(March 25, 1942- August 16, 2018)
As the consummate soul singer of the Sixties
(and beyond), Aretha fused a unique approach to gospel music, a style which she
grew up on, with her own brand of soul, eventually becoming a sensational (and
sometimes sensual) R & B artist. Over the decades her music crossed borders
into other genres of pop music and finessed into her unique style. Even by 1967,
when she made over a dozen different, million-selling records before the next
decade, her song lists showcased a distinct musical maturation and diversity
which wouldn’t have made sense for any other soul singer. For the times, her financial
success was unprecedented and even now she is still the best-selling musical
artist ever, with over 75 million records sold worldwide. Aretha
progressed into pop mainstream over the airwaves with continued success
throughout the Seventies, despite strong competition, and continued to be a
commercial success by scoring hits well into the Eighties. By that time her
style and vocal sound had become instantly recognizable. While going through
her lists of song titles I discovered only one- the ethereal Day Dreaming !- which brought out some
other unrecognizable voice that I would never have associated with her. I don’t
remember who I thought it was but it blew me away to think she could whisper a
song that lingered in my childhood memories. Aretha had a broad appeal for many
people!
Her
entire life revolved around music and she began her career very young as a
gospel singer along with her father, Clarence LeVaughn Franklin, who led the
way as a pastor of a Detroit
church which boasted thousands of members. The New Bethel Baptist Church
was famous, being nationally known, and the music it propelled included
Aretha’s mother, Barbara and both of Aretha’s sisters, Carolyn and Erma. (Erma,
born 1939, and Carolyn, born 1945, had been professional singers as long- or
longer- than Aretha but only Carolyn gained a bit more success than Erma and on
a much smaller scale than Aretha, of course.) By the time Aretha was 14 she was
touring the gospel circuit with her father and had already recorded much of her
early gospel solo song list- singing and playing the piano! During this time
she was introduced to and became good friends with others in the gospel circuit
such as Clara Ward, Mahalia Jackson, Jackie Wilson, James Cleveland and Sam
Cooke all of whom were close friends with her father. She occasionally toured
with The Soul Stirrers. I imagine that many of these well-known musical artists
took Aretha under their wings because of the brokenness of her family. Barbara
abandoned her marriage by the time Aretha had turned six years old and died
four years later, two and half weeks before Aretha’s tenth birthday. Clarence
ended up raising three daughters, more or less on his own, which was a tall
order for a man committed to the church.
Aretha turned 18 in 1960 and made the
decision to cross over into secular music which must have created a bit of an
uproar in the church. It would not have been taken lightly by her father, under
the usual circumstances. Before signing any recording contract Sam Cooke tried
to persuade Aretha’s father to sign her with his label RCA but his request was
turned down. Even Berry Gordy approached both
Aretha and her elder sister Erma to his
label Tamla but Clarence didn’t think Gordy was established well enough and turned him down flat as well.
Aretha moved to New York City to get closer to the action for
popular music and signed a 5% contract with Columbia Records with the help of
John Hammond and was immediately steered into Rhythm and Blues (with Clyde Otis
at the helm) most likely because of her gospel style. Hammond
later said he felt Columbia
did not understand her early gospel background and failed to bring out that
aspect of her voice during her period there. Steering her toward R & B was
the best decision, in retrospect. Songs like Today I Sing the Blues (her first R&B single which reached the
top ten in September 1960), Won’t Be Long
and Operation Heartbreak shot to the
top of the R & B charts as soon as they were released. Her big hit during
this time turned out to be in the genre of Swing with Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody in 1961 but only made it
to #37! Many singers have cut their teeth on this song to either success or
failure. It requires great pipes. Within
five years of signing her contract Aretha was pulling in $100,000 per live
performance in nightclubs and music theaters.
Interestingly, she didn’t seem to garner
the kind of recognition, at the onset, as she would eventually. By 1966 when
her contract expired she opted to leave Columbia
for Atlantic Records and started working with producer Jerry Wexler, arranger
Arif Mardin and Tom Dowd who was a recording engineer and began to make the
kind of music which is considered soul music today. People don’t refer to
Aretha as the Queen of Soul for no reason! She was among the inventors of the genre.
