Aretha Franklin
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Aretha Franklin: Hey Now Hey (Atlantic)
Review by Bob Fisher, Cream, September 1973
IT'S BEEN HIP for mainstream rock critics to knock Miss Franklin for some time now, in much the same way the current vogue is to ...
Essay by Amy Linden, The Source, 1998
THE SUBJECT is female singers, and we’re gonna make it easy on ya. ...
List of articles in the library
Aretha Franklin: Aretha (UK Fontana TFL 5173)
Review by Max Jones, Melody Maker, 3 March 1962
'Won't be Long'; 'Over The Rainbow'; 'Love Is The Only Thing'; 'Sweet Lover'; 'All Night Long'; 'Who Needs You?'; 'Right Now'; 'Maybe I'm A Fool'; ...
Albums by the Mothers of Invention, Rolling Stones et al
Review by Pete Johnson, Los Angeles Times, 10 July 1966
POPULAR RECORDS: PASS ASPIRIN, PLEASE ...
New Albums From Aretha Franklin, Mose Allison, Love et al
Review by Peter Jones, Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 25 February 1967
NEW US SOUNDS INCLUDE Soul (Joe Tex & Aretha), Cool (Andy Williams) Beat (Shangri-Las, Love) Jazz (Mose Allison) ...
Albums from Aretha Franklin, the Marvelettes et al
Review by Pete Johnson, Los Angeles Times, 15 April 1967
Blues Singers Make Comeback ...
Loraine Alterman On Records: England's Exciting New Flavor: Fresh Cream
Review by Loraine Alterman, Detroit Free Press, 23 April 1967
TO REACH Mecca in pop music means finding your own sound. Very few make it. Most groups fall down somewhere along the way. ...
Aretha Franklin: I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You (Atlantic)
Review by uncredited writer, Record Mirror, 22 July 1967
IT'S TAKEN time for Miss Franklin to break through here, though her reputation has been boosted by such as D. Springfield. But this satisfying set ...
Review by uncredited writer, Disc and Music Echo, 29 July 1967
Soulful ARETHA turns on the heat ...
Aretha Franklin: I Never Loved a Man (Atlantic)
Review by Jim Payne, Crawdaddy!, August 1967
ARETHA FRANKLIN'S come back home. Back home to Boogaloo, Alabama, and Pigeon Pea, Tennessee, back home to Hog Maw, Mississippi, and Chitlins, South Carolina. Back ...
The Week's New Singles: Beach Boys, 5th Dimension, Vanilla Fudge, Moby Grape, Aretha Franklin
Review by Nick Jones, Melody Maker, 12 August 1967
Fresh Beach Boys for the summer months ...
Beach Boy Bruce Johnston reviews new singles in Blind Date
Review by uncredited writer, Melody Maker, 19 August 1967
VANILLA FUDGE: 'You Keep Me Hanging On' (Atlantic). Oh! I love it. Oh it's great. I didn't recognise the beginning at first. Yeah, Vanilla Fudge. ...
Albums from Bobbie Gentry, Aretha Franklin, Big Brother, Captain Beefheart and the Animals
Review by Pete Johnson, Los Angeles Times, 10 September 1967
New Album From Bobbie Gentry ...
Singles from Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, Aretha Franklin, Lee Dorsey and Stevie Wonder
Review by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 21 October 1967
MARVIN GAYE AND TAMMI TERRELL: 'Your Precious Love'; 'Hold Me Oh My Darling' (Tamla Motown TMG 625). What a beautiful record this is. A medium-pace, ...
Aretha Franklin: Philharmonic Hall, New York NY
Live Review by June Harris, New Musical Express, 11 November 1967
ARETHA IS great — Aretha is sensational! Aretha is the finest girl blues singer in this country, bar one, and she proved it beyond any ...
A History Of Soul Queen Aretha Franklin
Profile by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, 30 December 1967
WELL, WHAT'S going to happen in 1968? New faces? New stars? Of course. But as we step gingerly over the threshold into the new year, ...
Aretha Franklin: Lady Soul (Atlantic); Blue Cheer: Vincebus Eruptum (Philips)
Review by Pete Johnson, Los Angeles Times, 3 March 1968
Aretha Just Keeps Rolling Along ...
