Aretha Franklin (62 page)

When the song came to a conclusion, she received a heartfelt and joyfully cheering standing ovation that had the flavor of a church “revival meeting.” While she had the audience in a church-going mood, Aretha presented her twelfth song, “One Night with the King,” the gospel ballad she recorded on her 2009 Christmas album. According to the song, “One night with the king” certainly “changes everything.” However that night in suburban Detroit, it was the “Queen” who changed everything. After she finished the song, she announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, I've had a wonderful, wonderful evening tonight.” Then she turned to leave the stage.

As she moved towards the wings of the huge outdoor amphitheater, she announced, “My son Eddie got on the freeway and is here tonight.” She also pointed to one her guitar players, who was another of her sons: “Teddy is up here on the stage, he is a graduate of Michigan State [University],” she proudly proclaimed. Tonight, surrounded by her hometown crowd of family and friends, Aretha wasn't just the star of the show, she was also the local suburban mom and grandmother.

As she was led off-stage, the appreciative Detroit crowd was on its feet, cheering with enthusiasm for their one and only Queen of Soul. Fortunately for them, she returned to the stage and said, “Let's get on the freeway!” With that, there was a huge anticipatory roar of enthusiasm from the audience. “Did you come up I-75?” Aretha asked, referring to Detroit's main freeway.

Unquestionably, Ms. Franklin was about to musically take her throng of Motor City fans down the fabled “Freeway of Love.” As she sashayed on center stage, she announced that she was about to deliver “A major throwdown!” while she boogied all of us to the entrance ramp to the freeway. She proceeded to sing a rousing version of her gigantic award-winning song from 1985, which was all about big pink Cadillacs and several other fun Detroit-oriented images.

After an extended and exciting version of “Freeway of Love,” she waved to the crowd and said “Good night!” It was 9:30 p.m. at this point, and the audience made it clear they were not ready to get on I-75 and leave the Pine Knob area yet. This crowd of thousands of her local hometown fans were on their feet cheering and applauding wildly for more.

As Aretha disappeared from the stage again, the cover of her latest album flashed on the huge projection screens as the orchestra vamped. “The Queen!” proclaimed the announcer over the loudspeakers. And again, Franklin came back to the stage. As she returned, she again moved to center stage, this time wearing a full-length satin jacket over her silver sequined dress, to do an encore chorus of “Freeway of Love.”

“She has to do ‘Respect' doesn't she?” I heard someone in the audience inquire of the person next to them. Just as the question was asked, the music for Aretha's signature hit began to play. It was her fourteenth song of the evening, and she fittingly used “Respect” as her encore number. It
was delivered with all of the fire that she had put into the original version of the song that topped the charts in 1967, and welded her into rock & roll and soul history. As the song came to an end, Aretha proclaimed, “I want to thank you,” which drew a huge round of applause. She continued, “I've been to London, been to Paris, to Germany. But there is no place like Detroit, Michigan!” Franklin then blew a kiss to the cheering crowd as she exited stage right. However, the applause and cheering continued so wildly that she came back for another bow before exiting the stage one last time.
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Aretha had come home, and all of the Motor City was glad to have her back. Her show only lasted an hour and a half, and only encompassed fourteen songs, yet it proved beyond a doubt that she was in incredibly strong voice. Those fourteen songs were all that it took to let all of us Detroit fans know who our hometown queen is, and that she was far from finished with her soulful reign.

She had overcome her physical illness of the previous year. Her broken toe had healed enough to allow her to wear her beloved high heeled shoes again. She had proven to audiences in various parts of the country that she had her voice and her strength back together again. Now it was time to show the world that her recording career could be somehow “jump started” again. In September of 2011 she was about to prove that in a most interesting way. And it took the classiness of Tony Bennett and the production mastery of Phil Ramone to do it.

Tony Bennett had recorded and released an album in 2006 called
Duets: An American Classic
. It became a hugely successful album, and featured Bennett singing songs with such luminaries as Barbra Streisand, James Taylor, Elton John, Billy Joel, and Paul McCartney. The original album was produced by well-respected music man Phil Ramone. When it won a Grammy Award and was certified Platinum, it seemed to be a winning musical formula worth repeating.

