single, "Never Grow Old", backed with "You Grow Closer". "Precious Lord (Part One)" backed with "Precious Lord (Part Two)" followed in 1959. These four tracks, with the addition of "There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood", were released on side one of the 1956 album, Spirituals. This was reissued by Battle Records in 1962, under the same title.[32] In 1965, Checker Records released Songs of Faith, featuring the five tracks from the 1956 Spirituals album, with the addition of four previously unreleased recordings. Aretha was only 14 when Songs of Faith was recorded.[33]
During this time, Franklin would occasionally travel with the Soul Stirrers.[34] As a young gospel singer, Franklin spent summers on the gospel circuit in Chicago and stayed with Mavis Staples' family.[35] According to music producer Quincy Jones, while Franklin was still young, Dinah Washington let him know that "Aretha was the 'next one'".[36]
Franklin and her father traveled to California, where she met singer Sam Cooke.[37] At the age of 16, Franklin went on tour with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and she would ultimately sing at his funeral in 1968.[38] Other influences in her youth included Marvin Gaye (who was a boyfriend of her sister), as well as Ray Charles and Sam Cooke, "two of Franklin's greatest influences".[39] Also important was James Cleveland, known as the King of Gospel music, "who helped to focus her early career as a gospel singer"; Cleveland had been recruited by her father as a pianist for the Southern California Community Choir.[40][41]
1960–1966: Columbia years
After turning 18, Franklin confided to her father that she aspired to follow Sam Cooke in recording pop music, and moved to New York.[25] Serving as her manager, C. L. Franklin agreed to the move and helped to produce a two-song demo that soon was brought to the attention of Columbia Records, who agreed to sign her in 1960, as a "five-percent artist".[42] During this period, Franklin would be coached by choreographer Cholly Atkins to prepare for her pop performances. Before signing with Columbia, Sam Cooke tried to persuade Franklin's father to sign her with his label, RCA Victor, but she had already decided to go with Columbia.[33] Berry Gordy had also asked Franklin and her elder sister Erma to sign with his Tamla label, but C.L. Franklin turned Gordy down, as he felt Tamla was not yet an established label.[43] Franklin's first Columbia single, "Today I Sing the Blues",[44] was issued in September 1960 and later reached the top 10 of the Hot Rhythm & Blues Sellers chart.[45]
In January 1961, Columbia issued Franklin's first album, Aretha: With The Ray Bryant Combo. The album featured her first single to chart the Billboard Hot 100, "Won't Be Long", which also peaked at number 7 on the R&B chart.[46] Mostly produced by Clyde Otis, Franklin's Columbia recordings saw her performing in diverse genres, such as standards, vocal jazz, blues, doo-wop and rhythm and blues. Before the year was out, Franklin scored her first with her hit-single rendition of the standard "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody".[47] By the end of 1961, Franklin was named as a "new-star female vocalist" in DownBeat magazine.[48] In 1962, Columbia issued two more albums, The Electrifying Aretha Franklin and The Tender, the Moving, the Swinging Aretha Franklin,[49][50] the latter of which reached number 69 on the Billboard chart.[51]
In the 1960s, during a performance at the Regal Theater in Chicago, WVON radio personality Pervis Spann announced that Franklin should be crowned "the Queen of Soul".[52][35] Spann ceremonially placed a crown on her head.[53] By 1964, Franklin began recording more pop music, reaching the top 10 on the R&B chart with the ballad "Runnin' Out of Fools", in early 1965. She had two R&B charted singles in 1965 and 1966, with the songs "One Step Ahead" and "Cry Like a Baby", while also reaching the Easy Listening charts with the ballads "You Made Me Love You" and "(No, No) I'm Losing You". By the mid-1960s, Franklin was making $100,000 per year from countless performances in nightclubs and theaters.[48] Also during that period, she appeared on rock-and-roll shows, such as Hollywood a Go-Go and Shindig! However, she struggled with commercial success while at Columbia. Label executive John H. Hammond later said he felt Columbia did not understand Franklin's early gospel background and failed to bring that aspect out further during her period there.[44]
1966–1979: Atlantic years
In November 1966, Franklin's Columbia recording contract expired; at that time, she owed the company money because record sales had not met expectations.[54]
Producer Jerry Wexler convinced her to move to Atlantic Records.[55][56] Wexler decided that he wanted to take advantage of her gospel background; his philosophy in general was to encourage a "tenacious form of rhythm & blues that became increasingly identified as soul".[41] The Atlantic days would lead to a series of hits for Aretha Franklin from 1967 to early 1972; her rapport with Wexler helped in the creation of the majority of her peak recordings with Atlantic. The next seven years' achievements were less impressive. However, according to Rolling Stone, "they weren't as terrible as some claimed, they were pro forma and never reached for new heights".[57]
In January 1967, Franklin traveled to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to record at FAME Studios and recorded the song "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)", backed by the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. Franklin only spent one day recording at FAME, as an altercation broke out between her manager and husband Ted White, studio owner Rick Hall, and a horn player, and sessions were abandoned.[44][58] The song was released the following month and reached number one on the R&B chart, while also peaking at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100, giving Franklin her first top-ten pop single. The song's B-side, "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man", reached the R&B top 40, peaking at number 37. "Respect" was Otis Redding's song but Aretha modified it with a "supercharged interlude featuring the emphatic spelling-out of the song's title".[40] Her frenetic version was released in April and reached number one on both the R&B and pop charts. "Respect" became her signature song and was later hailed as a civil rights and feminist anthem.[44][59] Upon hearing her version, Otis Redding said admiringly: "That little girl done took my song away from me."[60] Franklin's debut Atlantic album, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You, also became commercially successful, later going gold. According to National Geographic, this recording "would catapult Franklin to fame".[57] Franklin scored two additional top-ten singles in 1967, "Baby I Love You" and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman".[61]
Working with Wexler and Atlantic, Franklin had become "the most successful singer in the nation" by 1968.[62] In 1968, Franklin issued the top-selling albums Lady Soul and Aretha Now, which included some of her most popular hit singles, including "Chain of Fools", "Ain't No Way", "Think", and "I Say a Little Prayer". That February, Franklin earned the first two of her Grammys, including the debut category for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.[63] On February 16, Franklin was honored with a day named for her and was greeted by longtime friend Martin Luther King Jr., who gave her the SCLC Drum Beat Award for Musicians two months before his death.[64][65][66] Franklin toured outside the US for the first time in late April/May 1968, including an appearance at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam,[67] where she played to a near-hysterical audience who covered the stage with flower petals.[68] She performed two concerts in London, at the Finsbury Park Astoria and the Hammersmith Odeon on May 11 and May 12.[69] In June 1968, she appeared on the cover of Time magazine in a portrait illustration by Boris Chaliapin.[70]
In March 1969, Franklin was unanimously voted winner of Académie du Jazz's R&B award, Prix Otis Redding, for her albums Lady Soul, Aretha Now, and Aretha in Paris.[71] That year, Franklin was the subject of a criminal impersonation scheme. Another woman performed at several Florida venues under the name Aretha Franklin. Suspicion was drawn when the fake Franklin charged only a fraction of the expected rate to perform. Franklin's lawyers contacted Florida authorities and uncovered a coercive scheme in which the singer, Vickie Jones, had been threatened with violence and constrained into impersonating her idol, whom she resembled closely both in voice and looks.[72] After being cleared of wrongdoing, Jones subsequently enjoyed a brief career of her own, during which she was herself the subject of an impersonation.
Franklin's success further expanded during the early 1970s, during which she recorded the multi-week R&B number one "Don't Play That Song (You Lied)", as well as the top-ten singles "Spanish Harlem", "Rock Steady", and "Day Dreaming". Some of these releases were from the acclaimed albums Spirit in the Dark (released in August 1970, in which month she again performed at London's Hammersmith Odeon)[73] and Young, Gifted and Black (released in early 1972). In 1971, Franklin became the first R&B performer to headline Fillmore West, later that year releasing the live album Aretha Live at Fillmore West.[74]
In January 1972, she returned to Gospel music in a two-night, live-church recording, with the album Amazing Grace, in which she reinterpreted standards such as Mahalia Jackson's "How I Got Over".[75] Originally released in June 1972, Amazing Grace sold more than two million copies,[76] and is one of bestselling gospel albums of all time.[77] The live performances were filmed for a concert film directed by Sydney Pollack, but due to synching problems and Franklin's own attempts to prevent the film's distribution after Hollywood refused to promote a dark-skinned black woman as a movie star at the time, the film's release was only realized by producer Alan Elliott in November 2018.[78]
Franklin's career began to experience problems while recording the album Hey Now Hey, which featured production from Quincy Jones. Despite the success of the single "Angel", the album bombed[citation needed] upon its release in 1973. Franklin continued having R&B success with songs such as "Until You Come Back to Me" and "I'm in Love", but by 1975 her albums and songs were no longer top sellers.[citation needed] After Jerry Wexler left Atlantic for Warner Bros. Records in 1976, Franklin worked on the soundtrack to the film Sparkle with Curtis Mayfield. The album yielded Franklin's final top-40 hit of the decade, "Something He Can Feel", which also peaked at number one on the R&B chart. Franklin's follow-up albums for Atlantic, including Sweet Passion (1977), Almighty Fire (1978) and La Diva (1979), bombed on the charts,[citation needed] and in 1979 Franklin left the company.[79] On November 7, 1979, she guested The Mike Douglas Show with her yellow costume from her La Diva album, and sang "Ladies Only", "What If I Should Ever Need You" and "Yesterday" by the Beatles.[80]
1980–2007: Arista years
In 1980, after leaving Atlantic Records,[81] Franklin signed with Clive Davis's Arista Records.[82] "Davis was beguiling and had the golden touch", according to Rolling Stone. "If anybody could rejuvenate Franklin's puzzlingly stuck career, it was Davis."[41]
Also in 1980, Franklin gave a command performance at London's Royal Albert Hall in front of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. Franklin also had an acclaimed guest role as a soul food restaurant proprietor and wife of Matt "Guitar" Murphy in the 1980 comedy musical The Blues Brothers.[83][84] Franklin's first Arista album, Aretha (1980), featured the number-three R&B hit "United Together" and her Grammy-nominated cover of Redding's "I Can't Turn You Loose". The follow-up, 1981's Love All the Hurt Away, included her famed duet of the title track with George Benson, while the album also included her Grammy-winning cover of Sam & Dave's "Hold On, I'm Comin'". Franklin achieved a gold record—for the first time in seven years—with the 1982 album Jump to It. The album's title track was her first top-40 single on the pop charts in six years.[85] The following year, she released "Get It Right", produced by Luther Vandross.[86]
In 1985, inspired by a desire to have a "younger sound" in her music, Who's Zoomin' Who? became her first Arista album to be certified platinum. The album sold well over a million copies thanks to the hits "Freeway of Love", the title track, and "Another Night".[87] The next year's Aretha album nearly matched this success with the hit singles "Jumpin' Jack Flash", "Jimmy Lee" and "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)", her international number-one duet with George Michael. During that period, Franklin provided vocals to the theme songs of the TV shows A Different World and Together.[88] In 1987, she issued her third gospel album, One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, which was recorded at her late father's New Bethel church, followed by Through the Storm in 1989.
In 1987, Franklin performed "America the Beautiful" at WWE's Wrestlemania III; one source states that "to this day her WrestleMania III performance might be the most memorable" of the event openers by many artists.[89]
After 1988, "Franklin never again had huge hits", according to Rolling Stone.[41] The 1991 album What You See is What You Sweat flopped on the charts. She returned to the charts in 1993 with the dance song "A Deeper Love" and returned to the top 40 with the song "Willing to Forgive" in 1994.[90] That recording reached number 26 on the Hot 100 and number five on the R&B chart.
In 1989, Franklin filmed a music video for a remake of "Think".[91] In 1990, she sang "I Want to Be Happy", "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman", and "Someone Else's Eyes" at the MDA Labor Day Telethon.[92][93]
In 1995, she was selected to play Aunt Em in the Apollo Theater revival of The Wiz. Franklin's final top 40 single was 1998's "A Rose Is Still a Rose". The album of the same name was released after the single. It sold over 500,000 copies, earning gold certification.[94]
That same year, Franklin received global praise after her 1998 Grammy Awards performance. She had initially been asked to perform in honor of the 1980 film The Blues Brothers, in which she appeared with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. That evening, after the show had already begun, another performer, opera tenor Luciano Pavarotti became too ill to perform the aria "Nessun dorma" as planned. The show's producers, desperate to fill the time slot, approached Franklin with their dilemma. She was a friend of Pavarotti and had sung the aria two nights prior at the annual MusiCares event. She asked to hear Pavarotti's rehearsal recording, and after listening, agreed that she could sing it in the tenor range that the orchestra was prepared to play in. Over one billion people worldwide saw the performance, and she received an immediate standing ovation. She would go on to record the selection and perform it live several more times in the years to come. The last time she sang the aria live was for Pope Francis at the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia in September 2015. A small boy was so touched by her performance that he came onto the stage and embraced her while Franklin was still singing.[95][96]
Her final Arista album, So Damn Happy, was released in 2003 and featured the Grammy-winning song "Wonderful". In 2004, Franklin announced that she was leaving Arista after more than 20 years with the label.[97] To complete her Arista obligations, Franklin issued the duets compilation album Jewels in the Crown: All-Star Duets with the Queen in 2007.[98] In February 2006, she performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" with Aaron Neville and Dr. John for Super Bowl XL, held in her hometown of Detroit.[99]
2007–2018: Final years
In 2008, Franklin issued the holiday album This Christmas, Aretha on DMI Records.[100] On February 8, 2008, Franklin was honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year, and performed "Never Gonna Break My Faith", which had won her the Grammy for best Gospel performance[101] the year before. Twelve years later, an unheard performance of "Never Gonna Break My Faith" was released in June 2020 to commemorate Juneteenth with a new video visualizing the American human rights movement. This caused the song to enter the Billboard gospel charts at number one, giving Franklin the distinction of having had a number one record in every decade since the 1960s. On November 18, 2008, she performed "Respect" and "Chain of Fools" at Dancing with the Stars.