Bonanza Atlantic LP Issue: Solomon Burke, Aretha Franklin, Joe Tex et al
Review by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 9 March 1968
IN AN EFFORT to smash the Tamla domination of the LP market, the rival R&B giant Atlantic have put out a batch of soul and ...
Aretha Franklin: Aretha's Artistry
Profile by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, May 1968
THE YOUNG lady who has probably had more effect on the r&b scene in the U.S.A. than anyone else during the past year, who has ...
Aretha Franklin: Lady Soul in London
Live Review by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, May 1968
FRIDAY, MAY 10th, marked the long overdue arrival in Britain of America's first Lady of Soul, the remarkable Miss Aretha Franklin: an event which soul ...
Aretha — the True Professional
Interview by uncredited writer, Melody Maker, 4 May 1968
IN ONE of the attractive middle-class homes which line the long streets of north west Detroit, passers-by often notice an attractive young woman dusting and ...
Aretha Franklin: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Alan Walsh, Melody Maker, 18 May 1968
America's soul sister Aretha conquers Britain ...
Interview by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 18 May 1968
SOME PEOPLE are going around saying that Aretha Franklin is the Queen Of Soul, many people are buying her records, and one person (show compère ...
Aretha Franklin, After Her Hammersmith Odeon Clambake — What Do You Want To Tell Me About That?
Interview by Max Jones, Melody Maker, 25 May 1968
MELODY MAKER EXCLUSIVE BY MAX JONES ...
Aretha Franklin: Houseproud Aretha Loves To Get Home
Interview by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 15 June 1968
"SIDDOWN," said the Queen of Soul. So I saddown — on a plush settee in a room at the Dorchester — and Lady Aretha excused ...
Soul: it's what Negroes have and white men are learning
Overview by Lillian Roxon, Sydney Morning Herald, the, 30 June 1968
THE WORD is "soul" and if white Americans haven't been quite sure what it meant before, they are this week. ...
Albums from Cream, David Ackles and Aretha Franklin
Review by Pete Johnson, Los Angeles Times, 7 July 1968
Second Thoughts on Cream Album ...
Alan Smith Discovers That Aretha (26) Feels She's A Lot Older
Profile and Interview by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 7 September 1968
...because she's lived such a hard life ...
Aretha Franklin: Philharmonic Hall, New York NY
Live Review by June Harris, New Musical Express, 12 October 1968
ARETHA FRANKLIN, the first lady of soul, appeared at Philharmonic Hall last weekend and was the guest of honour at a huge dinner party thrown ...
Aretha Franklin, the Drifters: Philharmonic Hall, New York NY
Live Review by Robert Shelton, The New York Times, 14 October 1968
ARETHA FRANKLIN IN TWIN CONCERTS ...
Overview by Geoffrey Cannon, The Guardian, 24 December 1968
"AN ELECTRIC caterwauling of power... burning it, flashing it, whirling it down some arc of consciousness, the sound screaming up to a climax of vibrations ...
Jerry Wexler: 'Team Work Is Secret Of Atlantic's Soul Success'
Interview by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 1 February 1969
Label chief JERRY WEXLER talking to Alan Smith ...
Aretha Franklin: Soul '69 (Atlantic)
Review by uncredited writer, Disc and Music Echo, 26 April 1969
Aretha's back home at last! ...
Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin et al: Album Reviews
Review by uncredited writer, Melody Maker, 26 April 1969
Both sides of the great Elvis Presley, orchestral pop from the Brothers Ryan ...
Aretha Franklin's Gospel Background
Interview by Jim Delehant, Hit Parader, June 1969
HP: How old were you when you started singing? Aretha: I started singing when I was twelve years old. ...
Arif Mardin: The Turkish Tycoon of Soul
Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 8 November 1969
HOW DOES a Turkish bebop pianist become one of the world's leading producers of soul music? ...
On Disc: Singles Reviewed By John E. Abbey
Review by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 29 March 1970
RECORD OF THE FORTNIGHT ...
Aretha Franklin: International Hotel, Las Vegas
Live Review by Jacoba Atlas, Melody Maker, 20 June 1970
Aretha's great re-birth ...
