Aretha Franklin – The Electrifying Aretha Franklin (1962)

Aretha Louise Franklin (March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist.

Referred to as the “Queen of Soul”, she has twice been placed ninth in Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Artists of All Time”.

With global sales of over 75 million records,

Franklin is one of the best-selling music artists from the second half of the 20th century to the present. (wikipedia)

The Electrifying Aretha Franklin is the second studio album by American singer Aretha Franklin, released on March 19, 1962 by Columbia Records. The album which is also known under its working title The Incomparable Aretha Franklin, was recorded at Columbia Recording Studios, 799 Seventh Avenue, New York. It was produced by John Hammond and arranged by Richard Wess. (wikipedia)

Before she signed to Atlantic Records in 1967, achieving huge commercial success and earning the honorific title ‘The Queen of Soul’, Aretha Franklin had a six-year period with Columbia Records during which she not only recorded her first secular album, Aretha: With The Ray Bryant Combo, but also became the darling of the jazz club circuit, picked as the new star female vocalist in Down Beat magazine’s International Jazz Critics Poll.

Conducted and arranged by Richard Wess and featuring a stellar cast of musicians including Oliver Nelson (sax), Mundell Lowe and Bucky Pizzarelli (guitar), Wynton Kelly and Tommy Flanagan (piano) and Jimmy Cobb (drums), the former ranges from the dramatic onward surge of ‘Rough Lover’ to the exuberant sermonising of ‘Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive’. Highlights from the latter include the self-penned ‘Without the One You Love’ to a searingly powerful ‘Lover Come Back to Me’. (Peter Quinn)

Personnel:
Aretha Franklin (vocals, piano)
+
Jimmy Cobb (drums)
Tommy Flanagan (piano)
Wynton Kelly (piano)
Mundell Lowe  (guitar)
Oliver Nelson (saxophone)
Bucky Pizzarelli (guitar)
+
unknown bass player
and maybe much more musicians

Tracklist:
01. You Made Me Love You (McCarthy/Monaco) 2.19
02. I Told You So (McFarland) 2.44
03. Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody (Lewis/Schwartz/Young) 2.25
04. Nobody Like You (Cleveland) 2.23
05. Exactly Like You (McHugh/Fields) 2.27
06. It’s So Heartbreakin’ (McFarland) 2.40
07. Rough Lover (McFarland) 2.48
08. Blue Holiday (Denson/Dixon) 2.54
09. Just For You (Bailey/McFarland) 2.21
10. That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls Around Heaven All Day) (Gillespie/Smith) 3.21
11. I Surrender, Dear (Barris/Clifford) 2.47
12. Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive (Arlen/Mercer) 2.18

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More from Aretha Franklin in this blog:

Various Artists – A Very Special Christmas 2 (1992)

A very special Christmas compilation:

A Very Special Christmas 2 is the second in the A Very Special Christmas series of Christmas-themed compilation albums produced to benefit the Special Olympics. The album was released on October 20, 1992, and production was overseen by Jimmy Iovine, Vicki Iovine and Robert Sargent Shriver for A&M Records. Tupac Shakur was supposed to be featured on the album, but due to legal trouble his song was dropped.

On December 7, 2001, A Very Special Christmas 2 was certified Double Platinum for shipment of two million copies in the United States since its 1992 release.[1] As of November 2014, it is the 21st best-selling Christmas/holiday album in the United States during the SoundScan era of music sales tracking (March 1991 – present), having sold 2,200,000 copies according to SoundScan. (wikipedia)

The follow up to the original, this collection in many ways surpasses the initial effort. Duets seem to rule here, with Cyndi Lauper and Frank Sinatra double teaming on “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” while the irrepressible Ronnie Spector shares the mic with Darlene Love for a resplendent “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” and Heart’s Ann and Nancy Wilson give “Blue Christmas” a steamy and sizzling once-over. Vanessa Williams stops the disc, though, with her simple yet stunning rendition of “What Child Is This.” The then-sign-of-the-times inclusion, Michael Bolton, offers a forgettable “White Christmas,” but it’s the only real clunker in the bunch. Always just a tad too country to make it as a cross-over artist, Randy Travis still makes “Jingle Bell Rock” his own in his smooth way. (Steve Gdula)

The value of the “A Very Special Christmas” albums is at least partly to be found in the knowledge that the albums raise money for the eminently good cause of Special Olympics. Accordingly, one can feel good about buying this album, whether for others or for one’s own collection, knowing that the money is going in a socially positive direction, in the spirit of the Christmas season. The first album set the bar quite high, with exceptional contributions by U2, Bruce Springsteen, the Pretenders, John Mellencamp, and Bob Seger, among others, and the second album in the series, logically called “A Very Special Christmas 2,” generally holds up to the high standards set by its predecessor.

The album starts off very well, with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ “Christmas All Over Again.” This energetic, cheerful song benefits from the manner in which the distinctive clang of Petty’s Rickenbacker guitar, particularly on the solo, takes on a bell-like sound that blends well with the bells in the background. (I’m not sure why Petty, heard sotto voce in the background at the end of the song, asks Santa for a new Rickenbacker; the old one sounds excellent.) This album dates from 1992, when Randy Travis was the king of country music, so it’s no surprise that he was asked to contribute his own version of “Jingle Bell Rock.” This Nashville-tinged version of the song is fine, if relatively conventional, and taking it up half a step at the end really doesn’t do much to change things.

I like Luther Vandross’s “The Christmas Song.” It has a mellow, optimistic feel, and really takes off when the saxophone comes in. Frank Sinatra and Cyndi Lauper then pair up for a retro-jazz-flavored rendition of “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.” Both are in fine voice, though Cyndi almost sounds a bit star-struck in the presence of the man from Hoboken. I’m glad that Frank got the chance to contribute to one of these albums before his 1998 passing. Frank and Cyndi are followed by Boyz II Men’s “The Birth of Christ,” a smooth and atmospheric narrative song of Jesus’ birth, sung a-cappella with no accompaniment except for finger-snapping — stylish and effective.