On January 20, 2009, Franklin made international headlines for performing "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" at President Barack Obama's inaugural ceremony with her church hat becoming a popular topic online. In 2010, Franklin accepted an honorary degree from Yale University.[99] In 2011, under her own label, Aretha's Records, she issued the album Aretha: A Woman Falling Out of Love.
In 2014, Franklin was signed under RCA Records, controller of the Arista catalog and a sister label to Columbia via Sony Music Entertainment, and worked with Clive Davis. There were plans for her to record an album produced by Danger Mouse, who was replaced with Babyface and Don Was when Danger Mouse left the project.[102] On September 29, 2014, Franklin performed to a standing ovation, with Cissy Houston as backup, a compilation of Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" and "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" on the Late Show with David Letterman. Franklin's cover of "Rolling in the Deep" was featured among nine other songs in her first RCA release, Aretha Franklin Sings the Great Diva Classics, released in October 2014.[103] In doing so, she became the first woman to have 100 songs on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart with the success of her cover of Adele's "Rolling in the Deep", which debuted at number 47 on the chart.[104]
In December 2015, Franklin gave an acclaimed performance of "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" at the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors during the section for honoree Carole King, who co-wrote the song.[105][106][107] During the bridge of the song, Franklin dropped her fur coat to the stage, for which the audience rewarded her with a mid-performance standing ovation.[108][109] Dropping the coat was symbolic according to "Rolling Stone": it "echoed back to those times when gospel queens would toss their furs on top of the coffins of other gospel queens — a gesture that honored the dead but castigated death itself".[41]
She returned to Detroit's Ford Field on Thanksgiving Day 2016 to once again perform the national anthem before the game between the Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions. Seated behind the piano, wearing a black fur coat and Lions stocking cap, Franklin gave a rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" that lasted more than four minutes and featured a host of improvisations.[110] Franklin released the album A Brand New Me in November 2017 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, which uses archived recordings from Franklin.[111] It peaked at number five on the Billboard Top Classical Albums chart before her death and rose to number two after her death.[citation needed]
While Franklin canceled some concerts in 2017 for health reasons, and during an outdoor Detroit show, she asked the audience to "keep me in your prayers", she was still garnering highly favorable reviews for her skill and showmanship.[112][113][114] At the Ravinia Festival on September 3, 2017, she gave her last full concert.[115][116] Franklin's final public performance was at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City during Elton John's 25th anniversary gala for the Elton John AIDS Foundation on November 7, 2017.[117]
Music style and image
According to Richie Unterberger, Franklin was "one of the giants of soul music, and indeed of American pop as a whole. More than any other performer, she epitomized soul at its most gospel-charged".[1] She had often been described as a great singer and musician due to "vocal flexibility, interpretive intelligence, skillful piano-playing, her ear, her experience".[118] Franklin's voice was described as being a "powerful mezzo-soprano voice". She was praised for her arrangements and interpretations of other artists' hit songs.[119] According to David Remnick, what "distinguishes her is not merely the breadth of her catalog or the cataract force of her vocal instrument; it's her musical intelligence, her way of singing behind the beat, of spraying a wash of notes over a single word or syllable, of constructing, moment by moment, the emotional power of a three-minute song. 'Respect' is as precise an artifact as a Ming vase."[109] Describing Franklin's voice on her first album, Songs of Faith, released in 1956 when she was just 14, Jerry Wexler explained that it "was not that of a child but rather of an ecstatic hierophant".[120] Critic Randy Lewis assessed her skills as a pianist as "magic" and "inspirational". Musicians and professionals alike such as Elton John, Keith Richards, Carole King, and Clive Davis were fans of her piano performances.[121]
In 2015, President Barack Obama wrote the following regarding Franklin:
Nobody embodies more fully the connection between the African-American spiritual, the blues, R. & B., rock and roll—the way that hardship and sorrow were transformed into something full of beauty and vitality and hope. American history wells up when Aretha sings. That's why, when she sits down at a piano and sings 'A Natural Woman,' she can move me to tears—the same way that Ray Charles's version of 'America the Beautiful' will always be in my view the most patriotic piece of music ever performed—because it captures the fullness of the American experience, the view from the bottom as well as the top, the good and the bad, and the possibility of synthesis, reconciliation, transcendence.[122]
Activism
From her time growing up in the home of a prominent African-American preacher to the end of her life, Franklin was immersed and involved in the struggle for civil rights and women's rights. She provided money for civil rights groups, at times covering payroll, and performed at benefits and protests.[123] When Angela Davis was jailed in 1970, Franklin told Jet: "Angela Davis must go free ... Black people will be free. I've been locked up (for disturbing the peace in Detroit) and I know you got to disturb the peace when you can't get no peace. Jail is hell to be in. I'm going to see her free if there is any justice in our courts, not because I believe in communism, but because she's a Black woman and she wants freedom for Black people."[123] Her songs "Respect" and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" became anthems of these movements for social change.[124][125] Franklin and several other American icons declined to take part in performing at President Donald Trump's 2017 inauguration as a mass act of musical protest.[126]
Franklin was also a strong supporter of Native American rights.[127] She quietly and without fanfare supported Indigenous peoples' struggles worldwide, and numerous movements that supported Native American and First Nation cultural rights.[127]
Legacy and honors
Franklin received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1979, had her voice declared a Michigan "natural resource" in 1985,[198] and became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.[199] The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences awarded her a Grammy Legend Award in 1991, then the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1994. Franklin was a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1994, recipient of the National Medal of Arts in 1999, recipient of the American Academy of Achievement's Golden Plate Award presented by Awards Council member Coretta Scott King,[200][201][202] and was bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005 by then President George W. Bush.[25] She was inducted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame in 2005,[203] and the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2015.[204] Franklin became the second woman inducted to the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. She was the 2008 MusiCares Person of the Year, performing at the Grammys days later. In 2019 she was awarded a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation "[f]or her indelible contribution to American music and culture for more than five decades".[205] Franklin was the first individual woman to receive a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation.[206] At the beginning of her career, Siouxsie Sioux named her as her favourite female singer.[207]
In 2010 Franklin was ranked first on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time"[3] and ninth on their list of "100 Greatest Artists of All Time".[208] Following news of Franklin's surgery and recovery in February 2011, the Grammys ceremony paid tribute to the singer with a medley of her classics performed by Christina Aguilera, Florence Welch, Jennifer Hudson, Martina McBride, and Yolanda Adams.[209] That same year, she was ranked 19th among the Billboard Hot 100 All-Time top artists.[210][211]
When Rolling Stone listed the "Women in Rock: 50 Essential Albums" in 2002 and again 2012, it listed Franklin's 1967, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You, number one.[212] Inducted to the GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2012, Franklin was described as "the voice of the civil rights movement, the voice of black America".[213][214] Asteroid 249516 Aretha was named in her honor in 2014.[215] The next year, Billboard named her the greatest female R&B artist of all time.[216] In 2018, Franklin was inducted in to the Memphis Music Hall of Fame.
"American history wells up when Aretha sings", President Obama explained in response to her performance of "A Natural Woman" at the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors. "Nobody embodies more fully the connection between the African-American spiritual, the blues, R&B, rock and roll—the way that hardship and sorrow were transformed into something full of beauty and vitality and hope."[109] Franklin later recalled the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors as one of the best nights of her life.[109] On June 8, 2017, the City of Detroit honored Franklin's legacy by renaming a portion of Madison Street, between Brush and Witherell Streets, Aretha Franklin Way.[217] The Aretha Franklin Post Office Building was named in 2021, and is located at 12711 East Jefferson Avenue in Detroit, Michigan.[218]
Rolling Stone called Franklin "the greatest singer of her generation".[41]
In April 2021, Aretha Franklin was featured in National Geographic magazine and in the previous month, the society began airing the third season of the television series Genius about her life and career.[219][220] After working with the artist for nearly four decades, Clive Davis, said that Aretha "understood the essence of both language and melody and was able to take it to a place very few—if any—could". According to National Geographic, "she was a musical genius unmatched in her range, power, and soul".[220]
Honorary degrees
Franklin received honorary degrees from Harvard University and New York University in 2014,[221] as well as honorary doctorates in music from Princeton University, 2012;[222] Yale University, 2010;[223] Brown University, 2009;[224] the University of Pennsylvania, 2007;[225] Berklee College of Music, 2006;[226] the New England Conservatory of Music, 1997;[227] and the University of Michigan, 1987.[228] She was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by Case Western Reserve University 2011[229] and Wayne State University in 1990 and an honorary Doctor of Law degree by Bethune–Cookman University in 1975.[230]
Tributes
After Franklin's death, fans added unofficial tributes to two New York City Subway stations: the Franklin Street station in Manhattan, served by the 1 train, and the Franklin Avenue station in Brooklyn, served by the C and S trains. Both stations were originally named after other people. Although the fan tributes were later taken down, the subway system's operator, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, placed permanent black-and-white stickers with the word "Respect" next to the "Franklin" name signs in each station.[231][232]
During the American Music Awards on October 9, 2018, the show was closed by bringing Gladys Knight, Donnie McClurkin, Ledisi, Cece Winans, and Mary Mary together to pay tribute to Aretha Franklin. The "all-star" group performed gospel songs, including renditions from Franklin's 1972 album, Amazing Grace.[233][234]
A tribute concert, "Aretha! A Grammy Celebration for the Queen of Soul", was organized by CBS and the Recording Academy[235] on January 13, 2019, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. The concert included performances by Smokey Robinson, Janelle Monáe, Alicia Keys, John Legend, Kelly Clarkson, Celine Dion, Alessia Cara, Patti LaBelle, Jennifer Hudson, Chloe x Halle, H.E.R., SZA, Brandi Carlile, Yolanda Adams and Shirley Caesar,[236][237] and was recorded for television, airing on March 10.[238][239]
At the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, the ceremony was ended with a memorial tribute to the life and career of Franklin. The tribute concluded with a rendition of her 1968 hit, "A Natural Woman (You Make Me Feel Like)", performed by Fantasia Barrino-Taylor, Andra Day and Yolanda Adams.[240]
In June 2023, Aretha – A Love Letter to the Queen of Soul opened at Sydney Opera House before heading to Brisbane and Melbourne. Australian playwright, actor and screenwriter Jada Alberts directed and narrated the musical, which featured Emma Donovan, Montaigne, Thandi Phoenix, Thndo, and Ursula Yovich, along with a nine-piece band.[241]
Portrayals in media
On January 29, 2018, Gary Graff confirmed that Jennifer Hudson would play Franklin in an upcoming biopic.[242] Franklin's biopic Respect was released in August 2021 in various countries.[243][244]
On February 10, 2019, it was announced that the subject of the third season of the American National Geographic anthology television series Genius would be Franklin, in the "first-ever, definitive scripted miniseries on the life of the universally acclaimed Queen of Soul".[245] The season, starring Cynthia Erivo as Franklin, was aired in March 2021. However, Franklin's family denounced the series, claiming to be uninvolved with the production process, despite the production team stating that the series had been endorsed by the Franklin estate.[246]
Discography
Studio albums
- Aretha: With the Ray Bryant Combo (1961)
- The Electrifying Aretha Franklin (1962)
- The Tender, the Moving, the Swinging Aretha Franklin (1962)
- Laughing on the Outside (1963)
- Unforgettable: A Tribute to Dinah Washington (1964)
- Runnin' Out of Fools (1964)
- Yeah!!! (1965)
- Soul Sister (1966)
- Take It Like You Give It (1967)
- I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You (1967)
- Aretha Arrives (1967)
- Lady Soul (1968)
- Aretha Now (1968)
- Soul '69 (1969)
- Soft and Beautiful (1969)
- This Girl's in Love with You (1970)
- Spirit in the Dark (1970)
- Young, Gifted & Black (1972)
- Hey Now Hey (The Other Side of the Sky) (1973)
- Let Me in Your Life (1974)
- With Everything I Feel in Me (1974)
- You (1975)
- Sparkle (1976, soundtrack)
- Sweet Passion (1977)
- Almighty Fire (1978)
- La Diva (1979)
- Aretha (1980)
- Love All the Hurt Away (1981)
- Jump to It (1982)
- Get It Right (1983)
- Who's Zoomin' Who? (1985)
- Aretha (1986)
- Through the Storm (1989)
- What You See Is What You Sweat (1991)
- A Rose Is Still a Rose (1998)
- So Damn Happy (2003)
- This Christmas, Aretha (2008)
- Aretha: A Woman Falling Out of Love (2011)
- Aretha Franklin Sings the Great Diva Classics (2014)
Filmography
- Concerts, Specials, Appearances
- 1967–1982: The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson – Guest
- 1968: Aretha Franklin and The Sweet Inspirations in Concert
- 1968: The Hollywood Palace – Guest
- 1969: 41st Academy Awards – Performer
- 1970: This is Tom Jones – Guest
- 1970: It's Cliff Richard – Guest – BBC
- 1970: It's Lulu – Guest – BBC
- 1978: Dick Clark's Live Wednesday – Guest – ABC
- 1978: Aretha Franklin Live in Canada – ITV
- 1978: Kennedy Center Honors – CBS
- 1981–1985: Solid Gold – Performer – CBS
- 1982: It's Not Easy Bein' Me – Guest – NBC
- 1983: American Music Awards of 1983 – Performer/Host – ABC
- 1983: Midem '83 – Performer – TF1
- 1985: Soundstage – Performer – PBS
- 1986: American Music Awards of 1986 – Performer – ABC
- 1988: James Brown and Friends: Set Fire To The Soul – Performer – HBO
- 1990: Night of 100 Stars III – Performer – NBC
- 1991–1992: The Joan Rivers Show – Performer – HBO
- 1992: 23rd Annual Grammy Awards – Performer – CBS
- 1992: Kennedy Center Honors -Performer – CBS
- 1993: Evening at Pops – Performer – PBS
- Documentaries
- 1972: Black Rodeo (documentary)
- 1990: Listen Up: The Lives of Quincy Jones (documentary)
- 2003: Tom Dowd & the Language of Music (documentary)
- 2012: The Zen of Bennett (documentary)
- 2013: Muscle Shoals (documentary)
- 2018: Amazing Grace (documentary)
- As an actress
- 1972: Room 222 (as Inez Jackson)
- 1980: The Blues Brothers (as Mrs. Murphy)
- 1991: Murphy Brown (as Herself)
- 1997: The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue (as voice of Homebuilt Computer)
- 1998: Blues Brothers 2000 (as Mrs. Murphy)
See also
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/aretha-franklin-the-lady-soul-1942-2018-aretha-franklin-by-c-michael-bailey
Aretha Franklin, The Lady Soul: 1942 - 2018
AllAboutJazz
What it took to jettison Franklin into music hyperspace was Jerry Wexler, who knew everything that the larger Columbia Records did not. A month after the album's release, in April, Atlantic issued Franklin's cover of Otis Redding's "Respect," a searing performance like Jimi Hendrix's interpretation of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" and Joe Cocker's reading of the Beatle's "With a Little Help From My Friends," one that was destined to become the definitive statement of the song, superior to the original. In this, Aretha Franklin belongs to that rarified group of musicians able to fully assimilate a piece of music into their organic oeuvre: Ray Charles, Willie Nelson, Van Morrison, Prince. Singular. Absolute.