It was decided that it would be released to commemorate Tony Bennett's recent 85th birthday (August 3), and that it would contain a various group of fresh new voices, and some classic recording artists as well. For Tony's duet partners on his 2011
Duets II
album, the list of singers he chose really ran the gamut—from newcomers like Lady Gaga,
John Mayer, and Amy Winehouse—to more established acts like Willie Nelson, Natalie Cole, and Aretha Franklin. Again it was the wonderfully talented Phil Ramone who produced this album's classy and snappy music.

For the Aretha Franklin and Tony Bennett duet, the beautiful Michel Legrand / Alan Bergman / Marilyn Bergman song “How Do You Keep the Music Playing” was chosen. It proved to be the perfect selection for the pair.

Unlike the famed
Duets
and
Duets II
albums that Phil Ramone produced for Frank Sinatra in the 1990s, this time around all of the vocalists were actually in the recording studio with Tony Bennett. To accomplish this, Bennett and Ramone literally flew around the world to record many of these songs.

The brilliance of this strategy is especially evidenced in the Lady Gaga, Amy Winehouse, and Aretha Franklin tracks. On each of these songs, you can tell that Tony is having a lot of fun in the recording studio adlibbing with his singing partners.

Released on September 20, 2011, Tony Bennett's
Duets II
received a huge sales push on television, and it really knocked the project “through the goal post” in terms of sales. Listening to the beautiful and excitingly orchestrated and lushly produced duet between Aretha and Tony, it is immediately evident that it is vastly better than any track on her Wal-Mart album. It so clearly benefits from being overseen by a producer like Phil Ramone who knows what to do with two such classic—yet very different— voices as Tony's and Aretha's.

The press reviews were instantly glowing.
Rolling Stone
magazine proclaimed, “Aretha Franklin and Bennett blow the roof off ‘How Do You Keep the Music Playing.'”
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In
The Los Angeles Times
Mikael Wood wrote, “It's a beautiful bummer to hear Winehouse do her best Billie Holiday in ‘Body and Soul.' A clunky, chemistry-free collaboration with John Mayer . . . Bennett fares better in gorgeous duets with k.d. lang and Aretha Franklin.”
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And,
CBS News
beamed about, “Norah Jones gorgeously singing in just above a whisper on ‘Speak Low'; Mariah Carey showing unusual restraint on ‘When Do the Bells Ring For Me,' and Aretha Franklin pushing Bennett to a rousing climax on ‘How Do You Keep the Music Playing.'”
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The week of October 1, 2011, the Tony Bennett
Duets II
album debuted on the
Billboard
magazine Hot 200 album chart at Number One! Surprisingly,
Duets II
, is the first and only Number One non-soundtrack pop album that Aretha Franklin has ever recorded or appeared on in her entire career. She has had ten Number One R&B albums in the past, and
Waiting to Exhale
hit Number One in the nineties, but she had never appeared on a Number One pop album on the
Billboard
charts in America that wasn't tied to a film. This became a dazzlingly brilliant new high point in her career, and it was a class act like Tony Bennett who gave her this wonderful distinction. In a year of many missteps, this album set a creative new Twenty-First Century high-water mark for Aretha. The Queen of Soul was officially back on top of the charts where she belonged!

What is it that makes Aretha Franklin great? Is it the individual songs? Is it the individual albums? Is it the inspiring sound of her voice? Is it the inspiring concerts she has delivered? Is it her diva attitude? Or is it because she is a colorful and a bigger-than-life pop music icon? In a way, it is “all of the above.”

Aretha has had five major phases to her career. First there was the gospel prodigy phase she lived from the age of fourteen to the time she was eighteen. Then came her jazz / pop diva era at Columbia Records. Next came her reign as the Queen of Soul at Atlantic Records from the late sixties—starting with song “Respect.” Her fourth era was her twenty-three year run as a huge hit-maker at Arista Records. And ever since 2003 when she left Arista Records, Aretha has been in her “legend” phase. It is an era where she only occasionally makes record-breaking music, yet she dabbles in new music from time-to-time, and happily shows up to receive awards, or to be saluted by her peers, or she hangs out in Detroit and has record producers or TV crews come to her.

It seemed that when her major health crisis began in 2010, it put the spotlight squarely on Aretha again, after seven years of resting on her laurels. With a hit-filled, and dramatic life lived for over fifty years in the spotlight, Aretha Franklin is a true legend, and an incredible survivor.