Jon Bon Jovi, who seems to be a really good sport about contributing to lots of holiday albums (along with a wide range of other philanthropic activities as well), provides a fine rendition of Charles Brown’s “Please Come Home for Christmas,” with a nice guitar solo at the end. I’m partial to the Eagles’ version of this song myself, but JBJ does a good job here. Paul Young’s “What Christmas Means to Me” features upbeat delivery with a Motown sound. Aretha Franklin’s “O Christmas Tree” is slow, stately, and horn-based, and is also distinguished by a spoken-word interlude in which the Queen of Soul takes pains to remind us, “in our gift-giving and our merriment,” of “the real and true meaning of Christmas — the birth of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” How you feel regarding Ms. Franklin’s exhortation may depend upon your own religious and philosophical beliefs. On a less serious note, Ronnie Spector and Darlene Love follow with a fine duet on “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” featuring a 1950’s sound and some lovely saxophone work. Ms. Love’s Christmastime performances on David Letterman’s late-night talk shows have been a holiday staple for many years now, and therefore her presence on this album is doubly welcome.

And then there is Michael Bolton’s “White Christmas.” What can I say? “Must…not…be…mean…” Mr. Bolton and his work have been so mercilessly savaged by so many critics for so many years that I do not feel inclined to pile on. Besides, doing so would *not* be in the holiday spirit. Therefore, I will simply say that Mr. Bolton’s rendition of this song is not to my taste, and leave it at that. It does sound like something that might have been sung on a 1960’s Christmas variety special — “Rowan and Martin’s Christmas,” “Sonny and Cher’s Christmas,” that sort of thing. If such is your musical inclination, perhaps you will enjoy it.

Run-D.M.C.’s fun and energetic “Christmas Is” reminds me that these hip-hop artists who got their start in the early 1980’s have shown a remarkable degree of staying power. “Give up the dough on Christmas, yo!” After that, Extreme, with “Christmas Time Again,” provides what might be termed a Christmas power ballad. With piano, church organ, and synthesizer being layered atop rich harmonies, it definitely has that big-hair 1980’s “wall of sound” quality, with the band’s request that the listener “pretend that it’ll last all year,” and a bit from “The First Noel” at the end.

I like Bonnie Raitt and Charles Brown’s “Merry Christmas Baby.” It unfolds slowly, with a fine bluesy quality. Both artists are in excellent voice and seem to be having fun, and blues piano and electric guitar provide effective supporting texture. And considering how many, many artists have covered this Charles Brown song, it’s great to hear Mr. Brown singing it himself. Tevin Campbell then offers a relatively gentle, muted, straightforward delivery of “O Holy Night,” something that I appreciate considering how many artists seem to treat this song as an excuse to indulge in high-register wailing until windows start to break.

Former teen-pop star Debbie Gibson’s “Sleigh Ride” has a definite Phil Spector Christmas-album sound to it. Vanessa Williams offers a clear and direct, slightly jazzy delivery of “What Child Is This?” Ann and Nancy Wilson then provide a fine, country-tinged rendition of “Blue Christmas” where piano and slide guitar work well together. I’m not sure why they didn’t call themselves Heart for this recording; was it that their usual backup musicians were not around, or were they concerned that Heart fans would expect a version of “Blue Christmas” that sounded like “Barracuda” or “Crazy on You”? Hard to say.

Just writing the name “Wilson Phillips” puts one back in the world of early-90’s pop. I wasn’t expecting much from their version of “Silent Night,” but it has clear harmonies and more of a rock-ish sound than I would have expected from Wilson Phillips; so, good for them. A real highlight of the album, for me, is its final song, Sinéad O’Connor’s “I Believe in You.” Recall that this album was released in the same year, even the same month (October 1992), in which O’Connor created controversy by tearing up a picture of Pope John Paul II on “Saturday Night Live” as a protest against sexual abuse within the Catholic Church; consequently, many listeners in the time of the album’s release may not exactly have been listening to it in the full Christmas spirit. That being said, I think O’Connor does a very fine job with this Bob Dylan song. The delivery of the song’s graceful melody is stark, simple, and honest — just O’Connor and a piano, with a clarinet coming in quietly at the end. There’s a fine quality of emotion in the way O’Connor delivers lines like “I believe in you, even though I’ll be outnumbered.” It’s a good way to end the album.

This album has more of a pop quality when compared with the original, more rock-oriented “A Very Special Christmas” from 1987. I’m more of a rock fan, and therefore I tend to like the first album better. Nonetheless, this album will sound fine in the background during your family’s future holiday celebrations, and it is comforting to know that the money goes to help people with intellectual disabilities — something much more important than whether I liked this song or didn’t like that song. (Paul Haspel)

Personnel:
see booklet

Tracklist:
01. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Christmas All Over Again (Petty)  4.14
02. Randy Travis: Jingle Bell Rock (Beal/Boothe) 4.00
03. Luther Vandross: The Christmas Song (Tormé/Wells) 4.29
04. Frank Sinatra & Cyndi Lauper: Santa Claus Is Coming to Town (Coots/Gillespie) 2.36
05. Boyz II Men: The Birth Of Christ (Morris/Stockman) 2.49
06. Jon Bon Jovi: Please Come Home For Christmas (Brown/Redd) 2.52
07. Paul Young: What Christmas Means To Me (Gaye/Story/Gordy) 2.53
08. Aretha Franklin: O Christmas Tree (Anschütz) 3.34
09. Ronnie Spector & Darlene Love: Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree (Marks) 2.48
10. Michael Bolton: White Christmas (Berlin) 3.38
11. Run-D.M.C.: Christmas Is (Simmons/McDaniels) 3.19
12. Extreme: Christmas Time Again (Bettencourt/Cherone) 5.06
13. Charles Brown & Bonnie Raitt: Merry Christmas Baby (Baxter/Moore) 4.32
14. Tevin Campbell: O Holy Night (Adolphe/Adam/Dwight) 2.45
15. Debbie Gibson: Sleigh Ride (Anderson/Parish) 3.12
16. Vanessa Williams: What Child Is This? (Traditional) 4.09
17. Ann & Nancy Wilson: Blue Christmas (Hayes/Johnson) 3.48
18. Wilson Phillips: Silent Night (Mohr/Gruber) 3.03
19. Sinéad O’Connor: I Believe In You (Dylan) 5.38

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Various Artists – Divas (2001)

Diva is the Latin word for a goddess. It has often been used to refer to a celebrated woman of outstanding talent in the world of opera, theatre, cinema, fashion and popular music. If referring to an actress, the meaning of diva is closely related to that of prima donna. Diva can also refer to a woman, especially one in show business, with a reputation for being temperamental or demanding.