Breaking to the present. Yes. That's right, past 44 Grammy Award nominations and 18 Grammy Awards (when they really meant something). I am swerving around her distinction as the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1987); her Kennedy Center Honors (1994); her National Arts Medal (from President Bill Clinton -1999); her Presidential Medal of Freedom (From President George W. Bush—2005), all of that. I am thinking of the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors, who that year were paying tribute to George Lucas, Rita Moreno, Seiji Ozawa, Cicely Tyson, and ... Carole King.
While Carole King is an American Treasure, she is decidedly not Aretha Franklin. That is why it was a perfectly appropriate act of grace, graciousness, and humility that the greatest female singer of my lifetime come and honor the composer of "(You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman" with a performance of that very song that bound them inextricably together, before the most historic President and First Lady, again, of my lifetime and all of America, who she made better from her simple presence among us. That is who Aretha Franklin was. What she meant to America and the world cannot be naturally perceived. Her death, while inevitable, remains a staggering cultural blow to all.
Through some celestial pun, an example of the Divine's sense of humor, Franklin shares the date of her death with that of two other notable...no, not simply notable..., two other seismic cultural archetypes: blues singer Robert Johnson and the King, Elvis Presley. That makes this day something sacred and real, something devastating and supremely enduring. All honor Aretha Franklin.
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/17/639519163/all-the-things-you-are-aretha-franklin-life-in-jazz
All The Things You Are: Aretha's Life In Jazz
From
Aretha Franklin recording at Columbia Studios in 1962. Donaldson Collection/Getty Images
Aretha Franklin was about a month shy of her 20th birthday when she appeared for a week at The Village Gate in late February of 1962. She shared a bill there with pianist and composer Thelonious Monk, who like her was an indescribable talent — a genius, in the fullest sense of the word — recently signed to the roster of Columbia Records.
Franklin, who died Thursday at 76, solidified her unchallenged reign as the Queen of Soul elsewhere, on grander stages, typically with grittier musical backing. But she wasn't out of place at The Village Gate, nor really out of her element. For the previous couple of years she'd been working comparable rooms in New York with a swinging piano trio. Months later, that July, she'd sing with the Duke Ellington Orchestra at the Newport Jazz Festival.
Her Columbia output leaned into jazz as a signal of adult-pop sophistication, but also as an unforced affinity, less formative than the black church but just as inextricable, and maybe almost as deep. Jazz was central to her musicianship, however far she rambled. Without it we'd be remembering a different artist now, and celebrating a different body of work.
That Franklin isn't often understood in these terms has something to do with commercial reception. Her musical trajectory, in a typical bit of showbiz reductionism, often gets framed in prodigal terms: She was forged by gospel fires, and lost her way in songbook razzle-dazzle until leaving Columbia for Atlantic Records, where a stripped-down, soul-forward style reconnected her with her sanctified roots. And boom: Respect. (This tidy arc was reinforced for years by Atlantic's own Jerry Wexler, who had a vested interest in claiming the win.)
It's no slight at all to Franklin's incandescent work on Atlantic in the late '60s and early '70s — one of the all-time hot streaks in recorded music history — to recognize the glorious work she did earlier in her career. As Ann Powers put it in her eloquent tribute: "The beginning of Franklin's journey toward stardom, under the tutelage of John Hammond at Columbia Records, offers another set of lessons, this time in adaptability, elegance and craft."
On an even more basic level, Franklin was in some sense a jazz singer, even though that label captures neither the essence of her artistry nor the scope of her significance. In 1961 she was anointed "New-Star Female Vocalist" in the DownBeat critics poll, a measure of consensus for the jazz press. (She'd received 30 votes to Abbey Lincoln's 25.) "The dimly lit, smoke-filled jazz club was taking on the aspect of a revival tent," wrote Pete Welding in the accompanying profile, describing a Franklin performance almost as a kind of transubstantiation.
You're sure to read, in every good obituary of Franklin, that she grew up around jazz in Detroit. Still, it's hard to capture the extent of this contact in passing. The best resource we have outside the music itself is Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin, the 2014 biography by David Ritz, who'd previously collaborated with Franklin on her book Aretha: From These Roots.
Franklin took offense at Respect, which she pronounced "a trashy book." But through his interviews with members of her family, Ritz unearths invaluable insight about her musical moorings. Aretha's father, the Rev. C.L. Franklin, was a Detroit institution who was close to Dinah Washington, and many a night passed where jazz legends gathered around the family piano: Ellington, Oscar Peterson, Nat King Cole, even Art Tatum. So as a girl, Aretha had not only prodigious talent but also extraordinary access. Her jazz influences were close at hand, as a pianist as well as a vocalist.
Her older brother Cecil, who was close friends with Smokey Robinson, ran a barbershop out of the first-floor bathroom of their house. He took pride in the music he played in the shop: all the hip modern jazz of the day, from Mingus to Miles to Monk. Aretha would absorb it all.
As Cecil told Ritz, she also hunkered down alone with the hi-fi, for hours at a stretch. "That's where she first heard Sarah Vaughan," Cecil said. "But she didn't stop with Sarah. She studied Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Carmen McRae, Anita O'Day, June Christy, Dakota Staton — anyone I had on the box. She got to a point where she could imitate these singers, lick for lick."
Hammond, who had famously worked with Holiday, saw this potential when he signed Franklin to Columbia. It was no accident that her first album for the label, released in '61, was Aretha: With The Ray Bryant Combo — Bryant being an exceptional jazz pianist from Philadelphia, and the son of an ordained minister. Throughout that album, especially on a churchified track like "Won't Be Long," you can clearly hear the spark that would later be so celebrated.
Jazz singing, idiomatically speaking, would be a flickering constant on the albums that followed: While it may be true to suggest that Franklin hadn't yet found her lane, she was already very much driving her own car. Laughing on the Outside, released in 1963, opens with a spectacular reading of the Hoagy Carmichael standard "Skylark," set at a swaying tempo, with an inspired, jolting octave leap in the final pass of the verse.
In Ritz's book, Etta James recalls running into Vaughan, somewhere around this time. "Sarah said, 'Have you heard of this Aretha Franklin girl?' I said, 'You heard her do 'Skylark,' didn't you?' Sarah said, 'Yes, I did, and I'm never singing that song again.' "
There's some incredible footage of Franklin performing "Skylark" and other songbook fare, like "Lover Come Back to Me," on The Steve Allen Show in 1964. She's ostensibly there to promote her latest album, Unforgettable: A Tribute to Dinah Washington, but she doesn't do any of that material. What she does is riveting, bordering on sublime.
"As a jazz pianist myself, I recognized her jazz chops," Allen told Ritz. "They were tremendous. But I also saw that she had enough poise and experience to sing standards." Along with the compulsion to share Franklin's talent with the world, Allen had an ulterior motive: to get her to sing his tunes. (This happened in short order: Her 1965 album Yeah!!! opens with a Steve Allen joint, "This Could Be the Start of Something.")
Nor did Franklin leave jazz behind during her celebrated run on Atlantic. Right after Amazing Grace, the epochal double album often hailed as her consummate masterpiece, she enlisted producer Quincy Jones for Hey Now Hey (The Other Side of the Sky), a fascinating mixed bag of an album that includes an uptempo romp through "Moody's Mood for Love," the Eddie Jefferson vocalese of a James Moody ballad. (I saw Franklin perform this tune a decade ago at Radio City Music Hall, along with "My Funny Valentine" and Irving Berlin's "Easter Parade.")
Soul '69, released on Atlantic at the top of that year, features a stacked consortium of jazz musicians, working in an organic R&B mode. You wouldn't call it a jazz album, but you'd also be wrong to insist otherwise. Another anecdote from Respect: Carmen McRae recalls listening to Soul '69 at Vaughan's house, and fixating on "Crazy He Calls Me," a standout track:
It starts out slow, just Franklin and a trio. She takes her time. She sings it straight, but then she alters the lyrics when she sings, "I say I'll go through fire, yes, and I will kill fire." The kill is her invention and takes you to another place. You got Joe Zawinul playing organ behind her, Kenny Burrell giving her that soft gentle touch on guitar, and [saxophonist David] Fathead [Newman] whispering in her ear. You gotta compare it to Ella or Billie or Sarah to understand its greatness. She doesn't sing. She flies.
For jazz singers of the ensuing generation, like Dianne Reeves, Franklin loomed as a north star. But it wasn't just singers, and it wasn't just that generation. The fearsome pianist Cecil Taylor, another irreplaceable original who died this year, once told Robert Palmer of The New York Times that he'd learned a great deal from Franklin's music — "in terms of thrust, of how to make my piano playing more pointedly rhythmic and lighter."
Earlier this week I spoke with Aaron Cohen, a fellow jazz critic who also wrote a perceptive book about Amazing Grace. He reminded me that Franklin's relationship with jazz couldn't be separated from the other strands of her musical DNA. "She's held onto the whole idea that nothing is outside her grasp, especially within the American tradition," he said. "And it's so strong, that sense of jazz being America's music at the time she was coming up."
More than a few jazz musicians of our time have shared a stage with Franklin, in settings as unfussy as Baker's Keyboard Lounge and as exalted as The Kennedy Center. Two years ago I saw her perform at the White House, as part of the festivities around International Jazz Day. Part of what I remember is her tribute to Prince, who had died about a week earlier. Backed by jazz musicians, she sang "Purple Rain" — by which I mean she skipped right to the chorus, and made it feel like a sanctified refrain.
International Jazz Day 2016
But earlier, at the top of the program, she'd sat at the piano to perform Leon Russell's "A Song For You," backed by Herbie Hancock on keyboards, Christian McBride on bass and Brian Blade on drums. It turns out that this is the Franklin performance to remember from that evening.
"You are a friend of mine," she sang, redrawing the shape of the line, and making the most formal and public of presentations feel scarily intimate, like a soul-to-soul communication.
"And when my life is over / Remember when we were together / We were alone / And I was singing this song to you."
She repeated the last two lines in a tag, contracting and expanding the tempo in ways that evoked another line in the lyrics, about a love "where there's no space and time." There's no question, listening back now, that jazz is an essential part of the swirling magic that Franklin creates in that moment. But I can tell you truthfully that in the moment, among the assembled, that distinction was the furthest thing from anybody's mind.
Correction Aug. 20, 2018
A previous version of this story misidentified the person who ran into Sarah Vaughan as Carmen McRae — it was Etta James.
https://hancockinstitute.org/meet/aretha-franklin/
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin was an American icon whose profound impact can be heard in countless genres of music around the world. Her sound and style are woven into the fabric of contemporary culture, and singers and musicians around the world have embraced and passed on her tremendous influence.
Franklin’s achievements are voluminous: 45 top 40 hits and 20 GRAMMY Awards. She was honored with GRAMMY Legend and GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Awards, was recognized by Rolling Stone magazine as the Greatest Singer of All-Time, became the first female artist inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and performed at the inauguration for the first African-American President of the United States. She is truly a household name the world over. Such hits as “Respect,” “Baby, I Love You” and “Think” continue to move new generations of listeners and their vibrancy shows no signs of diminishing with time.
The essence of Franklin’s music was the blues, an art form closely connected with jazz. The African American experience informed her art in the same fashion it informed the architects of jazz. Franklin enjoyed a healthy relationship with jazz, beginning with her self-titled Columbia debut on which she recorded “Who Needs You,” a song written by Billie Holiday that Holiday never had the opportunity to record. Over the next several years she released a series of albums on Columbia that included performances of “Love For Sale,” “Misty,” “For All We Know” and dozens of other standards. Listeners who are unfamiliar with these recordings will hear Franklin with her unmistakable voice in full command of the music, accompanied by such stellar jazz musicians as Kenny Burrell, Milt Hinton, Ray Bryant and George Duvivier. Franklin eventually left Columbia and signed with Atlantic where she recorded her biggest hits and earned the Queen of Soul title. She later recorded another jazz album on Atlantic titled Soul 69, which featured jazz greats Ron Carter, Joe Zawinul and Grady Tate, among others. On all of these recordings Franklin accompanied herself on piano and surrounded herself with jazz musicians as well as musicians who approach reflected an intimate understanding of jazz.
Franklin was also a longtime champion of jazz and a passionate advocate for jazz education. Through her generous support, she provided Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz scholarships for aspiring jazz artists and funded public school jazz education programs across the United States. She performed as a featured part of numerous events benefiting the Institute, including an ABC network special celebrating America’s music where she delivered stellar performances of jazz classics “Skylark,” “How High the Moon” and “Mack the Knife.”
Monk Institute founder Maria Fisher came from the world of classical music but had an inherent understanding of the value of jazz to world culture. Her vision of creating an organization dedicated to preserving and promoting jazz resulted in the creation of the Thelonious Monk Institute and through it she has affected generations of aspiring jazz musicians. Franklin shared this understanding with Fisher and put her beliefs into action as a singer and supporter of this music. In recognition of her extraordinary talent and contributions to the perpetuation of jazz performance and education, the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz honored Aretha Franklin with the Maria Fisher Founders Award at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts during the 2011 International Jazz Competition and Gala. Former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell shared highlights of Franklin’s illustrious career and presented her with the award.
In Memory of Aretha Franklin
The world lost a legend today. And, the Institute lost one of its most beloved friends and loyal supporters.
For over two decades, Aretha Franklin has generously and graciously given her time and resources to the Institute by headlining concerts, participating in our Competition, appearing on our network television specials, and performing during International Jazz Day at the White House – because it was important to her that people of all ages recognize the values, significance, and impact that jazz has had and continues to have on the world.