It is not easy being the Queen of Soul. It is acknowledged that for many years Aretha has been the victim of many of the men in her life. Her father dominating her as a child, the two children she had by the time
she was sixteen years old, her reportedly abusive first marriage, her many emotional struggles, and her sons' legal battles, somehow have only made her stronger.

Not everyone was sure that she could survive all of the challenges that were put upon her. When Clyde Otis was interviewed for this book in 1988, he explained, “I did hear many a wild tale … I'm surprised that she is still alive today, and didn't just jump off a roof somewhere.”
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However, whatever the challenges were, Aretha stood tall and faced them.

Not only did Aretha survive the traumas and dramas of her early life, she managed to turn her life experiences into some of the most dramatic and memorable songs of the Twentieth Century. She has made a mark on the world of popular culture and soul music that will never be forgotten.

After her initial reign of hit records and ten Grammy Awards while at Atlantic Records in 1960s and 1970s, when disco music ruled the airwaves, she could have easily faded away as a nostalgia act. Instead, in 1980 she moved to Arista Records to score the biggest selling records of her career, and to be presented with another ten Grammy Awards.

When the word “diva” started to become associated with female performers outside the world of the opera—in the 1980s—Aretha was instantly classified as a “diva” supreme. According to definition, a “diva” is a talented and expressive singer who is also a “prima donna.” In all fairness, Aretha has worked overtime to become a “diva” in every sense of the word. She has staunchly defended her crown as the Queen of Soul, as witnessed by her many competitive battles with other divas, including: Patti LaBelle, Martha Reeves, Diana Ross, Natalie Cole, Mavis Staples, Whitney Houston, Beyoncé, and most recently—Tina Turner.

Many of her diva peers in the music business have been following Aretha's career since the very beginning, especially the singers and musicians who also lived in the Motor City. Freda Payne started out singing and recording jazz albums in the sixties, and then became a pop and rock star in the seventies with a string of hits including “Band of Gold.” Freda fondly recalls, “When I grew up in Detroit, I knew who Aretha was because we had a mutual friend whose name was Donald Meadows. He always told me what Aretha was up to, and he told her what I was up to as well. It
was the 1950s, and we were both around twelve years old at the time. Detroit was ‘in its heyday' back then. I remember the first time I heard Aretha sing. It was in the early sixties, and the song was ‘Today I Sing the Blues.' I was instantly impressed with her musicianship, her voice, and the extreme soulfulness of her singing style. I always knew that she had ‘it.' Aretha sang standards, jazz, and blues, but it wasn't until she signed with Atlantic Records in the sixties her legendary rise to fame began. Before that it was Diana Washington who was known as the Queen of the Blues, until her death. Aretha's music was so moving and wonderful. And, from the beginning, it has always been very well produced. Then, her big break finally came with the release of ‘Respect.'”
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With regard to Aretha's personality, Freda explains, “When I first met her, I found her to be a very private person and not very friendly. It was almost as if there were a wall up. Since that time she has been more friendly with me. In fact, I felt we could be girlfriends being as we're in the same age group and we have experienced so much in our careers. I was highly flattered when she hired me to perform at her birthday party back in the nineties, and I got to know her a little better.”
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According to Payne, “Aretha will always be special in my mind because her recordings are flawless and for years to come, they will leave an unforgettable historical impression for America.”
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Sarah Dash, whose big post-LaBelle disco hit was “Sinner Man,” has known Aretha since the sixties. Sarah recalls, “The first time I saw Aretha was on television, and then live at Madison Square Garden. I was greatly impressed with her voice and her ability to slam those gorgeous chords on the piano. Her music was very uplifting, especially the song ‘Ain't No Way.' When I first met her she was very gracious and soft spoken. Her father was with her. She has surpassed all in the industry. She has become ‘The Queen' over all singers. Aretha will always be special to me because, like her, I started singing in the church. Both being P.K.'s (Preacher's Kids), we've still managed to keep our faith in God. We both came from a strong church upbringing, and then went into show business. I also admire her for having the ability to cross over into opera as well. I got to see her perform with Condoleezza Rice, and Aretha was nothing short of awesome. She
is
the best.”
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