The word entered the English language in the late 19th century. It is derived from the Italian noun diva, a female deity. The plural of the word in English is “divas”; in Italian, dive [ˈdiːve]. The basic sense of the term is goddess, the feminine of the Latin word divus (Italian divo), someone deified after death, or Latin deus, a god.

The male form divo exists in Italian and is usually reserved for the most prominent leading tenors, like Enrico Caruso and Beniamino Gigli. The Italian term divismo describes the star-making system in the film industry. In contemporary Italian, diva and divo simply denote much-admired celebrities, especially film actresses and actors, and can be translated as “(film) star”. The Italian actress Lyda Borelli is considered the first cinematic diva, following her breakthrough role in Love Everlasting (1913).

Woman are often referred to as a “diva” if they are “difficult, temperamental and demanding”. Welsh National Opera note that the title emerged in the early 19th century after an increase of female leading sopranos who became “almost became goddess-like in the eyes of their adoring public”. They also note that the word has been used by the media to name many female politicians and entertainers rather than “just ambitious and assertive like their male counterparts”. (wikipedia)

And here´s a low budget compilation:

Ok, then let us celebrate all these divas … my favourite singers were Bette Midler, Nina Simone, Maria Muldaur, Aretha Franklin and of course Alannah Myles

Tracklist:
01. Bette Midler: The Rose (McBroom) 3.44
02. Dionne Warwick: Walk On By (Bacharach/David) 2.59
03. Rose Royce: Love Don’t Live Here Anymore (Gregory) 3.57
04. Nina Simone: Papa Can You Hear Me (A.Bergman/M.Bergman/Legrand) 4.24
05. Linda Ronstadt: Blue Bayou (Orbison/Melson) 3.54
06. Mary Coughlan: I’d Rather Go Blind (Foste/Jordan) 4.22
07. Maria Muldaur: Midnight At The Oasis (Nichtern/Muldaur) 3.54
08. Rickie Lee Jones: Chuck E’s In Love (Jones) 3.35
09. Emmylou Harris: Sweet Dreams (Gibson) 3.10
10. Judy Collins: Both Sides Now (Mitchell) 3.18
11. Aretha Franklin: Respect (Redding) 2.26
12. Candi Staton: Young Hearts Run Free (Crawford) 4.12
13. Sarah Vaughan: Get Back (Lennon/McCartney) 2.59
14. Donna Lewis: I Love You Always Forever (Lewis) 4.02
15. Alannah Myles: Black Velvet 4.48

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Aretha Franklin – A Natural Woman & Other Hits (1997)

Aretha Louise Franklin (March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist.

Referred to as the “Queen of Soul”, she has twice been placed ninth in Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Artists of All Time”.

With global sales of over 75 million records,

Franklin is one of the best-selling music artists from the second half of the 20th century to the present. (wikipedia)

And here´s a low budget sampler with many of her hits.

It´s never too late, to discover Arthea Franklin (again).

Personnel:
Aretha Franklin (vocals, piano)
+
many, many studio musicians

Tracklist:
01. 1 (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (Goffin/King/Wexler) 2.45
02.The House That Jack Built (Lance/Robbins) 2.21
03. Son Of A Preacher Man (Hurley/Wilkins) 3.17
04. Spirit In The Dark (Franklin) 4.01
05. I Say A Little Prayer (Bacharach/David) 3.37
06. Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon) 5.34
07. Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing (Ashford/Simpson) 3.50
08. Without Love (Hunter/Franklin) 3.48
09. Eleanor Rigby (Lennon/McCartney) 2.37
10. Rock Steady (Franklin) 3.13

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More from Aretha Franklin:

Aretha Franklin – What You See Is What You Sweat (1991)

Aretha Louise Franklin (March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Referred to as the “Queen of Soul”, she has twice been placed ninth in Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Artists of All Time”. With global sales of over 75 million records, Franklin is one of the best-selling music artists from the second half of the 20th century to the present.

Franklin began her career as a child, singing gospel at New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, where her father C. L. Franklin was a minister. At the age of 18, she embarked on a music career 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. Commercial hits such as “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)”, “Respect”, “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman”, “Chain of Fools”, “Think”, and “I Say a Little Prayer”, propelled Franklin past her musical peers.

Franklin continued to record acclaimed 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. The singer appeared in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers before releasing the successful albums Jump to It (1982), Who’s Zoomin’ Who? (1985) and Aretha (1986) on the Arista label. In 1998, Franklin returned to the Top 40 with the Lauryn Hill-produced song “A Rose Is Still a Rose”; later, she released an album with the same name.

Franklin recorded 112 charted singles on the US Billboard charts, including 73 Hot 100 entries, 17 top-ten pop singles, 100 R&B entries and 20 number-one R&B singles. Besides the foregoing, the singer’s well-known hits also include “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” and “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)” (a duet with George Michael). Franklin won 18 Grammy Awards, 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.

Franklin received numerous honors throughout her career. She was 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. She also was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005 and into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2012. In 2010, Rolling Stone ranked Franklin number one on its list of the “100 Greatest Singers of All Time”.[6] In 2019, the Pulitzer Prize jury awarded the singer a posthumous special citation “for her indelible contribution to American music and culture for more than five decades”. In 2020, Franklin was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.

What You See Is What You Sweat is the thirty-third studio album by American singer Aretha Franklin, released on June 25, 1991, by Arista Records. It peaked at #153 on Billboard’s album chart, dropping off after seven weeks. This was Aretha’s first new release in the Nielsen SoundScan era. (wikipedia)

“Yo, gang! let’s kick the ballistics!” shouts Aretha Franklin in the opening moments of “Everyday People,” her spirited house-music remake of Sly Stone’s classic hippie anthem. The song, which is heard in regular and remixed versions on What You See Is What You Sweat, is one of the high points of an album that credits nine producers and production teams. Although the material runs a gamut of styles, Franklin infuses her personality so indelibly into every song that somehow it all holds together.

“I Dreamed a Dream,” a stentorian ballad from the Broadway musical Les Miserables, is turned into an obstacle course of vocal challenges, with Franklin tossing around saucy embellishments and shivering melismata and bearing down so convincingly on the line “Tigers tear your dreams” that you can almost feel the teeth and hear the rips. Two Burt Bacharach-Carole Bayer Sager ballads, “Ever Changing Times” (a duet with Michael McDonald) and “Someone Else’s Eyes,” about the changes and identity crises in relationships, are effectively milked for their last drops of pop-psychology truth.