With the new team and musical maturity
underway she began to produce #1 hits in abundance. The first session produced I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You) which shot to #1 on the R & B
charts and remained there for a year. Respect
sold in the millions and stayed #1 for a year as well and it’s her signature
tune. There was also Baby I Love You,
Chain of Fools, Since You’ve Been Gone, Think,
The House that Jack Built and I Say a Little Prayer- among which the
latter song is more closely associated with Dionne Warwick (who was strictly a pop
singer and purveyor of all things written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach). All
were number one hits and I remember hearing Chain
of Fools on ‘white radio’ when I was ten years old and knew that it almost
made it to #1. For two straight years her records sold in the millions!
Aretha practically stole Respect from Otis Redding and borrowed more material
from Don Covay and Ronnie Shannon for much of the R & B she recorded. Redding wrote the song Respect in 1965 and recorded it, even
though he could neither read nor write music. Within two years, at the age of
26, he went down in flames when his Beechcraft H18 airplane crashed in Wisconsin and his
signature song The Dock of the Bay climbed
to the top of the charts several months after his death. Even Aretha couldn’t
have guessed then, that Redding’s
song would become her most lucrative and successful recording (reaching #1 on
both R & B and Pop charts) and ignite her singing career beyond all
expectations. Carole King and Gerry Goffin were just beginning to take over pop
radio with hits and really began to make it on their own by the Seventies but
Aretha galvanized some of their Rock and Blues sizzlers into fireworks. When I
think back to the music of Carole King, all I can hear in my head is I Feel the Earth Move (Under My Feet) probably
because it was a true fusion of pop rock and R & B and because King’s flair
for pop rock was unequaled at that particular time. Aretha recorded her song (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,
made it dynamic and after that, the song belonged to her and no one else. If
anyone doubts that, they need to see the video clip when she got a standing
ovation at the Kennedy
Center in 2015 during a
live performance of Carole King’s classic- even as Carole King was being
honored that night! Ms. King clapped every bit as much as the Kennedy Center
attendees! Aretha could take the songs she borrowed, rearrange and use her
fabulous dynamics on them and they were never the same again. This was her
legacy and she did it time and time again! It would explain her capability of
taking an opera aria meant for a tenor (Nessun Dorma) at the age of 56 and turn
it into a heart wrenching three-octave soul solo at the Grammies in 1998!
(That’s a subject for another time!)
What she didn’t borrow was co-written with
her husband and manager, Ted White, and their collaborations were numerous and
among her greatest hits. During her New York
debut into pop music she recorded with the Muscle Shoals Sound Rhythm Section
in Alabama and also a New York band conducted by King Curtis.
Aretha’s vocal arrangements were hers alone and she also employed her own
gospel call-and-response choruses for her backups with Sweet Inspirations (her younger
sister Carolyn was counted among the members).
Her fast success never waned. The year
1968 was a milestone year in her life where she became internationally known as
Lady Soul- a title suggested by her first LP out that year. Her first two
Grammy awards came to her in February. She toured outside the country to great
acclaim. It was truly a symbol of black pride in which she was presented an
award by Martin Luther King Jr. and appeared on the cover of Time magazine,
which was a rite of passage for anyone seeking media coverage. Who could have
known that same year she was presented an award by this enigmatic leader that
she would be singing for his funeral before the summer began? It must have been
heartbreaking to know that this same man she went on tour with when she was
sixteen would be taken with a gunshot blast just as her career was taking off! Her
personal life was kept more secret than it should have been and the turbulent
nature of it is almost a cliché now for many entertainment stars, including
Tina Turner.
That same year, Ted White turned on Aretha,
publicly battered her and also shot one of her new production managers. After
her divorce in 1969 she was arrested, one time, for drunk driving with
resulting disorderly conduct. Even her father was arrested for possession of
marijuana which could have ended his ministry. Somehow, she managed to pull
through these trying times but perhaps at a great cost to her health. Of the
many books written about her life she was most critical about David Ritz’s Respect title which ran away with the
negatives like a hellbound train, digging up dirt about her that went all the
way back before she was old enough to drive! Much of it, most likely, is untrue,
unfair and unwarranted information and did not receive her authorization in the
end. She discredited the book with strong and blunt words. Considering that
this book came out at a time when nearly all of Aretha’s family had pre-deceased
her it must have been difficult, to say the least, and stand alone in deference
to what had been written about her and her family.
