In 1990, Alan Elliott was a newly hired A&R man at Atlantic Records when he took a get-acquainted meeting with one of the label’s Mount Rushmore figures, producer Jerry Wexler. Wexler’s days with Aretha Franklin soon came up. “He said to me, ‘You heard Amazing Grace, right?’” recalls Elliott, referring …
Read More »
Gladys Knight fronted a soulful gospel tribute to the late Aretha Franklin on Tuesday at the 2018 American Music Awards. Ledisi, Mary Mary, Donnie McClurkin and CeCe Winans joined for the all-star medley performance, which highlighted Franklin’s gospel roots and herseminal 1972 album,Amazing Grace. Knight opened the show-closing set with …
Read More »
Smokey Robinson remembered his childhood friend and frequent duet partner Aretha Franklin Friday in an interview with CBS This Morning. “She has left us with a musical legacy that kids who have not even been born yet will get a chance to experience,” Robinson said of the Queen of Soul …
Read More »
It was a small moment that would reverberate for decades. On January 24th, 1967, Aretha Franklin was struggling to record “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You),” her first project for Atlantic after several years recording more conventional material for Columbia. As Franklin would recall, something with …
Read More »
Bonnie Raitt‘s teenage world was transformed when she heard Franklin’sAretha Franklin‘s 1967 LP INever Loved a Man (the Way I Love You). “I loved everything about her,” Raitt told Rolling Stone in 2003. “I loved the way she looked, I loved the ache in her heart, and her sass.” So …
Read More »