On the funky side, there is “Mary Goes Round,” a grown-up “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” which sassily examines serial heartbreak. Two decent Franklin originals, the feisty “You Can’t Take Me for Granted” and the contemplative “What Did You Give,” find Franklin demanding respect with an intensity that has hardly diminished in more than two decades. The album’s biggest disappointment, “Doctor’s Orders,” is a trivial up-tempo duet with Luther Vandross that is too choppy to allow their voices to synchronize interestingly.

Because Franklin brings more spirit than usual to the record, What You See Is What You Sweat stands as one of her better albums. If the songs are uneven, they don’t prevent the Queen of Soul from exuberantly expressing the breadth of her musical personality, from regal pop-gospel diva to funky everyday person. (Stephen Holden)

Personnel:
Nat Adderley Jr. (keyboards)
Skip Anderson (keyboards)
Burt Bacharach (keyboards)
Jean-Marc Benais (guitar)
Dominique Bertram (bass)
Louis Biancaniello (keyboards, programming)
Vernon Black (guitar)
Michael Boddicker (keyboards, programming)
David Boruff (saxophone)
André Ceccarelli (drums)
Paulinho da Costa (percussion)
Candy Dulfer (saxophone)
Hubert Eaves III (keyboards, drum programming)
Thierry Eliez (piano)
David Foster (keyboards, programming)
Aretha Franklin (vocals, piano)
Larry Fratangelo (percussion)
Rick Iantosca (guitar)
Paul Jackson Jr. (guitar)
Oliver Leiber (keyboards, drum programming, guitar)
Michel Legrand (synthesizer)
Gene Lennon (programming)
Buster Marbury (drums)
Jason Miles (keyboards)
Marcus Miller (bass)
Dean Parks (guitar)
Onita Sanders (harp)
Charles Scales (synthesizer)
Peter Schwartz (keyboards)
Rudolph Stansfield (piano)
Joshua Thompson (keyboards, guitar, synthesizer)
Franck Thore (pan pipes)
David Townsend (guitar)
Al Turner (bass)
Guy Vaughn (drum programming)
Narada Michael Walden (drums, programming)
Randy Waldman (keyboards)
Teddy F. White (guitar)
Larry Williams (programming)
Elliot Wolff (keyboards, drum programming)
Bobby Wooten (keyboards, drum programming, synthesizer)
+
background vocals:
Cindy Mizelle – Jesse Richardson – Sandra Feva – Brenda Corbett – Fonzi Thornton – Diane Green – Sherry Fox – Portia Griffin – Margaret Branch – Jarvis Barker – Nikita Germaine – Skyler Jett – Jeanie Tracy – Tony Lindsay – Gwen Guthrie – Tawatha Agee – Donna Davis – Marj Harber – Esther Ridgeway – Gloria Ridgeway – Gracie Ridgeway

Tracklist:
01. Everyday People (Stone) 3.51
02. Ever Changing Times (duet with Michael McDonald) (Bacharach/Conti/Sager) 4.56
03. What You See Is What You Sweat (Conley/Culler/Lennon/Thompson) 4.25
04. Mary Goes Round (Wolff/Leiber) 3.08
05. I Dreamed A Dream (Boublil/Kretzmer/Natel/Schonberg) 4.19
06. Someone Else’s Eyes (Roberts/Bacharach/Sager) 4.58
07. Doctor’s Orders (duet with Luther Vandross) (Vandross/Eaves III) 4.37
08. You Can’t Take Me For Granted (Franklin) 5.13
09. What Did You Give (Franklin) 5.02
10. Everyday People (Shep Pettibone Remix) (Stone) 4.08

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More from Aretha Franklin:

Aretha Franklin – Montreux (1971)

Aretha Louise Franklin (March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist. Franklin began her career as a child singing gospel at New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, where her father C. L. Franklin was minister. At the age of 18, she embarked on a secular-music career as a recording artist for Columbia Records. While Franklin’s career did not immediately flourish, she found acclaim and commercial success after signing with Atlantic Records in 1966. Hit songs such as “Respect”, “Chain of Fools”, “Think”, “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman”, “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)”, and “I Say a Little Prayer”, propelled her past her musical peers. By the end of the 1960s, Aretha Franklin had come to be known as “The Queen of Soul”.

Franklin continued to record acclaimed 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 her record company. Franklin left Atlantic in 1979 and signed with Arista Records. She appeared in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers before releasing the successful albums Jump to It (1982), Who’s Zoomin’ Who? (1985), and Aretha (1986) on the Arista label. In 1998, Franklin returned to the Top 40 with the Lauryn Hill-produced song “A Rose Is Still a Rose”; later, she released an album of the same name which was certified gold.

That same year, Franklin earned international acclaim for her performance of “Nessun dorma” at the Grammy Awards; she filled in at the last minute for Luciano Pavarotti, who canceled his appearance after the show had already begun. In a widely noted performance, she paid tribute to 2015 honoree Carole King by singing “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” at the Kennedy Center Honors.

Franklin recorded 112 charted singles on Billboard, including 77 Hot 100 entries, 17 top-ten pop singles, 100 R&B entries, and 20 number-one R&B singles. She is the most charted female artist in history. Franklin’s well-known hits include “Rock Steady”, “Call Me”, “Ain’t No Way”, “Don’t Play That Song (You Lied)”, “Spanish Harlem”, “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”, and “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)” (a duet with George Michael). She won 18 Grammy Awards, including the first eight awards given for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance (1968–1975). Franklin is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 75 million records worldwide.

Franklin received numerous honors throughout her career. She was awarded the National Medal of Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1987, she became the first female performer to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She also was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005 and into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2012.[7] In 2010, Rolling Stone magazine ranked her number one on its list of the “100 Greatest Singers of All Time”[8] and number nine on its list of “100 Greatest Artists of All Time”.[9] The Pulitzer Prize jury in 2019 awarded Franklin a posthumous special citation “for her indelible contribution to American music and culture for more than five decades. (by wikipedia)

Obviously there has been a great loss that leaves an irreparable void in the musical firmament of our world, but as we know the only way to memorialize the giants is to play the music, so here we are. This tape’s been around for a while and I always loved the performance, but felt it was imbalanced and that Aretha’s voice was a bit buried in the orchestral maelstrom of brass and horns. So I sat down when she passed this morning and spent the day excavating it from the soup so it’d be more prominent and audible. [Aretha Franklin passed away on August 16, 2018 at the age of 76.]

