Aretha Franklin (29 page)

The album kicked off with the title cut, which was a lush duet with Aretha and George Benson. The song became the LP's big hit single, peaking at Number Forty-six on the pop chart. Aretha really rocked out on her exciting interpretation of the Rolling Stones' “You Can't Always Get What You Want,” and she sizzled with her version of Sam & Dave's 1966 hit “Hold On I'm Comin'.” She also revamped the song “It's My Turn,” which had been a hit for Diana Ross. The Franklin rendition bristled with new-found feeling. The pace of the song was slowed down a bit, with Aretha's own emotion-guided piano-playing highlighted.

Two of the songs on the album, “Whole Lot of Me” and “Kind of Man,” were written by Aretha. She also co-produced a trio of songs with Mardin including “Truth and Honesty,” which was penned by Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager, and Peter Allen. The balance between the
up-tempo songs and the ballads was maintained by the consistent high quality of the music. The crisp and distinctive sound of this album is miles ahead of its predecessor.
Love All the Hurt Away
ended up hitting Number Thirty-six on the
Billboard
album charts, becoming her first LP to crack the Top Forty in six years.

Among the musicians on the album were Jeff Porcaro, Steve Lukather, and David Paich of the group Toto; Louis Johnson of the funk duo the Brothers Johnson; keyboard master Greg Phillinganes, and percussionist Paulinho Da Costa. Reverend James Cleveland directed the background choir on “You Can't Always Get What You Want.” The singers backing Aretha included Cissy Houston; Darlene Love; and Linda Lawrence, a former member of the Supremes.

The album cover alone was worth the cost of the LP. Aretha was depicted like a Hollywood star of the 1930s, sitting atop a stack of suitcases, showing off her shapely legs to full advantage. The effect was wonderful, with Aretha striking a Marlene Dietrich-like pose. The photographer was the legendary George Hurrell, whose portraits of Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Veronica Lake, Marlene Dietrich, and all of the great ladies of the movies had made him a star in his own right. The suitcase-pose concept was credited to Aretha.

“George Hurrell photographed many of the great ladies of the screen, in what was called ‘Hollywood's Golden Era,' and of course he had to photograph
moi
!” she laughs. “So we gave it the ‘total' look, and we did a little takeoff on the Hollywood glamour-girl-type thing where the girl is sitting on all of the suitcases, and the photographers are all running all over the place, and flashes are going off everywhere. I thought it turned out quite nice.”

According to her, the most fun she had during the recording of this album was doing her duet with George Benson. “I love George Benson, love to hear him sing,” Aretha proclaims. “We got in the studio late one night. I was doing my session, and he was doing his session, and then he had to leave his session to come over to mine, and we put it on. There was a lot of atmosphere there that night. The lights were down low, and we just kind of got into a groove, and had a good time. ‘Love All the Hurt Away'—we did!”

In many ways,
Love All the Hurt Away
was just what the doctor ordered to cure Aretha's record-sales ills. The title-cut single received plenty of airplay, and she was sounding more focused, centered, and happy with her life.

This was the height of her life in the lap of luxury, Hollywood-style. She and Glynn Turman and their combined family lived together in a large mansion in Encino, California, not far from Michael Jackson and his family. The house sat on a three-acre lot with many trees and beautifully landscaped gardens. The plush San Fernando Valley setting was befitting of a star of the stature that Aretha had attained.

Dennis Fine recalls Aretha's West Coast home with awe. It was decorated in pink, with a huge swimming pool in the backyard. “I was amazed when I saw the house in Encino—the pink house. It looked like something out of the forties or the thirties. You could see the bedrooms upstairs when you came in from the hallway. And there were two curved staircases that flowed downward.”

Aretha's son Edward had gotten married in mid-1980, and the wedding was held at the “pink house.” The ceremony was performed by Reverend James Cleveland, alongside the swimming pool. Three hundred guests attended, and were served hors d'oeuvres afterward. That evening a formal, sit-down dinner was held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.

She had a lovely home and a devoted husband, and she had reached a nice plateau in her life. With the exception of her father being in a coma in Detroit those past few years, it looked as though her personal life was all in order.