We salute the Queen and thank Aretha for her invaluable gift of friendship, for her incomparable voice, and for her powerful messages that have lifted our collective spirits and soothed our souls.
Tom Carter
President, Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz
How Aretha Franklin’s Jazz Beginnings Predicted Her Genre-Transcending Career
The trappings are all there: the smattering of polite applause, the tinkling piano laying out the chord changes of a familiar tune — Erroll Garner’s “Misty,” in this case. But with the entrance of the singer, something shifts; suddenly the record isn’t jazz as usual. Aretha Franklin lands on an opening “Ooo” softly and steadily, holding the note for what from anyone else would be too long and letting it slowly expand and brighten before contracting into a perfectly even vibrato. The song’s actual first word, “Look,” goes from sung to spoken in milliseconds, becoming an standalone exhortation to the audience to sit up and pay attention.
Those first 30 seconds of the record offer an emotional wallop, and the three minutes that follow go higher and broader and deeper — the actual dimensions of the song seem to expand, and even then Franklin’s voice overflows into the margins. “Sarah [Vaughn] had sung ‘Misty’ — everyone had sung ‘Misty’ — but Erroll actually had tears in his eyes after hearing Aretha,” said Clyde Otis, producer of the album on which “Misty” appears, 1965’s Yeah!!! As he tells it in David Ritz’s Aretha Franklin biography Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin, Erroll Garner only had one critique: “Goddamn, she makes it seem like she wrote it.”
Maybe it was that sense of total reinvention that made the woman who would become the Queen of Soul feel like such an unlikely fit in jazz — despite her incredible command of the music. With her signing to Columbia in 1960, Franklin was transparently looking to cross over from religious music into superstar-caliber secular success; at 18, she was already positioned as an “ex-gospel star.” But despite her obvious gifts and prolific output during her years there, that success didn’t come until she left the label in large part due to their and her early conviction that the path of least resistance would be as a jazz singer. It was a decision that resulted in a hefty, too-often-overlooked catalog of beautifully sung standards that show not how Aretha actually belonged in jazz, but how early it was obvious to anyone paying attention that her music was beyond category.
“Aretha Franklin has a split personality — to jazz club audiences now hailing her as a new sensation, she’s got real feeling for the songs she sings; to gospel fans, she’s one of their own,” wrote the Pittsburgh Courier in 1961, in one of many early attempts to explain the then-19-year-old singer’s appeal. At that point, of course, the lines between jazz and pop were even blurrier than they are today; especially for vocalists, a few melodic flourishes and a stripped-down arrangement instead of lush strings were sometimes enough to give a singer jazz cred (and a much smaller, ostensibly more critical audience). Franklin, for her part, had long idolized Dinah Washington, an extraordinary artist whose hits and bombastic, luxuriant arrangements belied her jazz classification. Washington was among the jazz and gospel musicians who frequented the Franklin household thanks to Aretha’s father’s celebrity as a minister; Oscar Peterson, Duke Ellington, Clara Ward, and Mahalia Jackson also visited the house and performed songs on the living room piano.
When John Hammond, the producer so often
credited with the success of Billie Holiday and Count Basie — among
other jazz legends — came calling in 1960, giving him the reins seemed
like the obvious choice for Franklin and her father as they sought
respect from a mainstream audience. “Gospel singer Aretha Franklin has
been signed for Columbia by John Hammond and will record on the jazz
kick,” stated The Chicago Daily Defender in a September 1960
brief. “Hammond, the fellow who discovered the late Billie Holiday, is
gone, gone, gone on her,” relayed the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette a
few weeks later. Her New York debut would come later that same year at
storied jazz club the Village Vanguard — ”Former Gospel Singer Aretha
Franklin Scores with ‘Jazz,’” the papers brayed.
Holiday had died the year prior and there was no question that to Columbia, at least, Franklin looked like a possible heir apparent. Her first record for them, Aretha in Person With the Ray Bryant Combo, featured jazz arrangements courtesy of pianist Bryant, who Hammond had chosen specifically for his background in both gospel and jazz — but the song choices ranged from Duke Ellington to “Over The Rainbow.” If the album was thematically scattered, Franklin’s performances were uniformly excellent; this wound up describing most of her Columbia efforts. No one could get a handle on what exactly Aretha wanted to sound like. Jazz looked like the best fit because of her already preposterously high level of skill and consistently evocative execution, but her ambitions were obviously more stadium-scale than basement-club-sized. The pop tunes and arrangements scattered across her Columbia catalog didn’t sound bad, but they were certainly woefully inadequate vehicles for her talent — and never came close to making the commercial impact they were intended to.
So, jazz it was. In the early 1960s, Aretha played on bills with Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Art Blakey and Bill Evans at the Village Gate; Count Basie at the Apollo; Horace Silver at the Jazz Gallery; and Miles Davis at the Shrine in Los Angeles. She appeared with Duke Ellington’s band at the 1962 Newport Jazz Festival, just after winning both the “new star vocalist” award in the 1961 Downbeat Critic’s Poll (over Abbey Lincoln and Nina Simone, among others) and the 1961 Playboy Jazz Poll. She recorded with Wynton Kelly and Jimmy Cobb, alums from Miles Davis’ band, just after they’d laid down sides for Kind of Blue; she had pianist Tommy Flanagan and guitarist Kenny Burrell among her sidemen. The comparisons to Billie Holiday were almost instant: “Miss Franklin’s delivery has some of the same wild, fearless and positive qualities [as Holiday’s] … she has brought conviction and unaffected artistry,” wrote the New York Herald Tribune in 1961.
As it turned out, pinning down that thing that set her apart turned out to be a task best suited for Franklin herself. “I haven’t really made a switch in preference or in emphasis,” she told Cleveland’s Call and Post in 1961. “I’m merely doing what I’ve always wanted to do, and that is to give a bit of soulful and spiritual meaning to jazz tunes.” Still just 19, she clarified her genre-agnostic mission in a remarkably prescient editorial that same year called “From Gospel to Jazz Is Not Disrespect For the Lord!” in the New York Amsterdam News:
“I don’t think that in any manner I did the Lord a disservice when I made up my mind two years ago to switch over [from gospel]. After all, the blues is a music borne out of the slavery day sufferings of my people. Every song in the blues vein has a story to tell of love, frustrations and heartaches. I think that because true Democracy hasn’t overtaken us here that we as a people find the original blues songs still have meaning for us. I look around in the various cities I visit to find out who’s buying my Columbia albums and it’s usually the people in the crowded areas of the city. I guess my songs sort of go hand in hand with their everyday feelings. To forget the crowded conditions in which they dwell, debts, a girlfriend who maybe left them and the other worries that crowd their minds, they turn to song. It’s the kind of thinking that probably causes them to say, ‘Let someone else express the way I feel.’”
As became evident over the course of her career, jazz and pop alike were too small to contain Franklin’s era-defining sense of purpose. Even at the beginning of her career, her ability to draw from all branches of the blues in service of non-denominational uplift made genre terms and traditions and conventions futile — jazz just initially seemed like the best bet because flexibility and innovation are part of its DNA. “You can call her a pop singer, or a gospel singer, or a rock and roll singer, or a show singer, but you’ve got to call her a whale of a singer — even a new star,” wrote the Washington Post in 1961.
One thing the jazz-era Aretha critics and producers got right is that she’s one of just a handful of 20th-century artists who had as singular an impact on music as Billie Holiday. “She’s not Billie, but Billie’s not Aretha,” Clyde Otis concluded of the comparisons, also in Ritz’s biography. “Billie bleeds. In every song she dies a slow death. She’s like the dying swan in that ballet. Aretha works through the pain and comes out on top of it. Billie died young. Working with Aretha, I knew that, no matter what, she wasn’t gonna die young.”
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum will honor Aretha Franklin for the 16th Annual American Music Masters® series
CLEVELAND (August 23, 2011) – The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and Case Western Reserve University will honor Aretha Franklin, one of the greatest singers in popular music, during the 16th annual American Music Masters® series this November.
Lady Soul: The Life and Music of Aretha Franklin, a weeklong celebration, will tell the story of the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In conjunction with the Museum’s latest special exhibit, Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power, the Museum will honor Franklin’s work and her enduring influence.
“I’m thrilled and delighted to be honored by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for American Music Masters,” said Aretha Franklin. “I’m really looking forward to being there. I’m so happy about what Ahmet Ertegun and the Hall of Fame created. The exhibits are a must see.”
“All of us at the Museum are thrilled that Ms. Franklin will be receiving our American Music Masters award in the year where we are honoring Women Who Rock,” said Terry Stewart, President and CEO of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. “Not only has she long set the paradigm for vocalists and performers around the world, she has also been a great friend and supporter of the Rock Hall on so many of our exhibits and fundraising events. As such, the opportunity to now honor her for her impact on both music and popular culture is unprecedented.”
“Aretha Franklin’s work as a singer, songwriter, pianist, and arranger is unparalleled,” said Dr. Lauren Onkey, Vice President of Education and Public Programs and Executive Producer of the program. “Her vast catalog shows her mastery of gospel, soul, and pop music, and her singular piano playing defines soul music. We are honored to tell her story to a wide audience, including students.”
Each year, the American Music Masters® series explores the legacy of a pioneering rock and roll figure in a range of events that includes Museum exhibits, lectures, films, a major conference and a tribute concert benefiting the Rock Hall’s education programs. Drawing together experts, artists, fans and friends, these events provide new perspectives on the most beloved and influential musicians of the past century.
The tribute concert brings together a diverse mix of artists and musical styles, and as a result, many magical moments have taken place over the years. In 2004, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss performed onstage together for the first time to honor Lead Belly. The pair was awarded the highest honors of Album of the Year for Raising Sand and Record of the Year for "Please Read the Letter" at the 51st annual Grammy awards. Honoree Jerry Lee Lewis, who was not scheduled to perform at the 2007 concert, was moved to take the stage at the end of the show. Lewis tenderly played the piano and sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”. At the first American Music Masters tribute concert, Bruce Springsteen set the bar high and performed in honor of Woody Guthrie. The most star-studded and unique performance by a trio was Aretha Franklin, Solomon Burke and Elvis Costello paying tribute to Sam Cooke in 2005. In 2008, a 93-year-old Les Paul took the stage with his trio and then led an epic jam with some of rock and roll’s greatest guitarists, from Jennifer Batten to Slash. Janis Joplin was honored in 2009 by Grammy winner Lucinda Williams with a song she composed especially for the occasion, and in 2010, Dave Bartholomew brought down the house with a performance in tribute of honorees Fats Domino and Bartholomew himself.
About Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin is the “Queen of Soul” and the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She is a singer of great passion and control whose finest recordings define the term soul music in all its deep, expressive glory.
“I don’t think there’s anybody I have known who possesses an instrument like hers and who has such a thorough background in gospel, the blues and the essential black-music idiom,” noted Ahmet Ertegun, cofounder of Atlantic Records, where much of Franklin’s best work was done. “She is blessed with an extraordinary combination of remarkable urban sophistication and deep blues feeling....The result is maybe the greatest singer of our time.”
Born Aretha Louise Franklin in Memphis, Tennessee on March 25, 1942, her family moved to Detroit when she was two. She remains a Detroiter to this day, a proud product of that city’s wide-ranging and rich musical heritage.
Her professional career has had three dramatic turning points, one more exciting than the next.
The first was her move from gospel to secular. At 18, her progressive preacher father brought her to Columbia Records’ John Hammond, the man who had discovered and recorded Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday (and later Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen). At the largest label in the world—the home of Mahalia Jackson, Miles Davis, and Barbra Streisand—the plan was to turn Aretha into a teenage superstar singing standards and jazz. Those records—especially her 1963 tribute to Dinah Washington and the remarkable “Skylark” in the same year—remain classics. She performed in New York’s hippest jazz clubs with artists like Art Blakey and John Coltrane. Additionally, in conjunction with writer producer Clyde Otis, Aretha enjoyed a string of R&B hits: “Running Out of Fools,” “Soulville,” and “You’ll Lose A Good Thing.”
The second shift was seismic. In 1967, Aretha jumped from Columbia to Atlantic Records where Jerry Wexler became her producer. Everything changed; she suddenly rocked our musical world like no one else before or since. As Aretha wrote in From These Roots, her 1999 autobiography, “I felt a natural affinity for the Atlantic sound. Atlantic meant soul.” Aretha took soul to another level. Anchored at the piano, she also took a co-producer role in arranging both music and vocals. The result altered history. Starting with “I Never Loved A Man (the Way I Loved You),” she claimed ownership of the bestselling charts. Her “Respect” became a multi-dimensional anthem, a sound piece for the civil rights movement and rallying cry for all groups suffering neglect and discrimination. “Dr. Feelgood,” “Chain of Fools,” “Do Right Woman—Do Right Man”—Aretha defined the sixties. At the funeral for Dr. Martin Luther King, it was Aretha who led the nation in musical mourning. Her cultural iconography was permanently established, the recognition of her genius an established fact. She would wind up winning no less than 18 Grammys.
Of her work at Atlantic Records during that charmed period, Franklin offered these recollections in her autobiography: “Jerry [Wexler] handled all the technical aspects and made sure I put my personal stamp on these songs. Atlantic provided TLC – tender loving care – in a way that made me feel secure and comfortable....Putting me back on piano helped Aretha-ize the new music....The enthusiasm and camaraderie in the studio were terrific, like nothing I had experienced at Columbia. This new Aretha music was raw and real and so much more myself. I loved it!”
When critics remarked on Aretha’s return to church, she commented, “I never left church and never will. Church is my heart. Church is where I was born and where I live.”
The late seventies were challenging times for singers of the soul. Disco swept the country and knocked more than a few established stars off the charts. But Aretha, long the established Queen of Soul, maintained her crown with tenacious grace. While others fell away, she survived. By the start of the new decade, she found a new champion in music mogul Clive Davis. Her third turning point came in 1980 when she signed with Davis’ Arista.
What followed was a series of brilliant albums and singles. Aretha teamed with star producers Luther Vandross (“Jump to It”) and Narada Michael Walden (“Freeway of Love” and “Who’s Zooming Who.”) She sang hits duet with George Michael (“I Knew You Were Waiting [For Me])” and Elton John (“Through the Storm”). In 1987, she self-produced her second landmark gospel record, One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism.