I used Sound Forge 11’s Graphic EQ and Graphics Dynamics tools, and increased the left channel volume to create a better balance with more lead vocal in the mix. I repaired the dropout in the transition between Dr Feelgood and Spirit In the Dark to be less egregiously disturbing, chopped off the filler track at the end of the original files, which seemed to have nothing at all to do with this performance (I think it was Traffic, and I have no idea how it got there, but no matter), and tracked the medleys into separate files. I created a new cover, made new fingerprints, and got everything titled and tagged properly as well. I also clarified who is playing on it and amended this text file.

Alternate frontcovers:

This is a stunner of a set from the Aretha & King Curtis “Live at the Fillmore” era, taped as they both were just a few months before Curtis was so tragically murdered. We are all devastated that The Queen has left us, but hopefully this reworking of this magical tape will turn a little of that grief into the necessary celebration of a life lived as well as a human life can be lived. Farewell to Aretha Franklin – an artist whose music will never, ever die – and enjoy. (by Emperor Nobody)

Thanks to original uploader grooveon; and to Emperor Nobody (EN) for the remaster and for sharing the show at Dime.

Okay … Arthea Franklin … one of the greates ever … okay … lie at Montrreux … what a concert

Recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Casino, Montreux, Switzerland; June 12, 1971 (Early show). Fairly to very good FM broadcast.

Personnel:
King Curtis (saxophone)
Cornell Dupree (guitar)
Aretha Franklin (vocals, piano)
Jerry Jemmott (bass)
Pancho Morales (percussion)
Bernard Purdie (drums)
Truman Thomas (organ)
+
The Memphis Horns:
Jack Hale (trombone)
Roger Hopps (trumpet)
Wayne Jackson – trumpet
Andrew Love (saxophone)
Jimmy Mitchell (saxophone)
+
background vocals, percussion
Brenda Bryant – Margaret Branch – Pat Smith

Tracklist:
01. Soul Serenade (Ousley/Dixon) 3.23
02. Respect (Redding) 4.15
03. (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (Goffin/King/Wexler) 4.28
04. I Say A Little Prayer (Bacharach/David) 3.40
05. Call Me (Franklin) 6.55
06. Brand New Me (Gamble/Butler) 4.16
07. Share Your Love With Me (Braggs/Malone) 4.01
08. Don’t Play That Song (You Lied) (Ertegün/Nelson) 3.59
09. Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon) 5.53
10. Dr. Feelgood (Franklin/White) 6.50
11. Spirit In The Dark (Franklin) 6.04

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Aretha Louise Franklin (March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018)

Various Artists – That´s Soul 1 (1967)

Soul music (often referred to simply as soul) is a popular music genre that originated in the African American community in the United States in the 1950s and early 1960s. It combines elements of African-American gospel music, rhythm and blues and jazz. Soul music became popular for dancing and listening in the United States, where record labels such as Motown, Atlantic and Stax were influential during the Civil Rights Movement. Soul also became popular around the world, directly influencing rock music and the music of Africa.

According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is “music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of funky, secular testifying”. Catchy rhythms, stressed by handclaps and extemporaneous body moves, are an important feature of soul music. Other characteristics are a call and response between the lead vocalist and the chorus and an especially tense vocal sound. The style also occasionally uses improvisational additions, twirls and auxiliary sounds. Soul music reflected the African-American identity and it stressed the importance of an African-American culture. The new-found African-American consciousness led to new styles of music, which boasted pride in being black.

Soul music dominated the U.S. R&B chart in the 1960s, and many recordings crossed over into the pop charts in the U.S., Britain and elsewhere. By 1968, the soul music genre had begun to splinter. Some soul artists developed funk music, while other singers and groups developed slicker, more sophisticated, and in some cases more politically conscious varieties. By the early 1970s, soul music had been influenced by psychedelic rock and other genres, leading to psychedelic soul. The United States saw the development of neo soul around 1994. There are also several other subgenres and offshoots of soul music.

The key subgenres of soul include the Detroit (Motown) style, a more pop-friendly and rhythmic style; deep soul and southern soul, driving, energetic soul styles combining R&B with southern gospel music sounds; Memphis soul, a shimmering, sultry style; New Orleans soul, which came out of the rhythm and blues style; Chicago soul, a lighter gospel-influenced sound; Philadelphia soul, a lush orchestral sound with doo-wop-inspired vocals; psychedelic soul, a blend of psychedelic rock and soul music; as well as categories such as blue-eyed soul, which is soul music performed by white artists; British soul; and Northern soul, rare soul music played by DJs at nightclubs in Northern England. …

but in the Sixties Soul was a very imporant part of the international music scene … it was the golden age of Soul !

Writer Peter Guralnick is among those to identify Solomon Burke as a key figure in the emergence of soul music, and Atlantic Records as the key record label. Burke’s early 1960s songs, including “Cry to Me”, “Just Out of Reach” and “Down in the Valley” are considered classics of the genre. Guralnick wrote:

“Soul started, in a sense, with the 1961 success of Solomon Burke’s “Just Out Of Reach”. Ray Charles, of course, had already enjoyed enormous success (also on Atlantic), as had James Brown and Sam Cooke — primarily in a pop vein. Each of these singers, though, could be looked upon as an isolated phenomenon; it was only with the coming together of Burke and Atlantic Records that you could begin to see anything even resembling a movement.”

Aretha Franklin is widely known as the “Queen of Soul”

Ben E. King also achieved success in 1961 with “Stand By Me”, a song directly based on a gospel hymn.[5] By the mid-1960s, the initial successes of Burke, King and others had been surpassed by new soul singers, including Stax artists such as Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett, who mainly recorded in Memphis, Tennessee, and Muscle Shoals, Alabama. According to Jon Landau:[20]

“Between 1962 and 1964 Redding recorded a series of soul ballads characterized by unabashedly sentimental lyrics usually begging forgiveness or asking a girlfriend to come home…. He soon became known as “Mr. Pitiful” and earned a reputation as the leading performer of soul ballads.”

The most important female soul singer to emerge was Aretha Franklin, originally a gospel singer who began to make secular recordings in 1960 but whose career was later revitalised by her recordings for Atlantic. Her 1967 recordings, such as “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)”, “Respect” (written and originally recorded by Otis Redding), and “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man” (written by Chips Moman and Dan Penn), were significant and commercially successful productions.