According to her at the time, “When I come home, I'm one of the family—I'm a mother and wife. No there
aren't
two Arethas. One part of me is the singer, and the other part is the family person—but we're all the
same
! I like to stay home and I like to go out too. But it's important for me to be with my family, so I spend as much time as I can with them.”

Speaking about his wife's devotion to her craft, Glynn pointed out that “people just don't realize how hard Aretha works at what she does. Sure, she has a natural gift, but she's always practicing, always keeping in shape vocally.”

Glowing about her marriage, Aretha said, “He does his acting thing, and I do my singing thing. We do a lot of things together. We have a lot of laughs together.” Their favorite restaurants were the unglamorous spots with great food, like “that South Town soul food place in Hollywood,” Aretha said. “Their fried chicken is the greatest. But that doesn't take away from the delicious soul food my uncle serves at his place out on Adams. Greens, corn pone—his is the best. Glynn and I go over there all the time. Uncle Vernon used to have a place in Chicago, then he opened up out here, Chef Rose's Eat Shop and Soul Food. And Glynn and I go to church together. Always a Baptist one, though.”

Elaborating on the “two Arethas,” public and private, she was to explain, “There are people in all my audiences who can relate to me just like I am. There may have been some emotional conflicts in my life that have played upon my stage work, but there again, what woman does not have those same problems? They say I drank a lot. Well, I don't drink now. Not at all. I have no emotional hang-ups. No problems. Just those of everyday nature that all people have. Oh there are some, but I always solve them, if they concern me, whether I created them or not. Above all, I am happy. Thank God for that. I read a lot, newspapers, magazines, and books. I love biographies, stories of how other people made it in the world. I watch television news and even the normal escapist shows. I love musicals. Glynn and I make TV commercials together for the NAACP.”

Aretha was very content in her life with Glynn Turman, and she felt fulfilled and secure. These days were among her happiest. They both benefited from their marriage: he had given her the confidence in her acting ability when she appeared in
The Blues Brothers
, and he was encouraging her to pursue further acting roles. She loved talking about him in interviews, and she drew him into her spotlight. Often they were the subject of “couples” articles in magazines, including
People
. He would frequently accompany her to public appearances, press conferences, and special events. When he appeared out of town in theatrical productions, she would fly across the country to be by his side.

In the fall of 1981, Aretha was asked to cut the ribbon that officially opened the Los Angeles Street Scene Festival, presented by the mayor's office, and Glynn went along with her. The festival was held in
downtown Los Angeles, as a multiethnic cultural event, complete with live entertainment, food, and displays. Barbara Shelley decided that she would surprise Aretha by serving her a complete soul food breakfast in the back of her limousine on their way from Encino to downtown L.A. Barbara thought that the breakfast would add a wonderful touch to the morning, since Aretha was not an “A.M. person.” The event became a comedy of errors.

“We had to be downtown at something like seven or eight o'clock in the morning, which was outrageously early,” explains Barbara. “The press conference was at nine in the morning, but I had to have Aretha there at 8:30. She had agreed to do it, but she hates to do anything before noon. The record company provided us with a limousine, and I bought a hot plate, and I went to the automotive store and got an attachment that would plug into the cigarette lighter of the limo. We stopped at the soul food restaurant on Sunset Boulevard, and we picked up grits, biscuits, and gravy, and I kept everything heating on the hot plate on our way out to Encino to pick up Aretha and Glynn. Of course, when she got into the limousine, she laughed. She thought that was very funny and sweet. We had our little soul food breakfast on our way downtown to the Mayor's Office. When we arrived there, Mayor Tom Bradley was extremely grateful that a big star like Aretha Franklin would come down for the Street Scene.” The ribbon-cutting went without a hitch. The morning was a huge success—until they attempted to leave.