Aretha was the musical highlight of Whoopi Goldberg’s film Jumpin’ Jack Flash, backed up by the Rolling Stones. And her appearances in both Blues Brothers films received universal acclaim.
The legend expanded in the nineties when Aretha’s “Rose Is Still A Rose,” penned and produced by Lauryn Hill, was named “soul hit of the decade” by the L.A. Times. Her appearance on MTV’s Divas Live, together with Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Gloria Estefan and Shania Twain, became another high point.
In 1987 Aretha became the very first woman to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Seven years later, she became the youngest artist to receive the Kennedy Centers Honor.
Perhaps the most thrilling moment of all came in 1998 at the 40th Grammy Awards at Radio City Music Hall. Before a worldwide audience of 1.5 billion, Aretha stepped in for an ailing Luciano Pavarotti at the last minute and interpreted Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma” to operatic perfection.
On December 17, 2008, then President-elect Barack Obama turned to the Queen to render her inimitable version of "My Country 'Tis Of Thee."
“If you look over the arc of her career,” said Jerry Wexler, “there is no American musical artist who has achieved her level of accomplishment. It has been one triumph after another.”
As a measure of her impact, Aretha Franklin has charted more Top Forty singles - forty-five in all, since 1961 - than any other female performer. To date she has made the R&B singles chart ninety-eight times, including twenty Number Ones. Franklin has also earned eighteen Grammy Awards, the most recent coming in 2007. In addition, she has sung at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton and received the Presidential Medal of Honor from President George W. Bush.
Franklin suffered some health issues in 2010, including broken ribs and a major surgery. However, she released a new album in 2011 (A Woman Falling Out of Love) and returned to live performing in better health and high spirits.
All along, the basis of Aretha Franklin’s success – and the essence of soul music - has been her ability to communicate. “Music is my way of communicating that part of me I can get out front and share,” she told Essence magazine in 1973. “It’s what I have to give; my way of saying, ‘Let’s find one another.’”
About the American Music Masters® Series
The American Music Masters® series, a co-production of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities at Case Western Reserve University, celebrates the lives and careers of artists who changed the shape and sound of American culture.
The American Music Masters® series began in 1996 when the museum paid tribute to Woody Guthrie with a 10-day celebration of his life and legacy. American Music Masters® series honorees have included: Jimmie Rodgers in 1997, Robert Johnson in 1998, Louis Jordan in 1999, Muddy Waters in 2000, Bessie Smith in 2001, Hank Williams in 2002, Buddy Holly in 2003, Lead Belly in 2004, Sam Cooke in 2005, Roy Orbison in 2006, Jerry Lee Lewis in 2007, Les Paul in 2008, Janis Joplin in 2009 and Fats Domino and Dave Bartholomew in 2010. Artists who have performed at American Music Masters® include Solomon Burke, Elvis Costello, Aretha Franklin, Chrissie Hynde, Dr. John, Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, Richie Sambora, Slash, Bruce Springsteen, Lucinda Williams and The Ventures.
About the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is the nonprofit organization that exists to educate visitors, fans and scholars from around the world about the history and continuing significance of rock and roll music. It carries out this mission both through its operation of a world-class museum that collects, preserves, exhibits and interprets this art form and through its library and archives as well as its educational programs.
The Museum is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. On Wednesdays (and Saturdays through Labor Day), the Museum is open until 9 p.m. Museum admission is $22 for adults, $18 for adult residents of Greater Cleveland, $17 for seniors (65+), $13 for youth (9-12), children under 8 and Museum Members are always free, for information or to join the membership program call 216. 515.8425. For general inquiries, please call 216.781.ROCK or visit www.rockhall.com. The Museum is generously funded by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.
The music that came to be known as soul took a while to develop with performers like Ray Charles, Jerry Butler, Curtis Mayfield, and Etta James all making contributions. One of the great mysteries of soul, though, is why it took Aretha Franklin so long to claim the spotlight. Rock historian Ed Ward has this look back at her hitless years.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, 'I TOLD YOU SO')
ARETHA FRANKLIN: (Singing) I hate to say I told you so, though you deserve it because you know you left me crying for someone new and all the heartache came back to you. Now you're begging me to take you back. I told you so. I told you. You were king...
ED WARD, BYLINE: Aretha Franklin made her first record when she was 14, singing some gospel standards in the church of her father, Reverend C.L. Franklin, an easygoing Detroit pastor who was friends with Martin Luther King and just about every gospel singer you could name. One of the stars who visited a lot was Sam Cooke, who convinced Aretha that she could be a hit singing popular music.
So in 1960, at the age of 18, she dropped out of school and, eventually, was signed to Columbia Records by its top talent scout, John Hammond. Hammond, who had discovered Count Basie and Billie Holiday, among others, saw her as a potential jazz star, and recorded her with a jazz trio led by Ray Bryant. She recorded jazz standards like "Rock a Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody," which was a minor pop hit in late 1961.
It's likely that she knew she should be doing other kinds of material, and apparently Columbia agreed, because they followed it up with this.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ROUGH LOVER")
FRANKLIN: (Singing) Now, listen here, girls. I'm going to tell you what I want right now. I want a rough lover. I want a man. I want a rough, tough lover and I'll find him if I can. He's got to bite nails, fight bears, and if I get sassy be a man who dares to shut me up and kiss me so I know he cares. I want a man.
WARD: It's hard to know where to start with this. A lot of the elements that were popular in the day's black pop are here, from the up-tempo rhythm to Franklin's soul-tinged delivery, but even in 1962, a song about wanting a rough lover was taboo.
This came out at approximately the same time as Phil Spector hurriedly withdrew The Crystals' "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)," after all. "Rough Lover" actually got to No. 94 on the pop charts for one week before vanishing. Columbia went back to recording albums of jazzier stuff, while occasionally trying to cross her over.
Part of the problem, though, was the label's insistence on using its own producers and engineers and studios, and apparently nobody at Columbia understood what they had in her. In 1963, for instance, someone named Robert Mersey tried for a hit with this.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOU'VE GOT HER")
FRANKLIN: (Singing) You've got her. So why not let me be? Let me be. You said she means nothing to you. Yet she's always by your side. Now, just what do you expect me to do? Just ignore it and be satisfied? Well, you've got her. So why not let me be? Let me be. I know, I know...
WARD: A little restraint in the arrangement might have saved this, but clearly somebody thought "You've Got Her" sounded a bit like gospel music. Aretha does her best, but too much goes wrong too soon. By 1964, Columbia was desperate.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE SHOOP-SHOOP SONG")
FRANKLIN: (Singing) Does he love me? I wanna know. How can I tell if he loves me so?
UNIDENTIFIED WOMEN: (Singing) Is it in his eyes?
FRANKLIN: (Singing) Oh, no. You'll be deceived.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMEN: (Singing) Is it in his sighs?
FRANKLIN: (Singing) No, no. He'll make believe. If you want to know if he loves you so, it's in his kiss.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMEN: (Singing) That's where it is. Oh, yeah. Oh, is it in his face?
FRANKLIN: (Singing) No, girls, that's just his charms.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMEN: (Singing) In his warm embrace?
FRANKLIN: (Singing) No, girls. That's just his arms. If you want to know if he loves you so, it's in his kiss.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMEN: (Singing) That's where it is.
FRANKLIN: (Singing) Yeah. It's in his kiss.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMEN: (Singing) That's where it is.
FRANKLIN: (Singing) Yeah. It's in his kiss.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMEN: (Singing) That's where it is. Oh...
WARD: For once, an inspired choice, a pared-down arrangement and a spirited vocal from Aretha, but Betty Everett had just had a hit with this song. Her version was every bit as good, and this wasn't a single but a track on an album that also had Aretha doing songs made famous by Dionne Warwick, Inez Foxx and Barbara Lynn. Something was still trying to break out, though, as this 1965 single shows.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HANDS OFF")
FRANKLIN: (Singing) Yeah. You better keep your hands off. You don't belong here. No. Keep your hands off of him. He don't belong to you. Say it, no. He's mine, all mine, no matter what you say you're gonna do. It don't mean a thing. Kind of tall and lanky, about six-foot-two. What he does for me, sweetie, he ain't gonna do for you. Keep your hands off...
WARD: By 1966, Columbia had lost $90,000 on Aretha and was offering her a deal she didn't like to re-sign. Across town, the folks at Atlantic Records were paying attention. What if they offered her the opportunity to write her own material, to play her piano with a little more gospel in it, use her sisters for backup vocalists and record at funkier studios? In January 1967, they went into the studio and began to find out.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I NEVER LOVED A MAN")
FRANKLIN: (Singing) You're no good, heartbreaker. You're a liar and you're a cheat. And I don't know why I let you do these things to me. My friends keep telling me that you ain't no good. Oh, but they don't know that I'd leave you if I could. I guess I'm uptight and I'm stuck like glue. 'Cause I ain't, I ain't never, I ain't never loved a man the way that I, I love you.
DAVIES: Ed Ward is FRESH AIR's rock historian. You can download podcasts of our show at freshair.npr.org. Follow us on Twitter at nprfreshair and on Tumblr at nprfreshair.tumblr.com.
A-R-E-T-H-A
by ROB HOERBURGER
July 8, 2011
New York Times Sunday Magazine
Slowly, well-wishers made their way to her. Tony Bennett, trailed by the record producer Phil Ramone, presented her with a drawing he’d done of her. Bette Midler, who is very short, and her husband, Martin von Haselberg, who seems very tall, did a walk-through in street clothes, stopping by Franklin’s table. Clive Davis, music-biz éminence grise, appeared long enough to be pelted with business cards and photo-op requests. Smokey Robinson, a friend of Franklin’s since their youth in Detroit, actually sat down for a spell. Also in attendance were the odd current A-listers (Gayle King, Wendy Williams) or just the odd guest period (the actor Michael Imperioli, who sat at a side table with his date).
Finally, after an hour or so, Franklin rose and walked over to the food stations, where she half-filled her own plate with lobster on blue-corn tortilla, smoked-salmon mousseline and baked ham made from her own recipe. She had plenty of company while she ate, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, but there were a few more moments when she sat strangely by herself, as if the guests, even some of her best friends, felt the need to dance gingerly around her. When her birthday cake, which almost filled a small table, was rolled out, the crowd parted again, and she made her way to it across the room, just as the D.J., who was spinning in between the live performers, played “Respect.” Franklin shimmied her shoulders and sang along for a few bars with her 24-year-old self as she got ready to blow out the candles. Not long after that, she and a retinue of six or eight processed out. It had been a long night and a long few months, and she looked tired, but also content, and ready for another spring.
“May I recommend something?” Aretha Franklin asked after we slid into a banquette in the side room of Jean Georges on Central Park West. “The shrimp-and-avocado salad. I’ve had it four times this week.” It was a warm day in early May, and we were meeting to talk about her first album of new material in almost eight years, “A Woman Falling Out of Love” — released on her own label and available, at least initially, only at Wal-Mart. (It came on the heels of “Take a Look,” a box set of her presuperstardom years, 11 CDs of gestating genius.) That she agreed to an interview was a bit of a surprise. Franklin has long had two great phobias: she has not been on a plane since 1983, when a rocky twin-engine experience made her realize, she said, “why the pope kisses the ground.” And she has been notoriously evasive of the press since a Time magazine cover article in 1968 suggested, at the very moment she was becoming a national icon, that she was also a battered woman, claiming that her husband at the time “roughed her up.” We were, in fact, supposed to meet earlier in the week; I got as far as the lobby of her hotel before she canceled (she later blamed a miscommunication with her publicist).
But now she arrived on time, in a navy-and-white-flecked light wool blazer, white top and leather skirt, still plus-size but in the lower rungs, and moving confidently in Jimmy Choos (like the ones she tripped and broke her toe on a few weeks ago). She introduced me to her security team — Mr. So-and-So, this is Mr. So-and-So — and she would throw up that filter of formality throughout our lunch if a question cut a little too close. I’d also been told beforehand that she would not discuss the nature of the medical procedure or anything reported in “The Queen of Soul,” an unauthorized biography by Mark Bego that, like most unauthorized biographies, sometimes presents its subject in less-than-flattering lights.
She ordered tea “with Splenda, lots of Splenda,” and we started talking about New York, the city where she spends most of her time outside her home city, Detroit — she will perform at Jones Beach on July 27 — and where she had her greatest recording glory. We were only steps away from the site of the old Atlantic Studios, where she recorded most of the torrent of hit singles in 1967-68 that included not just “Respect” but also “Chain of Fools,” “Think” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.”
“I first came here when I was a teenager in the ’50s with my dad,” she said, the word “dad” coming out with the same frisson of hard consonant and harmonic vowel that permeates her records. (Her father was the Rev. C. L. Franklin, one of the first celebrity charismatic preachers.) “You remember certain things about the city that aren’t here anymore. There was a great little steak place next to the Apollo where I’d go between shows to have my lunch and dinner.” Food joints, record stores, “knockout” men she ran into, these were the most immediate memories she conjured. One of those knockouts was Sam Cooke, the R&B and pop legend and lothario, whom she went to visit once at the Warwick Hotel. “There was another young lady, a name vocalist who had been visiting him prior to myself, and I saw her coming out of his room. To this day she insists it wasn’t her, but of course it was. I had a very clear view, but she insisted it wasn’t, because she was married. I was only visiting him as a friend. And we were sitting talking and laughing, and I went into the bathroom and happened to see a ring around the tub. I just could not believe it . . . to me he was above things like that. That was so common.” She giggled, but when the waitress appeared again to take our order, she shifted back into Queen of Soul mode, ignoring her.
Cooke was just one of many prominent, powerful men in whose presence Franklin has thrived, along with her father; the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (who, like Cooke, was sometimes a guest in the Franklin home); the record executives John Hammond, Jerry Wexler and Clive Davis; and most recently the president of the United States. Franklin performed “My Country ’Tis of Thee” at Obama’s inauguration, and for perhaps one of the few times in her life she was upstaged, not by another performer but by the impressionistic Luke Song hat she wore. (“The hat now has its own Facebook page,” Franklin said, as if giving a backhanded compliment to another diva.) She didn’t speak to Obama that day, but they met during his campaign at “an undisclosed location” with 10 other “notable people.” “You know what he said to me? ‘You look good.’ I was already beginning to lose weight, and it was an affirmation of all my efforts. And then he sang ‘Chain of Fools,’ and I thought, He’s really hip. Real down, and real up. And he’s got a walk like nobody else.”