Soul music dominated the U.S. African-American music charts in the 1960s, and many recordings crossed over into the pop charts in the U.S. Otis Redding was a huge success at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. The genre also became highly popular in the UK, where many leading acts toured in the late 1960s. “Soul” became an umbrella term for an increasingly wide variety of R&B-based music styles – from the dance and pop-oriented acts at Motown Records in Detroit, such as The Temptations, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, to “deep soul” performers such as Percy Sledge and James Carr. Different regions and cities within the U.S., including New York City, Detroit, Chicago, Memphis, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Muscle Shoals, Alabama (the home of FAME Studios and Muscle Shoals Sound Studios) became noted for different subgenres of the music and recording styles.

By 1968, while at its peak of popularity, soul began to fragment into disparate subgenres. Artists such as James Brown and Sly and the Family Stone evolved into funk music, while other singers such as Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield and Al Green developed slicker, more sophisticated and in some cases more politically conscious varieties of the genre. However, soul music continued to evolve, informing most subsequent forms of R&B from the 1970s-onward, with pockets of musicians continuing to perform in traditional soul style. (by wikipedia)

And here´s is he legendary Soul samper “That´s Soul 1” from 1967 … released by Atalntic Records, many tracks on this album are from the legendary Stax label:

Stax Records is an American record label, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the label changed its name to Stax Records in 1961 and shared its operations with Volt Records, a sister label created to avoid the impression of favoritism among radio stations playing their records.

Stax was influential in the creation of Southern soul and Memphis soul music. Stax also released gospel, funk, and blues recordings. Renowned for its output of blues music, the label was founded by two siblings and business partners, Jim Stewart and his sister Estelle Axton (STewart/AXton = Stax).

It featured several popular ethnically integrated bands (including the label’s house band, Booker T. & the M.G.’s) and a racially integrated team of staff and artists unprecedented in that time of racial strife and tension in Memphis and the South. According to ethnomusicologist Rob Bowman, the label’s use of “one studio, one equipment set-up, the same set of musicians and a small group of songwriters led to a readily identifiable sound. It was a sound based in black gospel, blues, country, and earlier forms of rhythm and blues. It became known as southern soul music.”

Following the death of Stax’s biggest star, Otis Redding, in 1967, and the severance of the label’s distribution deal with Atlantic Records in 1968, Stax continued primarily under the supervision of a new co-owner, Al Bell. Over the next five years, Bell expanded the label’s operations significantly, in order to compete with Stax’s main rival, Motown Records in Detroit. During the mid-1970s, a number of factors, including a problematic distribution deal with CBS Records, caused the label to slide into insolvency, resulting in its forced closure in late 1975.

In 1977, Fantasy Records acquired the post-1968 Stax catalogue and selected pre-1968 recordings. Beginning in 1978, Stax (now owned by Fantasy) began signing new acts and issuing new material, as well as reissuing previously recorded Stax material. However, by the early 1980s, no new material was being issued on the label, and for the next two decades, Stax was strictly a reissue label.

After Concord Records acquired Fantasy in 2004, the Stax label was reactivated, and is today used to issue both the 1968–1975 catalog material and new recordings by current R&B and soul performers. Atlantic Records continues to hold the rights to the vast majority of the 1959–1968 Stax material. (by wikipedia)

Yes … a legendary sampler … and if you would like to know, what´s soul all about … listen to this record !

Back cover (2nd pressing)

Tracklist:
01. Wilson Pickett: Mustang Sally (Rice) 3.08
02. Carla Thomas: B-a-b-y (Hayes/Porter) 2.56
03. Arthur Conley: Sweet Soul Music (Redding/Conley) 2.22
04. Percy Sledge: When A Man Loves A Woman (Lewis/Wright) 2.56
05. Sam & Dave: I Got Everything I Need (Cropper/Floyd/Isbell) 3.00
06. Ben E. King: What Is Soul (Gallo/King) 2.22
07. Aretha Franklin: I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You (Shannon) 2.50
06. Otis Redding: Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song) (Redding/Cropper) 2.44
07. Eddie Floyd: Knock On Wood (Cropper/Floyd) 3.07
08. Solomon Burke: Keep Looking (Burke) 2.41
09. Wilson Pickett: Land Of 1000 Dances (Kenner) 2.28
10. Joe Tex: Papa Was Too (Tex) 2.44
11. Percy Sledge: Warm And Tender Love (Robinson) 3.23
12. The Drifters: Baby What I Mean (Hamilton/Sheldon) 2.36

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Original back cover (1st pressing)

 

I got this item from Mr. Sleeve … what a great gift … thanky you very much !!!!

And here are the lyrics of “Sweet Soul Music”:

Do you like good music?
Huh, that sweet soul music
Just as long as it’s swinging
Oh, yeah

Way out here on the floor, ya’ll
Ah, going to a go-go
Dancing with the music
Oh, yeah

Spotlight on Lou Rawls, ya’ll
Ah, don’t he look boss, ya’ll
Singing ‘Love’s a Hurtin Thing’, yall
Oh, yeah

Spotlight on Sam and Dave, ya’ll
Oh, don’t they look great y’all?
Singing, ‘Hold On I’m Coming’
Oh, yeah

Spotlight on Wilson Pickett, now
That wicked Wilson Pickett
Singing, ‘Mustang Sally’
Oh, yeah

Spotlight on Otis Redding, now
Singing ‘Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa’
‘Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa’
Oh, yeah
Get it Otis

Spotlight on James Brown, ya’ll
He’s the king of them all, ya’ll
He’s the king of them all, ya’ll
Oh, yeah

Do ya like good music?
That sweet soul music
Just long as it’s swinging
Oh, yeah

I got to get the feeling
I got to get the feeling
Do ya like good music?
That sweet soul music
Help me get the feeling
I want to get the feeling
Otis Redding’s got the feeling

James Brown he got the feeling
Oh, I love good music

Aretha Franklin – The Tender, The Moving, The Swinging (1962)

The Tender, the Moving, the Swinging Aretha Franklin is the third studio album by American singer Aretha Franklin, Released on August 13, 1962 by Columbia Records. It was her first album to achieve any commercial success, reaching #69 on the Billboard pop album charts. Unlike its predecessor, however, it did not have a hit single. The album was recorded at Columbia Recording Studios, 799 Seventh Avenue, New York.