As with most people in the entertainment
business back then, the show had to go on and her million selling hits
continued into the Seventies. She was the first female R & B performer to
headline at Fillmore West and at the end of 1971 she released a live recorded
album from her performance at that northern California venue. Franklin’s debut album for Atlantic Records
was I Never Loved a Man the Way that I
Love You which eventually became a gold record. These were all R & B
number one hits: Don’t Play that Song,
Bridge over Troubled Water (written by
Simon and Garfunkel), Spanish Harlem,
Day Dreaming (And I’m Thinking of
You), Until You Come Back to Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do) and Rock Steady reached #2 in 1971. Even so, she got lost in the fray
during the Seventies but given the climate of the era, it’s not only
understandable but almost legendary for anyone who lived then- no matter your
age, color, weight, sex or proclivities. If she seemed rather aimless we can
truly point to the wigged-out culture
for a clear reason. Perhaps she felt a little alienated and grasped for her
roots because she did an about face in 1972 by releasing one of the most
amazing albums of her career with Young, Gifted and Black and then socked it to everyone with her Gospel
release Amazing Grace the same year which sold over two million copies!
The title song for Young, Gifted and Black was originally written and recorded
by singer Nina Simone in 1969 with Weldon Irvine. Amazing Grace was recorded
live in Los Angeles
with her father officiating and playing the piano and also conducting the choir.
This was the last album co-produced by Wexler who moved on to Warner Bros
Records in 1976. Both albums sold equally and profusely with Amazing Grace
becoming her most financially successful gospel album. After that time she
started experimenting with new producers and the list is like a who’s who of
record producers. In 1973 Quincy Jones produced Hey Now Hey, Curtis Mayfield produced Sparkle, a soundtrack LP, in
1976, Lamont Dozier produced Sweet
Passion in 1977 and in 1979 Van McCoy produced La Diva. At this time she amped up her stage style to the level of a
Las Vegas revue
and her shows became costume extravaganzas that could’ve made Beyonce’s eyes
pop out with envy. That same year her father was shot at point-blank range in his
Detroit home by a burglar and was put into the hospital but never came out of a
coma, holding on to life for five years before he passed away in a nursing home
in 1984.
By the time 1980 rolled around Franklin had left Atlantic
and signed on with Arista with an eye to keep control over her career and finances.
All her record company moves were probably made on legal advice after a
showdown with the IRS. This proved to be a pivotal comeback year for the lady
of soul when she visited England for the first time and gave a command
performance for Queen Elizabeth at London’s Royal Albert Hall which is a true
rite of passage for any singer or musician whether they are British or not. Adding
‘actress’ to her resume, Aretha made a movie that same year which starred John
Belushi and Dan Akroyd as The Blues Brothers.
Her part entailed singing her best hits with Respect and Think and her
sassy style in the film is unforgettable as a soul food restaurant proprietor and wife of
Matt
"Guitar" Murphy with the lines, “…leave, leave and don’t come back…without your four fried
chickens!”
She had crossed over into another era with two of her best sixties hits and
made them sound so fresh that her career was off and running again. She didn’t
have to position herself as the grande
dame of pop music because she already had that prize. The sass she
exhibited in that role set the record straight and there wasn’t a thing anyone
(who wanted to) could do about it. That’s when Aretha officially became the
Queen of Soul and no one has taken her crown yet. I never heard anyone actually
say it but in 1981 it was confirmed to me in a Steely Dan song of
the title, Hey Nineteen which
contained the lyrics: “That’s ‘Retha Franklin. She don’t remember the Queen of
Soul.” (Aretha turned forty the year that Steely Dan album, Gaucho, was released!)
Her experience with Arista was another
story, compared to the previous record companies. First of all, this was her
longest relationship with any record company spanning over two decades thanks
to Clive Davis. She brought Arif Mardin back in for her first two albums with
the new label and her old pal included some old soul standards along with
mainstream pop music which was referred to as MOR (middle of the road) in those
days. The first two Arista recordings were Love
All the Hurt Away and Jump to It, with the first being a collaboration with
George Benson going to #6 on the R&B charts in 1981 and the second- which reestablished
Aretha as a hit maker- reached #1 on the R & B charts in 1982. Her song
hits during the Eighties hit new highs on the pop charts with (I’m Giving Him)Something He Can Feel, Freeway of Love,
Who’s Zoomin’ Who, and I Knew Your Were Waiting (For Me) , the latter a
duet with George
Michael which went international. She put out
seven albums that decade and also garnered some very impressive accolades which
were numerous. Her gospel music continued with the 1987 release of One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism and Through the Storm in 1989 which did not succeed financially but exhibited the
true beauty of her voice.