Franklin has been married twice, the second of her marriages, to the actor Glynn Turman, ending in divorce in 1984, the same year her father died. (She has four sons, ranging in age from early 40s to mid-50s.) Her most recent busted romance was the inspiration for “A Woman Falling Out of Love.” “He was a younger man, though not so young that I’d be considered a cougar,” she said. “He was a man of very high principles and integrity.” I asked her what she meant by this — did he remember her birthday, always pick up the check, attend church with her? She wouldn’t be specific. “Just generally, a man of principles and integrity.” A “careless” comment, uttered by Franklin, ended it. “Falling out of love is like losing weight,” she said. “It’s a lot easier putting it on than taking it off.”
Sooner or later, almost everything we discussed came back to food, and it was clear that Franklin is as obsessed with it as she ever was, only now that obsession extends to how not to eat it. She said she has lost 85 pounds, through a combination of her mystery surgery and dieting. “I learned,” she said, “that I wouldn’t starve if I had one hot dog instead of two.” She took some advice from her former rival Natalie Cole about not eating after 6 p.m. “At first I thought she was crazy, but it works, it really works.” For exercise, she has a treadmill in her home and walks the aisles at Wal-Mart. “I love Wal-Mart,” she said, “and not just because my record is there. You can get some things there that you cannot find at Saks or Bergdorf’s or other upscale stores.”
The talk about her weight loss brought us to her surgery, though in the end all she would say was that it was a required procedure, that it was not “minor” and that when she knew she had to have it, she put out the call for prayer. The Rev. Jesse Jackson and Stevie Wonder, among others, flew to her side. “I was concerned,” she said, “but I wasn’t afraid. My faith in God is too great for that, and my family and close friends gave me great support, and here I am.”
And here again, one more time, was the waitress, who said that the kitchen would be closing soon. Franklin, as if trying to ward off all temptation of food, still did not look at her, but finally said, regally, “I’ll have a glass of orange juice.”
The recently released box set,“Take a Look,” compiles Franklin’s recordings between 1960 and 1966, from ages 18 to 24. It includes jazz, supper-club standards, silky soul, blues, “American Bandstand” pop and just about every other genre that existed in the early ’60s. If the sessions, recorded for Columbia, didn’t quite capture lightning in a bottle, they set the stage for “Respect” and the other sandblasting-soul tracks that followed. “Part of what makes her timeless is that her music is so personal,” says Michele Myers, a D.J. on the influential indie station KEXP in Seattle. Myers frequently mixes classic Franklin tracks in a set that might also include Adele, Spoon, LCD Soundsystem and Deerhunter. “She was into musical empowerment. She would refuse to sing any song about a man treating her badly over and over.” That’s not exactly true, but even in a song like her breakthrough Atlantic hit, “I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Loved You),” with its opening line, “You’re no good/Heartbreaker/You’re a liar/And you’re a cheat,” Franklin sings with such prowess that it’s impossible to hear her as a victim.
Franklin will not claim a favorite era of her career. Not the Columbia or Atlantic years, or the period she spent with Davis at Arista, where the results were sometimes schlocky (cheesy electro-pop duets) but still often sublime (playful comeback hits like “Jump to It” and “Freeway of Love”). “I’ve never recorded anything I didn’t like,” she said. “Well, maybe one time.” She wouldn’t say what that one song or album was. She says she has sung “Respect” thousands of times and hasn’t tired of it, and she acknowledged that the song has become “a national anthem.” It has also become a party dance-floor cliché, but its significance over the years cannot be overestimated: the song was a cultural document of the civil rights era, with loud reverberations for African-Americans, for women, for gays, for anyone, really, who felt neglect or subjugation. But when I asked her why the song had had such an impact, she just said, blithely, “I guess everybody just wanted a little respect.”
It was almost time for Franklin to leave for a fitting at Oscar de la Renta — new clothes for her new shape, and probably the kinds of things not available at Wal-Mart — but before she did, she said, suddenly animated, “We haven’t talked about the movie!” A film of her life story is in development, “with a huge budget, $50, $60 million,” she said. Denzel Washington has been mentioned as a possibility to play her father, Franklin said proudly, and she had imagined Halle Berry playing her, though Berry ultimately demurred because she can’t sing. “I never expected her to sing,” Franklin said. Jennifer Hudson and Fantasia have also been considered, and Franklin named them as modern singers she enjoyed. Where did she stand on Lady Gaga? “I liked her when she started, her choreography,” Franklin said, “but as she went along she got a little too far out . . . for my taste. I’m not knocking her. But it’s not a good idea to get up on a piano.”
About a week after our interview, on a Sunday afternoon, my cellphone rang. It was Franklin, who had thought of something else she wanted to discuss: the high-school dropout rate. There were some figures, she said she thought she’d read, that went as high as 50 percent; the hip-hop community needed to step up and tell kids to stay in school; those who did stay in school needed to be “lauded and applauded.” The issue seemed random, but it has great personal resonance for Franklin: she had told me that her only true regret was allowing one of her sons to quit school. (She herself dropped out to give birth to her first child in her midteens.)
After she exhausted the topic, she just wanted to chat. She was on her custom bus — her usual, nonairborne mode of traveling cross-country — on the way to Chicago to tape one of the final “Oprah” shows, and wanted to talk about the weather, literally. “What’s the temperature in New York?” she asked. After a few minutes of this, she got ready to sign off, and I told her to “break a leg.” “You take that back,” she snapped. “Take it back!” She explained that someone once said that to her and it actually happened.
Here is a woman who has fulfilled every professional expectation that has been had of her since she was a teenage prodigy in her father’s choir loft; a woman for whom the word “legend” can be applied without grade inflation. And yet she is also a woman who still gets lonely on a bus, who feels she has to keep secrets, who blushes when the president compliments her appearance, who’s still out there looking for love — and confident that she’ll find it.
During our lunch, I asked her who the love of her life was, wondering if it was one of her famous former beaus, like Dennis Edwards, the Temptation who was also the final performer at her birthday party. Franklin wrote one of her biggest hits, “Day Dreaming,” about him, and it contained one of her most poetic lines: “When he’s lonesome and feelin’ love-starved, I’ll be there to feed it.” At the party, Edwards sang, at Franklin’s request, “The Way We Were,” and she joined him for the line “Memories may be beautiful, and yet. . . .” It could have been a sticky moment, but their voices, though a little patchy, were still full of rumble and froth. “The love of my life?” she’d said to me, mockingly aghast. “I’m much too young to answer that question.”
A version of this article appeared in print on July 10, 2011, on page MM34 of the Sunday Magazine with the headline: A-R-E-T-H-A.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/aretha-franklin/biography
Biography
Franklin's material ranged from R&B numbers by Otis Redding ("Respect") to pop fare by Carole King and Gerry Goffin ("[You Make Me Feel Like] a Natural Woman") and Lennon and McCartney ("Eleanor Rigby"). She also recorded many of her own songs, cowritten with her first husband and then-manager Ted White ("Dr. Feelgood," "Since You've Been Gone [Sweet Sweet Baby]," "Think"), or her sister Carolyn ("Save Me" [with King Curtis]), who received solo songwriting credit for "Ain't No Way." Most of Franklin's Sixties sessions were recorded with the Muscle Shoals Sound Rhythm Section, who, after the first session, were imported to New York City, or with a band led by saxophonist King Curtis. Franklin herself was responsible for the vocal arrangements, whose gospel-style call-and-response choruses often featured her sister Carolyn as well as the Sweet Inspirations.
By 1968 Franklin reigned throughout America and Europe as "Lady Soul" — a symbol of black pride. She was presented an award by Martin Luther King Jr. (to whose cause her father had been a major financial supporter), and appeared on the cover of Time, the accompanying profile of which would be her last major interview for many years. As Time reported (and other sources have since concurred), Franklin's personal life was quite turbulent. Throughout her career, Franklin has remained an enigmatic figure, alternately outspoken and reclusive, and much of her personal life has been shrouded in secrecy. She had married White in 1961. She already had two sons, Clarence and Edward, born before her 17th birthday. With White, she gave birth to Teddy Jr., a guitarist in her band since the Eighties. Her marriage to White ended in 1969, by which time he had struck her in public on one occasion and shot her new production manager on another. Franklin herself was arrested in 1968 for reckless driving and again in 1969 for disorderly conduct. Also in 1969 her father was arrested for possession of marijuana. He hosted a controversial conference for a black separatist group that ended in a violent confrontation with Detroit police that left one officer dead and several other people wounded. During this time his daughter Aretha was rumored to be drinking heavily.
The hits continued (giving her more million-sellers than any other woman in recording history) – including "Don't Play That Song" (Number 11 pop, Number One R&B, 1970), "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (Number Six pop, Number One R&B, 1971), "Spanish Harlem" (Number Two pop, Number One R&B, 1971) and many more. In the early Seventies she gave birth to her fourth son, Kecalf, and in 1978 she married actor Glynn Turman. During this time Franklin seemed to be searching, sometimes aimlessly, for direction. But this period was not without its high points: Spirit in the Dark, Live at the Fillmore West, and Young, Gifted, and Black were all critically acclaimed. The pure gospel Amazing Gospel (recorded live in L.A. with her father officiating and the Reverend James Cleveland at the piano and conducting the choir) would be her final album with Wexler. During her last years with Atlantic she moved from producer to producer: Quincy Jones (Hey Now Hey), Curtis Mayfield (Sparkle, which included "Something He Can Feel," a 1992 Top Ten hit for En Vogue and Franklin's last Top 40 pop hit for nearly six years), Lamont Dozier (Sweet Passion), Van McCoy (La Diva). Her concerts became Las Vegas-style extravaganzas, and she soon established a reputation for her idiosyncratic (some would say ill-advised) costume choices. She also began showing signs of the unpredictability that would dog her career, particularly after a bad experience while flying resulted in a phobia that curtailed her touring.
In 1980 Franklin left Atlantic, signed with Arista, and positioned herself as the grande dame of pop. Her cameo appearance (she sang "Respect" and "Think") in The Blues Brothers movie that year has been cited as the beginning of a new phase. Her first two Arista albums were produced by Arif Mardin, and each included an old soul standard as well as glossier MOR material. "Love All the Hurt Away," a collaboration with George Benson, went to Number Six on the R&B chart in 1981. Her version of Sam and Dave's "Hold On, I'm Comin'" earned a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female. With the Luther Vandross-produced Jump to It, she reestablished herself as a hitmaker when the title tune reached Number One R&B and Number 24 pop in 1982. Vandross was also behind the board for Get It Right.
But the momentum of her commercial comeback was halted by a series of personal tragedies, beginning with the 1979 attack on her father, in which he was shot by burglars in his Detroit home. He began to recover from his injuries but then lapsed into a coma state from which he did not emerge before his death in 1984. In 1982 Franklin moved back to the Detroit area, where she still lives. Two years later, she and Turman divorced. The year after her father's death, Franklin came fully back into the public eye with Who's Zoomin' Who (Number 13, 1985), a Narada Michael Walden-produced work that spun off three hit singles: the Grammy-winning "Freeway of Love" (Number Three pop, Number One R&B, 1985), the title track (Number Seven pop, Number Two R&B, 1985), and a Top 20 duet with the Eurythmics, "Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves." The album, which included guest performances by Clarence Clemons, Dizzy Gillespie, Carlos Santana, Peter Wolf, and most of Tom Petty's Heartbreakers, as well as backing vocals by sister Carolyn and Sylvester, among others, became her highest-charting album since 1972. The hits' accompanying videos were heavily played on MTV, and Franklin found the pop crossover success that had once eluded her. Its followup, Aretha, included the Top 30 "Jimmy Lee" (Number Two R&B, 1986) and a version of "Jumpin' Jack Flash," produced by and featuring Keith Richards, as well as her Grammy-winning Number One duet with George Michael, "I Knew You Were Waiting (for Me)" (1987).
Subsequent albums were less popular. Her critically acclaimed One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism marked a return to gospel and featured Mavis Staples and the Reverend Jesse Jackson. It earned Franklin her 15th Grammy, for Best Female Soul Gospel Performance. Despite its hit title track (a duet with Elton John; Number 16 pop, Number 17 R&B, 1989), Through the Storm peaked at Number 55, and 1991's What You See Is What You Sweat made the lowest showing of any new album in her career. It contained a Number 13 R&B cover of Sly and the Family Stone's "Everyday People."
In 1987 Franklin became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The following year Franklin's sister Carolyn died of cancer; around the same period her brother and manager, Cecil, also died. She appeared with Frank Sinatra on his Duets album and in 1993 starred in her own television special, Duets, which featured her singing with a number of current pop stars, including Bonnie Raitt, Elton John, Smokey Robinson, George Michael, and Rod Stewart. She appeared at the inaugural celebration for President Bill Clinton, where her rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" (from Les Miserables) barely got more attention than her wearing a fur coat (for which she offered no apologies). "A Deeper Love" (Number 63 pop, Number 30 R&B, 1994), from the Sister Act 2 soundtrack, was written and produced by Robert Clivilles and David Cole of C + C Music Factory. "Willing to Forgive" was another Top 20 R&B hit that year. In 1994 Franklin received a Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement.
In 1996 Franklin signed a three-album deal with Arista for a reported $10 million. The next year, she was accepted into the Juilliard School of Music to study classical piano, and she recorded a new version of "Respect" for the movie Blues Brothers 2000, in which she reprised her role as a restaurant owner. She also formed a record label, World Class Records, primarily to release gospel music. In 1998 she delivered her 49th album, A Rose Is Still a Rose, a career-revitalizing collaboration with current stars such as the Fugees' Lauryn Hill and producers Sean Combs and Jermaine Dupri.
Franklin's highly anticipated autobiography,
Franklin's final Arista release was the 2007 duets collection Jewels in the Crown: All-Star Duets with the Queen, which put her back in the R&B Top Ten at Number Seven. It featured her performances with artists including Vandross, Frank Sinatra, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Gloria Estefan, Annie Lennox, George Michael, John Legend, American Idol star Fantasia, and Mary J. Blige. A Woman Falling Out of Love, Franklin's first album for her Aretha Records label, is slated for a 2010 release.