“Aretha is a natural. No matter what she sings – new songs like Without the One You Love (which she herself wrote) and Don’t Cry, Baby or time-tested standards like Try a Little Tenderness and I Apologize – she is completely free, uninhibited and thrilling”, Billy James, said.

“…Every step of the way, Aretha has grown. She has developed strength, assurance and style. She can be tender and moving, and she can swing. But there are none of the phony “hup’s”, “hey’s” and “ho’s” that are used liberally by performers anxious to tell the world that they are swingers. Instead, Aretha uses something else: talent. In a word, is a natural.” (by wikipedia)

Personnel:
Aretha Franklin (vocals)
+
a bunch of unknown studio musicians

Tracklist:
01. Don’t Cry, Baby (Bernie/Johnson/Unger) 3.24
02. Try A Little Tenderness (Campbell/Connelly/Woods) 3.17
03. I Apologize (Hoffman/Goodhart/Nelson) 2.54
04. Without The One You Love (Franklin) 2.49
05. Look For The Silver Lining (Kern/DeSylva) 3.05
06. I’m Sitting On Top Of The World (Henderson/Lewis/Young) 2.43
07. Just For A Thrill (Armstrong/Raye) 2.33
08. God Bless The Child (Holiday/Herzog, Jr.) 3.04
09. I’m Wandering (B.Gordy/Carlo) 3.27
10. How Deep Is The Ocean (Berlin) 2.49
11. I Don’t Know You Anymore (Geld/Udell) 2.50
12. Lover Come Back To Me (Romberg/Hammerstein II) 2.36

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Aretha Franklin – Songs Of Faith (1956)

Songs of Faith is the debut studio album by American singer Aretha Franklin, Released in 1956 by J.V.B./Battle Records. The album was recorded live when Franklin was aged 14 at New Bethel Baptist Church, the church of her father Reverend C. L. Franklin.

The album was originally issued on JVB LP 100 and Battle LP 6105. It is always known on Checker Records as Checker LPS-10009. Songs of Faith has been reissued many times under various names. It is known also as The Gospel Soul of Aretha Franklin, Aretha’s Gospel, Precious Lord, You Grow Closer, Never Grow Old, and The First Album. (by wikipedia)

Aretha Franklin’s birthplace, 406 Lucy Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee

One of the key voices in the R&B world, Aretha Franklin has enjoyed a six decade reign as the Queen of Soul. Her hits include some of the most iconic songs of the era, including such classics as Respect, Until You Come Back To Me and Think. Like many of her peers, Arethas career began in the church, and it is this period of her career that is the subject of this album. With the aid of local Detroit record label JVB, primitive and basic recording equipment was installed into the New Bethel Baptist Church where her father was minister. Nine tracks were recorded, featuring Aretha on vocals and piano accompaniment, with others in the congregation offering words of encouragement during the course of the recording. The historical and captivating performance is featured here in all its glory.

Taped live when the singer was 14, the noise of the congregation clearly audible over her voice and piano, Aretha Franklin’s debut album, Songs of Faith, remains a genuinely haunting, faintly eerie doc. ument of at least one side of life in her father’s New Bethel Baptist church. (by theguardian.com)

Listen … and you´ll know and understand, why Aretha Franklin was one of the finest singers in her time.

Beautiful gospel singing and piano from this 14-year-old superstar. (by Opal Nations)

Aretha Franklin with choreographer Cholly Atkins

Personnel:
Aretha Franklin (vocals, piano)
+
unknown background choir

Tracklist:
01. There Is A Fountain Filled With Blood (Cowper) 4.26
02. Precious Lord (Part One) (Dorsey) 3.23
03. Precious Lord (Part Two) (Dorsey) 2.51
04. You Grow Closer (Traditional) 2.43
05. Never Grow Old (Traditional) 2.55
06. The Day Is Past And Gone (Traditional) 4.57
07. He Will Wash You White As Snow (Traditional) 4.18
08. While The Blood Runs Warm (Traditional) 3.03
09. Yield Not To Temptation (Traditional) 2.56

 

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Aretha Franklin – Live At The Jazzfestival Antibes (1970)

Aretha Louise Franklin (March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer and pianist. She began her career as a child singing gospel at New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, where her father, C. L. Franklin, was minister. In 1960, at the age of 18, she embarked on a secular career, recording for Columbia Records but achieving only modest success. After signing to Atlantic Records in 1966, Franklin achieved commercial acclaim and success with songs such as “Respect”, “Chain of Fools”, “Think”, “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman”, “Don’t Play That Song (You Lied)”, and “Spanish Harlem”.

By the end of the 1960s she was being called “The Queen of Soul”. Franklin recorded acclaimed albums such as I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You (1967), Lady Soul (1968), Young, Gifted and Black (1972) and Amazing Grace (1972), before experiencing problems with her record company by the mid-1970s. After her father was shot in 1979, she left Atlantic and signed with Arista Records, finding success with the albums Jump to It (1982) and Who’s Zoomin’ Who? (1985), and her part in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers. In 1998, Franklin received international acclaim for singing the opera aria “Nessun dorma” at the Grammy Awards that year, replacing Luciano Pavarotti. Later that year, she scored her final Top 40 song with “A Rose Is Still a Rose”.

Franklin recorded 112 charted singles on Billboard, including 77 Hot 100 entries, 17 top-ten pop singles, 100 R&B entries and 20 number-one R&B singles, becoming the most charted female artist in the chart’s history. Franklin’s other well-known hits include “Rock Steady”, “Jump to It”, “Freeway of Love”, “Who’s Zoomin’ Who”, “Until You Come Back to Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do)”, “Something He Can Feel”, “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)” (with George Michael), and a remake of The Rolling Stones song “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”. She won 18 Grammy Awards, including the first eight awards given for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance from 1968 through to 1975, and is one of the best-selling musical artists of all time, having sold more than 75 million records worldwide.

Franklin received numerous honors throughout her career, including a 1987 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, becoming the first female performer to be inducted. She was inducted to the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. In August 2012, she was inducted into the GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame. Franklin is listed in at least two all-time lists by Rolling Stone magazine, including the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, and the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.

