[5/21/2012 Steppers Song Of The Day] Wonderful by Aretha Franklin #stepperssongoftheday 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 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 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.
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 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 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
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. More Below
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 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. 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. Many of her
successes were duets, or crafted with the assistance of contemporaries
such as Luther Vandross. 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. There was also another
return to gospel in 1987 with One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism.
Franklin 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.
Now solidly an iconic figure and acknowledged as one of the best singers
of her generation no matter what her record sales were, Franklin
contributed songs to several movie soundtracks in the next few years
before releasing the R&B-based A Rose Is Still a Rose in 1998.
So Damn Happy followed five years later in 2003 and again saw
disappointing sales, but it did generate the Grammy-winning song “Wonderful.”
Franklin left Arista Records that same year after 23 years and started
her own label, Aretha's Records, two years later in 2005. A duets
compilation, Jewels in the Crown: All-Star Duets with the Queen,
was issued in 2007, followed by her first holiday album, 2008's This
Christmas Aretha, originally as a Borders exclusive and then
distributed by DMI. The first release on her own label, Aretha: A
Woman Falling Out of Love, appeared in the spring of 2011. Despite
sometimes poor health, she continued to select new projects to work on,
ever the institution, her reputation secure as one of the best singers
of the modern era.
Aretha Franklin - Baby, Baby, Baby
Aretha Franklin – Call Me
Aretha Franklin - Don't Play That Song
Aretha Franklin - It Only Happens (When I Look At You)
Aretha Franklin - One Step Ahead
Aretha Franklin - One Step Ahead / Re Edit ft. Marvin Gaye
Aretha Franklin - Sparkle
Aretha Franklin - U Can't See Me
Aretha Franklin - Until You Come Back To Me
Aretha Franklin - Wonderful and
4 more
Sources: Steppers Music Group,
Steppers Songs List Freebase (Richie Unterberger & Steve Leggett), IMDB, Wikipedia
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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.