In 2004 Rolling Stone ranked Franklin ninth on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, behind acts such as the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and James Brown; four years later, she ranked number one on the magazine's 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. In 2005 President George W. Bush awarded Franklin The Presidential Medal of Freedom, and in 2009 she sang at the Obama Inauguration wearing a much-talked-about gray wool hat with a giant ribbon that was later put on display at the Smithsonian Institute.
Aretha Franklin sings National Anthem at Harvard Commencement 2014
American singer and musician Aretha Franklin, who received an honorary degree at Harvard University's 2014 Commencement, opened the Morning Exercises in Tercentenary Theatre with a rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" as she sang and played piano.
http://www.arethafranklin.net/us/news
The music that came to be known as soul took a while to develop with performers like Ray Charles, Jerry Butler, Curtis Mayfield, and Etta James all making contributions. One of the great mysteries of soul, though, is why it took Aretha Franklin so long to claim the spotlight. Rock historian Ed Ward has this look back at her hitless years.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, 'I TOLD YOU SO')
ARETHA FRANKLIN: (Singing) I hate to say I told you so, though you deserve it because you know you left me crying for someone new and all the heartache came back to you. Now you're begging me to take you back. I told you so. I told you. You were king...
ED WARD, BYLINE: Aretha Franklin made her first record when she was 14, singing some gospel standards in the church of her father, Reverend C.L. Franklin, an easygoing Detroit pastor who was friends with Martin Luther King and just about every gospel singer you could name. One of the stars who visited a lot was Sam Cooke, who convinced Aretha that she could be a hit singing popular music.
So in 1960, at the age of 18, she dropped out of school and, eventually, was signed to Columbia Records by its top talent scout, John Hammond. Hammond, who had discovered Count Basie and Billie Holiday, among others, saw her as a potential jazz star, and recorded her with a jazz trio led by Ray Bryant. She recorded jazz standards like "Rock a Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody," which was a minor pop hit in late 1961.
It's likely that she knew she should be doing other kinds of material, and apparently Columbia agreed, because they followed it up with this.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ROUGH LOVER")
FRANKLIN: (Singing) Now, listen here, girls. I'm going to tell you what I want right now. I want a rough lover. I want a man. I want a rough, tough lover and I'll find him if I can. He's got to bite nails, fight bears, and if I get sassy be a man who dares to shut me up and kiss me so I know he cares. I want a man.
WARD: It's hard to know where to start with this. A lot of the elements that were popular in the day's black pop are here, from the up-tempo rhythm to Franklin's soul-tinged delivery, but even in 1962, a song about wanting a rough lover was taboo.
This came out at approximately the same time as Phil Spector hurriedly withdrew The Crystals' "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)," after all. "Rough Lover" actually got to No. 94 on the pop charts for one week before vanishing. Columbia went back to recording albums of jazzier stuff, while occasionally trying to cross her over.
Part of the problem, though, was the label's insistence on using its own producers and engineers and studios, and apparently nobody at Columbia understood what they had in her. In 1963, for instance, someone named Robert Mersey tried for a hit with this.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOU'VE GOT HER")
FRANKLIN: (Singing) You've got her. So why not let me be? Let me be. You said she means nothing to you. Yet she's always by your side. Now, just what do you expect me to do? Just ignore it and be satisfied? Well, you've got her. So why not let me be? Let me be. I know, I know...
WARD: A little restraint in the arrangement might have saved this, but clearly somebody thought "You've Got Her" sounded a bit like gospel music. Aretha does her best, but too much goes wrong too soon. By 1964, Columbia was desperate.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE SHOOP-SHOOP SONG")
FRANKLIN: (Singing) Does he love me? I wanna know. How can I tell if he loves me so?
UNIDENTIFIED WOMEN: (Singing) Is it in his eyes?
FRANKLIN: (Singing) Oh, no. You'll be deceived.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMEN: (Singing) Is it in his sighs?
FRANKLIN: (Singing) No, no. He'll make believe. If you want to know if he loves you so, it's in his kiss.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMEN: (Singing) That's where it is. Oh, yeah. Oh, is it in his face?
FRANKLIN: (Singing) No, girls, that's just his charms.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMEN: (Singing) In his warm embrace?
FRANKLIN: (Singing) No, girls. That's just his arms. If you want to know if he loves you so, it's in his kiss.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMEN: (Singing) That's where it is.
FRANKLIN: (Singing) Yeah. It's in his kiss.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMEN: (Singing) That's where it is.
FRANKLIN: (Singing) Yeah. It's in his kiss.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMEN: (Singing) That's where it is. Oh...
WARD: For once, an inspired choice, a pared-down arrangement and a spirited vocal from Aretha, but Betty Everett had just had a hit with this song. Her version was every bit as good, and this wasn't a single but a track on an album that also had Aretha doing songs made famous by Dionne Warwick, Inez Foxx and Barbara Lynn. Something was still trying to break out, though, as this 1965 single shows.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HANDS OFF")
FRANKLIN: (Singing) Yeah. You better keep your hands off. You don't belong here. No. Keep your hands off of him. He don't belong to you. Say it, no. He's mine, all mine, no matter what you say you're gonna do. It don't mean a thing. Kind of tall and lanky, about six-foot-two. What he does for me, sweetie, he ain't gonna do for you. Keep your hands off...
WARD: By 1966, Columbia had lost $90,000 on Aretha and was offering her a deal she didn't like to re-sign. Across town, the folks at Atlantic Records were paying attention. What if they offered her the opportunity to write her own material, to play her piano with a little more gospel in it, use her sisters for backup vocalists and record at funkier studios? In January 1967, they went into the studio and began to find out.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I NEVER LOVED A MAN")
FRANKLIN: (Singing) You're no good, heartbreaker. You're a liar and you're a cheat. And I don't know why I let you do these things to me. My friends keep telling me that you ain't no good. Oh, but they don't know that I'd leave you if I could. I guess I'm uptight and I'm stuck like glue. 'Cause I ain't, I ain't never, I ain't never loved a man the way that I, I love you.
DAVIES: Ed Ward is FRESH AIR's rock historian. You can download podcasts of our show at freshair.npr.org. Follow us on Twitter at nprfreshair and on Tumblr at nprfreshair.tumblr.com.
A version of this article appeared in print on July 10, 2011, on page MM34 of the Sunday Magazine with the headline: A-R-E-T-H-A.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/aretha-franklin/biography
Biography
In 1966 she signed with Atlantic, and with the help of producer Jerry Wexler, arranger Arif Mardin, and engineer Tom Dowd, began to make the records that would reshape soul music. Her first session (and the only one recorded at Muscle Shoals, in Alabama) yielded "I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)" (Number Nine pop, Number One R&B, 1967) and heralded a phenomenal three years in which she sold in the millions with "Respect" (Number One pop and R&B, 1967), "Baby I Love You" (Number Four pop, Number One R&B, 1967), "Chain of Fools" (Number Two pop, Number One R&B, 1968), "Since You've Been Gone" (Number Five pop, Number One R&B, 1968) and nine other singles.
Franklin's material ranged from R&B numbers by Otis Redding ("Respect") to pop fare by Carole King and Gerry Goffin ("[You Make Me Feel Like] a Natural Woman") and Lennon and McCartney ("Eleanor Rigby"). She also recorded many of her own songs, cowritten with her first husband and then-manager Ted White ("Dr. Feelgood," "Since You've Been Gone [Sweet Sweet Baby]," "Think"), or her sister Carolyn ("Save Me" [with King Curtis]), who received solo songwriting credit for "Ain't No Way." Most of Franklin's Sixties sessions were recorded with the Muscle Shoals Sound Rhythm Section, who, after the first session, were imported to New York City, or with a band led by saxophonist King Curtis. Franklin herself was responsible for the vocal arrangements, whose gospel-style call-and-response choruses often featured her sister Carolyn as well as the Sweet Inspirations.
By 1968 Franklin reigned throughout America and Europe as "Lady Soul" — a symbol of black pride. She was presented an award by Martin Luther King Jr. (to whose cause her father had been a major financial supporter), and appeared on the cover of Time, the accompanying profile of which would be her last major interview for many years. As Time reported (and other sources have since concurred), Franklin's personal life was quite turbulent. Throughout her career, Franklin has remained an enigmatic figure, alternately outspoken and reclusive, and much of her personal life has been shrouded in secrecy. She had married White in 1961. She already had two sons, Clarence and Edward, born before her 17th birthday. With White, she gave birth to Teddy Jr., a guitarist in her band since the Eighties. Her marriage to White ended in 1969, by which time he had struck her in public on one occasion and shot her new production manager on another. Franklin herself was arrested in 1968 for reckless driving and again in 1969 for disorderly conduct. Also in 1969 her father was arrested for possession of marijuana. He hosted a controversial conference for a black separatist group that ended in a violent confrontation with Detroit police that left one officer dead and several other people wounded. During this time his daughter Aretha was rumored to be drinking heavily.
The hits continued (giving her more million-sellers than any other woman in recording history) – including "Don't Play That Song" (Number 11 pop, Number One R&B, 1970), "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (Number Six pop, Number One R&B, 1971), "Spanish Harlem" (Number Two pop, Number One R&B, 1971) and many more. In the early Seventies she gave birth to her fourth son, Kecalf, and in 1978 she married actor Glynn Turman. During this time Franklin seemed to be searching, sometimes aimlessly, for direction. But this period was not without its high points: Spirit in the Dark, Live at the Fillmore West, and Young, Gifted, and Black were all critically acclaimed. The pure gospel Amazing Gospel (recorded live in L.A. with her father officiating and the Reverend James Cleveland at the piano and conducting the choir) would be her final album with Wexler. During her last years with Atlantic she moved from producer to producer: Quincy Jones (Hey Now Hey), Curtis Mayfield (Sparkle, which included "Something He Can Feel," a 1992 Top Ten hit for En Vogue and Franklin's last Top 40 pop hit for nearly six years), Lamont Dozier (Sweet Passion), Van McCoy (La Diva). Her concerts became Las Vegas-style extravaganzas, and she soon established a reputation for her idiosyncratic (some would say ill-advised) costume choices. She also began showing signs of the unpredictability that would dog her career, particularly after a bad experience while flying resulted in a phobia that curtailed her touring.
In 1980 Franklin left Atlantic, signed with Arista, and positioned herself as the grande dame of pop. Her cameo appearance (she sang "Respect" and "Think") in The Blues Brothers movie that year has been cited as the beginning of a new phase. Her first two Arista albums were produced by Arif Mardin, and each included an old soul standard as well as glossier MOR material. "Love All the Hurt Away," a collaboration with George Benson, went to Number Six on the R&B chart in 1981. Her version of Sam and Dave's "Hold On, I'm Comin'" earned a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female. With the Luther Vandross-produced Jump to It, she reestablished herself as a hitmaker when the title tune reached Number One R&B and Number 24 pop in 1982. Vandross was also behind the board for Get It Right.
But the momentum of her commercial comeback was halted by a series of personal tragedies, beginning with the 1979 attack on her father, in which he was shot by burglars in his Detroit home. He began to recover from his injuries but then lapsed into a coma state from which he did not emerge before his death in 1984. In 1982 Franklin moved back to the Detroit area, where she still lives. Two years later, she and Turman divorced. The year after her father's death, Franklin came fully back into the public eye with Who's Zoomin' Who (Number 13, 1985), a Narada Michael Walden-produced work that spun off three hit singles: the Grammy-winning "Freeway of Love" (Number Three pop, Number One R&B, 1985), the title track (Number Seven pop, Number Two R&B, 1985), and a Top 20 duet with the Eurythmics, "Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves." The album, which included guest performances by Clarence Clemons, Dizzy Gillespie, Carlos Santana, Peter Wolf, and most of Tom Petty's Heartbreakers, as well as backing vocals by sister Carolyn and Sylvester, among others, became her highest-charting album since 1972. The hits' accompanying videos were heavily played on MTV, and Franklin found the pop crossover success that had once eluded her. Its followup, Aretha, included the Top 30 "Jimmy Lee" (Number Two R&B, 1986) and a version of "Jumpin' Jack Flash," produced by and featuring Keith Richards, as well as her Grammy-winning Number One duet with George Michael, "I Knew You Were Waiting (for Me)" (1987).
Subsequent albums were less popular. Her critically acclaimed One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism marked a return to gospel and featured Mavis Staples and the Reverend Jesse Jackson. It earned Franklin her 15th Grammy, for Best Female Soul Gospel Performance. Despite its hit title track (a duet with Elton John; Number 16 pop, Number 17 R&B, 1989), Through the Storm peaked at Number 55, and 1991's What You See Is What You Sweat made the lowest showing of any new album in her career. It contained a Number 13 R&B cover of Sly and the Family Stone's "Everyday People."
In 1987 Franklin became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The following year Franklin's sister Carolyn died of cancer; around the same period her brother and manager, Cecil, also died. She appeared with Frank Sinatra on his Duets album and in 1993 starred in her own television special, Duets, which featured her singing with a number of current pop stars, including Bonnie Raitt, Elton John, Smokey Robinson, George Michael, and Rod Stewart. She appeared at the inaugural celebration for President Bill Clinton, where her rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" (from Les Miserables) barely got more attention than her wearing a fur coat (for which she offered no apologies). "A Deeper Love" (Number 63 pop, Number 30 R&B, 1994), from the Sister Act 2 soundtrack, was written and produced by Robert Clivilles and David Cole of C + C Music Factory. "Willing to Forgive" was another Top 20 R&B hit that year. In 1994 Franklin received a Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement.
In 1996 Franklin signed a three-album deal with Arista for a reported $10 million. The next year, she was accepted into the Juilliard School of Music to study classical piano, and she recorded a new version of "Respect" for the movie Blues Brothers 2000, in which she reprised her role as a restaurant owner. She also formed a record label, World Class Records, primarily to release gospel music. In 1998 she delivered her 49th album, A Rose Is Still a Rose, a career-revitalizing collaboration with current stars such as the Fugees' Lauryn Hill and producers Sean Combs and Jermaine Dupri.