After being raised in Detroit, Franklin relocated to New York City in the 1960s, where she lived until moving to Los Angeles in the mid-1970s. She eventually settled in Encino, Los Angeles where she lived until 1982. She then returned to the Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan to be close to her ailing father and siblings. Franklin maintained a residence there until her death. Following an incident in 1984, she cited a fear of flying that prevented her from traveling overseas; she performed only in North America afterwards. Franklin was the mother of four sons. She first became pregnant at the age of 12 (!) and gave birth to her first child, named Clarence after her father, on January 28, 1955. According to the news site Inquisitr, “The father of the child was Donald Burk, a boy she knew from school.” On January 22, 1957, then aged 14 (!), Franklin had a second child, named Edward after his father Edward Jordan. Franklin did not like to discuss her early pregnancies with interviewers.

Both children took her family name. While Franklin was pursuing her career and “hanging out with [friends]”, Franklin’s grandmother Rachel and sister Erma took turns raising the children. Franklin would visit them often. Franklin’s third child, Ted White Jr., was born in February 1964 and is known professionally as Teddy Richards. He has provided guitar backing for his mother’s band during live concerts. Her youngest son, Kecalf Cunningham was born in 1970 and is the child of her road manager Ken Cunningham.

Franklin was married twice. Her first husband was Theodore “Ted” White, whom she married in 1961 at age 19. Franklin had actually seen White the first time at a party held at her house in 1954. After a contentious marriage that involved domestic violence, Franklin separated from White in 1968, divorcing him in 1969. Franklin then married her second husband, actor Glynn Turman, on April 11, 1978 at her father’s church. By marrying Turman, Franklin became stepmother of Turman’s three children from a previous marriage. Franklin and Turman separated in 1982 after Franklin returned to Michigan from California, and they divorced in 1984. At one point, Franklin had plans to marry her longtime companion Willie Wilkerson. Franklin and Wilkerson had had two previous engagements stretching back to 1988. Franklin eventually called the 2012 engagement off. Franklin’s sisters, Erma and Carolyn, were professional musicians as well and spent years performing background vocals on Franklin’s recordings. Following Franklin’s divorce from Ted White, her brother Cecil became her manager, and maintained that position until his death from lung cancer on December 26, 1989. Sister Carolyn died the previous year in April 1988 from breast cancer, while eldest sister Erma died from throat cancer in September 2002. Franklin’s step-brother Vaughn died two months after Erma in late 2002. Her half-sister, Carl Kelley (née Jennings; born 1940) is C. L. Franklin’s daughter by Mildred Jennings, a then 12-year-old congregant of New Salem Baptist Church in Memphis, where C. L. was pastor.

In 2010, Franklin canceled a number of concerts, after she decided to have surgery for an undisclosed tumor. Discussing the surgery in 2011, she quoted her doctor as saying that it would “add 15 to 20 years” to her life. She denied that the ailment had anything to do with pancreatic cancer, as had been rumored. On May 19, 2011, Franklin had her comeback show in the Chicago Theatre. In May 2013, she canceled two performances to deal with an undisclosed medical treatment. Later the same month, she canceled three June concerts and planned to return to perform in July. A show scheduled for July 27 in Clarkston, Michigan was canceled due to continued medical treatment. In addition, she canceled an appearance at a Major League Baseball luncheon in Chicago honoring her commitment to civil rights on August 24. She also canceled a performance of September 21 in Atlanta due to her health recovery. During a phone interview with the Associated Press in late August 2013, Franklin stated that she had a “miraculous” recovery from her undisclosed illness but had to cancel shows and appearances until her health was at 100%, estimating she was about “85% healed”. Franklin later returned to live performing, including a 2013 Christmas concert at Detroit’s MotorCity Casino Hotel. She launched a multi-city tour in mid-2014, starting with a performance on June 14 in New York at Radio City Music Hall.

In 2017, Franklin canceled a series of concerts due to health reasons. During an outdoor Detroit show, she asked the audience to “keep me in your prayers”. In July 2017, Franklin reemerged, appearing to have lost more weight before a performance at the Wolf Trap in Virginia. In 2018, she canceled a series of shows, citing doctor’s orders. Franklin’s final performance was at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York City during Elton John’s 25th anniversary gala for the Elton John AIDS Foundation on November 7, 2017.

On August 13, 2018, Franklin was reported to be gravely ill at her home in Riverfront Towers, Detroit. She was reported to be under hospice care and surrounded by friends and family. Stevie Wonder, Jesse Jackson, and ex-husband Glynn Turman, among others, visited her on her deathbed. Franklin died at her home on August 16, 2018, aged 76. The cause was reported to be pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor. Numerous celebrities in the entertainment industry and politicians paid tribute to Franklin, including former U.S. president Barack Obama who said she “helped define the American experience”. Civil rights activist and minister Al Sharpton called her a “civil rights and humanitarian icon”.

A private funeral was arranged for August 31, following a two-day public viewing of Franklin’s casket at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit. (by wikipedia)

To honor this great woman … here´s a rare live broadcast recording from 1970, recorded live at the Jazzfestival Antibes/France.

Thanks to cosmikd for sharing the show at Dime.

Recorded live at the Festival de Jazz d’Antibes, Juan-les-Pins,
Antibes, France; July 21, 1970. Very good FM broadcast.

Personnel:
Hindel Butts (drums)
Aretha Franklin (piano, vocals)
Leslie Harvey (guitar)
Melvin Jackson (bass)
Ted Sheely (piano)
Truman Thomas (organ)
+
trumpets:
Donald Towns – John Wilson – Charles Horse – Clay Robinson

trombones:
Chancey Outcalt – René Pitts

saxophones:
Louis Barnett – Miller Brisker – Donald Walden – Charlie Gabriel

background vocals:
Evelyn Green, – Almeta Latimer – Wyline Ivy

Tracklist:
01. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (Jagger/Richards) 3.03
02. Respect (Redding) 3.15
03. (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (Goffin/King/Wexler) 4.18
04. I Say A Little Prayer (Bacharach/David) 4:31
05. Eleanor Rigby (Lennon/McCartney) 3.10
06. (Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You’ve Been Gone (Franklin/White) 4.54
07. Tighten Up Your Tie, Button Up Your Jacket (Make It For The Door) (Dawn) 1.53
08. Put On A Happy Face (Adams/Strouse) 2.26
09. A Brand New Me (Gamble/Bell/Butler) 3.04
10. Doctor Feelgood (Franklin/White) 4.36
11. You Send Me (Cooke) 5.23
12. Spirit In The Dark (Franklin) 11.41

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Aretha Franklin:
25th March 1942 Memphis, Tennessee, USA
16th August 2018 Detroit, Michigan, USA

REST IN PEACE !