Before the turn of the century she made
the top 40 yet again when she released the Lauryn
Hill-produced song "A Rose Is Still a Rose", later issuing the album, and it went gold! As a matter of fact 1998
seemed to propel her back on the stage singing when she may have been
considering retiring. That was the year she sang Pavarotti’s song at the
Grammies and brought down the house with her version. 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 eventually singing the song in Philadelphia for the Pope (Francis) in
September of 2015! In 2017 Aretha canceled scheduled concerts due to health
reasons and during one of her hometown shows she asked the audience to keep her
in their prayers. Her last full concert was given at the Ravinia
Festival on September 3, 2017.
After the turn
of the century her output returned, albeit a bit slower but she never
sacrificed the quality- whether it was the music itself, her singing or her
musicianship. Since the inception of the 21st century Aretha had
released only five secular long players- in 2003, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2014 and
2017- one being a Christmas album but her live performances proliferated while
accolades poured in from everywhere, seemingly. It has been almost virtually
unknown that Ms Franklin received
honorary degrees spanning across 39 years of her career beginning with her
Doctor of Law degree by Bethune–Cookman University in 1975 to degrees from Yale
(2010), Harvard and NYU in 2014- mostly doctorates from U.S. universities and
conservatories in music, numbering 12 in all !
With a tempestuous but successful life
behind her I’m certain that Aretha clung to her rightful Christian inheritance
of salvation. Even as she faced departure from this world, where she is sorely
missed, she had to know that her sixty year long legacy lives on in so much
wonderful music and in our hearts as one of God’s true divas. Music begins in
the heart before we create it in any form and Aretha had a lot of music in her.
The best tribute to her in my estimation occurred at the American Music Awards on October 9, 2018, when the ABC
show was closed by bringing Gladys
Knight, Donnie McClurkin, Ledisi, Cece
Winans, and Mary Mary together to pay tribute
to her by performing various gospel hits
mostly from her 1972 blockbuster Amazing Grace. It was inspiring to see these
singers support a faith that was closest to her heart with genuine faith and
equal talent. It will certainly never be forgotten
by me and I’m sure that many people felt the same as I.
First single:
1956-
Never Grow Old (J.V.B. Records) recorded
at New Bethel Baptist
Church
LPs:
1961- Aretha (with the
Ray Bryant Combo) (Columbia)
1962- The Electrifying
Aretha Franklin
& The Tender, the
Moving, the Swinging Aretha Franklin
1963- Laughing on the
Outside
1964- Unforgettable: A
Tribute to Dinah Washington
Running Out of Fools
& The Gospel
Sound of Aretha Franklin (Checker) reissue1972
1965- Yeah! Aretha
Franklin in Person (Columbia)
Songs of Faith
(Checker) orig. rec. 1956 by J-V-B live at New Bethel Baptist Church
1966- Soul Sister
1967- Take It Like You Give
It
Greatest Hits
I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You (Atlantic)
& Aretha Arrives
1968- Lady Soul;
Aretha Now;
Aretha in Paris
1969- Soul’69;
Aretha’s Gold;
Soft and Beautiful
1970- This Girl’s in Love
with You;
Spirit in the Dark
1971- Aretha Live at
Fillmore West; Aretha’s Greatest Hits
1972- Young, Gifted and
Black;
Amazing Grace
1973- Hey Now Hey (The
Other Side of the Sky);
The First Twelve
Sides (Columbia)
The Best of Aretha
Franklin (Atlantic)
1974- Let Me in Your
Life;
With Everything I
Feel in Me
1975- You
1976- Sparkle, soundtrack
Ten Years of Gold
1977- Sweet Passion
1978- Almighty Fire
1979- La Diva
1980- Aretha (Arista)
1981- Love All the Hurt
Away
1982- Jump to It
1983- Get It Right
1985- Who’s Zoomin’ Who?
( song Freeway of Love gave it platinum status)
1986- Aretha
1989- Through the Storm
1991- What You See is
What You Sweat
1998- A Rose is Still a
Rose
2003- So Damn Happy
2007- Jewels in the
Crown: All-Star Duets with the Queen
2008- This Christmas,
Aretha (DMI )
2011- Aretha: A Woman
Falling Out of Love (Aretha’s)
(upon release, sang a
2-night engagement at Radio
City Music
Hall in NYC)
2014- Aretha Franklin
Sings the Great Diva Classics (RCA)
2017- A Brand New Me (w/
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra)
"American history wells up when Aretha
sings. 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.”
President Obama, 2015 for the Kennedy Center Honors