When Aretha, Glynn, and Barbara returned to the limousine, the battery was dead. Barbara had forgotten to turn off the hot plate. She felt terrible, but she claims that Aretha kept her cool while they were stuck in the middle of the Street Scene without transportation. “You try to do everything right, and thanks to me, nobody could leave until the limo company sent another limo downtown,” Barbara recalls. “There we sat, Aretha, Glynn, and me. We started sampling the various food displays at the Street Scene. It must have been 90 degrees, it was so damn hot! Of course, during that time, fans were coming over for autographs, and she was being imposed upon in every possible way that you don't want to happen at these events. Exactly what you try to avoid. Aretha was a total lady through the whole thing. She was so polite about it. She said, ‘You know,
when it comes to things like this, I've learned the only thing you can do is just wait and relax.'

“A
not-fun
morning was had by all,” Barbara recalls. “But Aretha was delightful through the whole thing. You know, I was a nervous wreck. Of course, the limo company finally did send another limo, and we did send Aretha and Glynn back to Encino. By the time I got back home to Hollywood, I wanted to commit suicide!”

In December of 1981, Aretha played three nights at the Roxy in Los Angeles. Performing at the intimate rock & roll club on Sunset Strip the week before Christmas, she won the praise of audiences and critics alike.
The Los Angeles Times
found that the shows were “a treat for those of us who wished she would go back to what she does best: pure unadulterated soul music … Franklin—once plagued by much-publicized personal problems—concentrated on songs that stressed the healing and triumphant powers of love.”
The Los Angeles Herald-Examiner
called her a “do right woman who can do no wrong.”

Finally, after a six-year cold spell, Aretha was officially back in the winner's circle. In January of 1982, when the Grammy Award nominations were released, Aretha's recording of “Hold On I'm Comin'” was up for honors in the “Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female” category. The following month, she won her eleventh Grammy Award.

Aretha's third Arista album, the ultra-hot
Jump to It
, returned her to the Gold standard. It was years since she had had a bona fide hit, and this was considered her big comeback album. It was also the first of two impressive back-to-back albums with Luther Vandross producing.

Luther Vandross became an overnight success as a singer / songwriter / producer in 1981, when he released his Gold album
Never Too Much
. However, like so many entertainers who suddenly find commercial fame, Luther's emergence on the music scene came after many years of working in the business. In the 1970s he sang on several Gold and Platinum albums, including David Bowie's
Young Americans
, Chic's
C'est Chic
, Quincy Jones'
Sounds … and Stuff Like That
, and the soundtrack to the film
The Wiz
. He also sang background vocals on albums by Bette Midler, Cat Stevens, and Carly Simon. In 1976 he formed his own group called Luther, and released two critically acclaimed albums:
Luther
(1976) and
This Close to You
(1977).

Vandross grew up in Manhattan, in the Alfred E. Smith housing project near Chinatown, and in the Bronx, where he attended high school. He was destined to find his way into the record business. According to him, his mother was instrumental in developing his musical taste from an early age. “Her influence was incredible,” he recalls. “But in a subliminal way. My brother would get a bicycle for Christmas. I would get records by Aretha Franklin. She knew instinctively that I would spend my life surrounded by music.” He studied every nuance of Aretha's albums, and was later to profess to
The New York Times
, “I'm an Arethacologist!”

Remembering the most traumatic event of his high school years, Luther tells of his feeling of sincere devastation, and how it affected his schoolwork. “I couldn't study,” he says in dead seriousness, “Diana Ross left the Supremes!” He grew up idolizing Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross, and Aretha Franklin.

In the 1970s, Luther began to build a reputation as a background singer, vocal arranger, and a songwriter. His song “Funky Music (Is a Part of Me)” went through a slight rewrite to become the David Bowie song “Fascination,” from the
Young Americans
album. When a song was needed for the Broadway show
The Wiz
, it was Luther's composition “Everybody Rejoice” that supplanted “Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead,” in the soulful musical version of
The Wizard of Oz
.

In the late seventies, Luther began lending his voice to radio and television jingles, and in 1980 he was one of the lead vocalists on the album
The Glow of Love
, by the “studio group” Change. Based on his track record on all of these projects, in 1981 he signed a recording contract with Epic Records. His debut album,
Never Too Much
, was released, and everything came together for Vandross; the vocal prowess, the choice of songs, and the crisp production work yielded spectacular results.