Franklin's highly anticipated autobiography, Aretha: From These Roots (written with David Ritzhttp://pagesix.com/2014/11/11/aretha-franklin-to-sue-writer-over-unauthorized-biography/), was released in 1999. She then entered the new century by selecting, with the White House Millennium Council, "Respect" to be included in a time capsule to preserve significant cultural achievements for future generations. Franklin has recorded sporadically in the 2000s, releasing 2003's So Damn Happy and then parting ways with Arista to start her own Aretha Records label.
Franklin's final Arista release was the 2007 duets collection Jewels in the Crown: All-Star Duets with the Queen, which put her back in the R&B Top Ten at Number Seven. It featured her performances with artists including Vandross, Frank Sinatra, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Gloria Estefan, Annie Lennox, George Michael, John Legend, American Idol star Fantasia, and Mary J. Blige. A Woman Falling Out of Love, Franklin's first album for her Aretha Records label, is slated for a 2010 release.
In 2004 Rolling Stone ranked Franklin ninth on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, behind acts such as the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and James Brown; four years later, she ranked number one on the magazine's 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. In 2005 President George W. Bush awarded Franklin The Presidential Medal of Freedom, and in 2009 she sang at the Obama Inauguration wearing a much-talked-about gray wool hat with a giant ribbon that was later put on display at the Smithsonian Institute.
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Portions of this biography appeared in The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001). Mark Kemp contributed to this article.
« Morgana King: 1930-2018 | Main | Aretha, Bob and Terry
August 17, 2018
Aretha Franklin (1942-2018)
Aretha
Franklin, long considered the “Queen of Soul” and one of America's most
emotional and spiritual interpreters of pop, jazz and soul songs, died
on Thursday at her home in Detroit. She was 76. The cause was advanced
pancreatic cancer.
My Franklin obituary and appreciation for The Wall Street Journal can be found here.
Yesterday, I spoke by phone with singer-songwriter Valerie Simpson
about her feelings for Franklin. Valerie, who began in New York as a
gospel singer and crossed over to secular recording, wrote many of
soul's most important songs with her husband Nickolas Ashford:
"There
was a purity to Aretha’s voice that was natural. She was a pure singer
without a riff or a gimmick, just a great tone and delivery. She came
from the church, where you sing from your soul to God. That translated
to all of the songs she sang. There was no genre she couldn’t touch with
her special feeling.
"She covered several of my songs with Nick, including Reach Out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand), You’re All I Need to Get By, Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing, I’m Every Woman and Ain’t No Mountain High Enough. She transformed those songs by putting her stamp on them.
"That
was her gift. She was an original and had an expression and a way of
phrasing notes that was all her own. She’d sit at the piano and come up
with what she wanted to say on songs we thought we had already heard the
final word on. She would show us one more time that a song could go
deeper and soar higher.
"Aretha
isn’t dead. There’s too much of her music here for that. Her presence
will never be diminished or forgotten. There’s nobody left to fill her
spiritual, soulful space."
Valerie (above, courtesy of Valerie Simpson) choked me up. As for Aretha, this video
(42 minutes) is all you need to watch to learn everything you need to
know about her and what made her special. It's a Dutch performance
documentary on her concert with the Sweet Inspirations at Amstetrdam's
Concertgebouw in April 1968...
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Aretha Franklin's underrated songwriting
Anthony Mason spoke with Aretha Franklin on the apparent lack of attention given to the soul singer's talent for writing original music.
https://www.wmot.org/roots-radio-news/2018-08-16/from-gospel-through-jazz-aretha-franklin-became-americas-queen-of-soul
From Gospel, Through Jazz, Aretha Franklin Became America's Queen of Soul
Aretha Franklin, renowned
worldwide as the Queen of Soul and the greatest vocalist in Amercan
music, has died, leaving a legacy that spans the art form, from its
deepest roots to its most stylish pop branches. WMOT grieves with the
nation and the world over this profound loss. Here you may read NPR's
obituary and an appreciation by our music journalist Craig Havighurst.
Back
what seems like a lifetime ago in 2015, when the United States had a
president who celebrated American music and the humanities, Aretha
Franklin took the stage at the Kennedy Center Honors to recognize her
friend, songwriter Carole King. Franklin's performance of “You Make Me
Feel Like A Natural Woman,” which is memorialized in a must-see YouTube clip,
was profound and moving, regal and sublime. The great soul diva entered
in her signature mink coat but surprised the hall by sitting at the
piano and accompanying herself with church house chords. Franklin’s
voice was perfect. Years fell away. Ms. King was beside herself with joy
and nostalgia and visceral excitement. Barack Obama wiped away tears.
SEE NPR'S OBITUARY OF ARETHA FRANKLIN HERE.
And so do we all today, upon learning of the death of Aretha Louise Franklin at age 76. Hers was the voice that’s moved and bewildered millions with its depth of texture and flawless gymnastic execution. Hers is the one voice with which every singer of popular song since the 1960s has had to reckon with as a benchmark and integrate as an influence.
And besides its technical perfection and yearning emotion, Franklin deployed that voice to animate material that celebrated our best graces and challenged our most pernicious social disorders. In “Think,” with its chanting refrain of “freedom,” she and her then husband/manager Ted White wrote lines that resonated as clearly with 1968 as with today: “People walking around everyday/Playing games, taking score/Trying to make other people lose their minds/Ah, be careful you don't lose yours.” And she literally spelled out the most basic demand of both the women’s movement and the civil rights movement when she embellished Otis Redding’s original lyrics with “R-E-S-P-E-C-T” and took the song to the top of the charts.
Franklin was born in Memphis in 1942. Her family’s tiny house (today precariously protected from demolition by a chain link fence put up by a local arts philanthropist) stands just a few blocks from where Stax Records would set up shop a couple of decades later. But she’d make a circuitous journey back to that neighborhood and that game changing studio, because preachers tend to move a lot. And that’s what her father did. Rev. C.L. Franklin relocated his family to Buffalo, NY and then to Detroit, where Aretha grew up surrounded by gospel music. Mahalia Jackson was one of her early caretakers.
As a teenager, Franklin became enamored with singer Sam Cooke, whose enthralling voice and career trajectory encouraged her to ask her father to support her singing efforts outside the church in popular music. The reverend did so, a pivotal and no doubt controversial decision that helped consecrate the historic marriage between the passion of gospel and the down-to-earth concerns and grooves of rhythm & blues.
For fans accustomed to hearing her late 60s Atlantic Records hits endlessly cycled on oldies radio, Franklin’s early major label projects will sound surprisingly smooth. Columbia Records star talent scout John Hammond heard her first at New York’s Village Vanguard and signed her in the spirit of Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. She was, in short, a jazz singer. Her early 60s records (all stunning by the way) swing with strings and big band flourishes as she sings standards like “Skylark,” “You Made Me Love You” and “That Lucky Old Sun” over nine albums.
The contrast between Franklin’s final Columbia album and her first Atlantic project, both released in 1967, is shocking. I Never Loved A Man The Way That I Love You, produced by Jerry Wexler and recorded at Fame Studio in Muscle Shoals, starts with “Respect” and includes “Do Right Woman - Do Right Man” and “A Change Is Gonna Come” besides its famous title track. The album was her true commercial breakthrough, her first #1 R&B album. It would turbocharge the most consequential career by a woman in soul or rock and roll and end up in Rolling Stone’s Top 100 albums of all time.
In keeping with the spirit of her musical age, Franklin interpreted songs from across the musical spectrum. The Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” was a hit for her. She cut “Eleanor Rigby,” “The Weight,” “Gentle On My Mind,” and a magnificent “Bridge Over Troubled Water” that earned one of her eight consecutive Grammy Awards for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. And even as the peculiar, MTV-driven 1980s unfolded, Franklin hung in with the times, recording material that would prove influential to modern R&B and hip hop.
In recent decades, accolades and honors piled up as for no other woman in American music history. Aretha was the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. Her Lifetime Achievement Grammy came in 1994, the same year she was herself a Kennedy Center honoree. She was twice named as the greatest singer of all time on Rolling Stone lists.
But perhaps the apex of mutual respect and love between Aretha and the America she elevated and ennobled came at the 2009 inauguration of President Obama. She sang “My Country Tis Of Thee” from the steps of the Capitol to the largest crowd ever to witness an inaugural, period. She offered up the first and fourth verses, emphasizing the country’s heritage and faith. Yet she conjured, then as always, the spirit of the third verse, which includes the lines: “Let music swell the breeze/And ring from all the trees /Sweet freedom's song.”
Aretha Franklin MY COUNTRY 'TIS OF THEE Inauguration Day 2009:
Aretha Franklin - "I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You"+ 30 Greatest Hits:
"I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You" is the breakthrough album by Aretha Franklin, released on March 10, 1967. It established Franklin as a superstar and a major force in the recording industry. The album, along with her signature song, "Respect", were chart-topping hits upon their initial release:
Aretha Franklin - "I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You"
News
Wynton Marsalis on Aretha Franklin’s All-Caps Emails and ‘Healing’ Voice
In the wake of Aretha Franklin’s death from pancreatic cancer at age 76 on August 16, Wynton Marsalis, managing and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, writes in an exclusive essay for Billboard about Franklin’s encyclopedic knowledge of jazz, her timeless music and the hilarious all-caps emails she’d send friends.
I first met Ms. Franklin in the late ‘80s and was so excited, I had to slap myself back to reality. Afterward, I called my momma and told her. She said, “Boy, I hope you remembered your manners and didn’t act like a fool in front of that lady.” I called Ms. Franklin ma’am so many times, she asked me if I was alright. I told her that I had listened to recordings of her father’s preaching. She was surprised, but she passed over that to talk about all of the jazz musicians she knew growing up. A roll call of greats came tumbling out with funny personal anecdotes for each name, from obscure figures like John Kirby to famous legends like Art Tatum, connecting everyone and everything.
For us, growing up on the black side of Kenner, Louisiana, in the ‘60s and early ‘70s, she was more than a music star. We perceived her to be a stalwart hero in the struggle for American civil rights alongside strong, no-nonsense people like Fannie Lou Hamer and Barbara Jordan. I can vividly recall my momma and her friends loving Ms. Franklin’s sound with an excruciating intensity. They could never decide whether to sing with her or co-sign her, as if in church. So they did both, interrupting the sing-along with “Sing, baby. Talk about it, girl! Tell it!” You could see and feel the healing as her sound got all up inside ‘em, inspiring a timeless moment of cathartic joy and starkly illuminating difficult lives that were troubled with so many sorrows.
As the ‘70s gave way to the ‘80s, different styles of music became more popular, and our country slowly eased away from the promises of the civil rights movement. Still, she was out here, hovering overhead like a Goddess in some Pantheon, able to trap us when we left the beaten path in an ambrosial web of soul. With the passage of time, you understood that Aretha Franklin represented a depth of human engagement not relegated to a given time and space. Her sound itself became unyielding triumph over the blues of life that scar and strengthen us all.
In 2012, we were scheduled to do a concert with her. She and I ended up talking about all kinds of musical things. She told stories the same way she sang, with a piercing knowingness. Ms. Franklin had a habit of emailing the continuation of phone conversations ALL IN CAPS. First, a warm salutation. Then, her personal and professional relationships intertwined as she delivered so much history in an original and conversational manner. On the phone, I once asked her about the great gospel singers Albertina Walker and Dorothy Love of the ‘50s. Later she emailed: DORTHY LOVE WAS CALLED DOT LOVE. SHE WAS COMPETITIVE WITH ALBERTINA WALKER FOR THE LEAD OF THE WORLD FAMOUS CARAVANS OUT OF CHICAGO. WHEN I WAS 13, ALBERTINA AND I TRAVELED WITH MY DAD TO SEE THE CARAVANS. DOT WAS OUT OF BIRMINGHAM, ALA. THEY WERE 2 PEOPLE IN GOSPEL WHO HAD LITTLE TO NO VOICE, BUT SO MUCH SPIRIT AND SAVOIR FAIRE, THEY COULD WRECK A HOUSE!!!
She would refer to jazz musicians of all eras, from Count Basie to Mulgrew Miller, and might touch on anything from a friend of hers dating John Coltrane to Miles Davis stealing her bass player: “LISTENING TO COLTRANE LAST EVE, DON’T YOU LOVE WHAT HE DID WITH MY FAV THINGS! I SPENT MONTHS AT A TIME WITH HIM AT THE VILLAGE GATE, AND ART BLAKEY, HORACE SILVER, FREDDIE HUBBARD, JUNIOR MANCE ETC!!!…..
And she loved the piano: HAVE YOU EVER HEARD DORTHY DONEGAN ? (PIANIST) AND GENIUS. MY FATHER WANTED TO SEE IF I COULD, AT 15, EMULATE HER ON PIANO!!!! SHE AND OSCAR PETERSON AND ART TATUM WERE GUEST IN OUR HOME. EVERY TIME ART CAME TO TOWN, HE WENT TO OUR CHURCH ON SUNDAYS AFTER HIS SAT PERFORMANCE!!!
She had an extra-human way of expressing things with strong punctuations, reminiscent of Louis Armstrong: COLTRANE AND THE FELLAS USED TO ALL BE IN THIS SMOKE FILLED ROOM AFTER THEIR SET AND THIS YOUNG GIRL (ME) WOULD HAVE TO COME THRU THEIR DRESSING ROOM TO GET TO MINE. THEY WOULD BE LOUD ……….UNTIL I CAME IN. THEN…EVERYBODY GOT QUIET, NEVER SAID ANYTHING. ALWAYS GENTLEMAN! RIGHT THRU THE MIDDLE OF THEIR DRESSING ROOM. HAHA HAHA !!!!!! OH BACK IN THE DAY!!!! THERE’S A MILLION STORIES WYNTON !
She was aspirational, once saying, “I don’t only sing what I know, I sing what I want to know. I don’t only sing what is true, I sing what I want to be true, and maybe me singing it will make it be true.“ And she was the definition of soul, always doing her best to make you feel better even when signing off: OK, WYNTON TAKE GOOD CARE!! LOVE YOU MUCH. I AM COOKING OX TAIL SOUP TODAY FOR THE CHURCH. I’M OFF. And she was, ‘til the next time.
Wynton Marsalis
Source: Billboard
Posted on August 22nd, 2018 in Profiles & Interviews | Tags: aretha franklin, billboard