Interview by Max Jones, Melody Maker, 1 August 1970
WHENEVER ARETHA Franklin comes to town, which is not all that often, I try to see her. Partly because she is a genuine unhyped star ...
Aretha Franklin: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 14 August 1970
WHEN THE second house of Aretha's only London date started half an hour late, it did at first appear a bad sign. However, since the ...
Report and Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 14 August 1970
THE ARRIVAL in Britain of the Queen of Soul was, naturally, a Red Letter day in the 1970 Soul calendar. After all, this was only ...
Aretha Franklin: Spirit in the Dark (SD 8265, Atlantic)
Review by Vernon Gibbs, Columbia Daily Spectator, 29 September 1970
ARETHA FRANKLIN, once the undisputed Queen of Soul, still is the Queen though she doesn't sell million sellers the way she used to, and none ...
Review by Vernon Gibbs, Columbia Daily Spectator, 29 September 1970
MOODY BLUES' Question of Balance (Threshold, THS3)I first heard of the Moody Blues early this year about five minutes before I was scheduled to interview them. A ...
Jerry Wexler: Aretha, She's Just Unbelievable
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 22 January 1971
JERRY WEXLER is without doubt, one of the great producers who revolutionised Rhythm and Blues music in the 50's and 60's. ...
Aretha Franklin: Aretha Picks Songs By Lyrics
Interview by uncredited writer, Hit Parader, February 1971
I INTERVIEWED Aretha Franklin during one of her recording sessions, at the Atlantic Criteria studio in North Miami, just off the Dixie highway and about ...
Aretha Franklin, King Curtis & the Kingpins: Fillmore West, San Francisco CA
Live Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 6 March 1971
Aretha Commands RESPECT ...
Aretha Franklin: Aretha's Thank You To B&S Readers
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 14 May 1971
ANOTHER VISIT PLANNED FOR THE END OF THE YEAR ...
Aretha Franklin at Fillmore West
Live Review by Jonh Ingham, Creem, June 1971
BILL GRAHAM'S Fillmore West. At one end is a fairly large stage, the sides littered with sound equipment. Behind it hangs the light show scrim. ...
Soul Kaleidoscope: Aretha at the Fillmore
Special Feature by Michael Lydon, Ramparts, October 1971
IT WAS A night of nights. Even Tower of Power was okay, and then King Curtis and his Kingpins and the Memphis Horns and Billy ...
Aretha Franklin: Madison Square Garden, New York NY
Live Review by Ian Dove, Billboard, 6 November 1971
IT WAS THE usual Aretha Franklin — which means a whole audience turned on by as impressive a display of controlled, emotional soul singing to ...
Aretha Franklin: Greatest Hits – on Atlantic and Columbia
Review by Pete Wingfield, Cream, December 1971
ON ATLANTIC: Greatest Hits illustrates the power that fourteen condensed, concise, definitive musical statements can exert – particularly in the soul/R&B field, totally geared until ...
Aretha Franklin: Young, Gifted & Black (Atlantic)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 25 March 1972
THIS NEW album once again illustrates Aretha as one of the finest interpretive artists of this era and the diverse material — beautifully arranged by ...
Aretha Franklin: Young, Gifted, and Black (Atlantic)
Review by Michael Lydon, Fusion, May 1972
FROM THE shimmering, expectant notes which mark its opening to the brutally final chord of its close, Aretha Franklin's new album, Young, Gifted, and Black,is magnificent. ...
Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 19 August 1972
Aretha at her greatest ...
Aretha Franklin: Amazing Grace (Atlantic SD 2-906 0996, £3.69)
Review by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 26 August 1972
ARETHA MOVING AT SNAIL'S PACE ...
Aretha Franklin: Amazing Grace (Atlantic)
Review by Roger St. Pierre, New Musical Express, 26 August 1972
THOUGH IT HAS received wide critical accalim Aretha Franklin's latest album, the double set Amazing Grace, is far and away the least commercially orientated she ...
Aretha Franklin: Amazing Grace (Atlantic)
Review by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 8 September 1972
WHEN I WAS first privileged to hear some of Aretha Franklin's Amazing Grace album when John Abbey brought back from the States several cassettes'-worth of ...
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 1 December 1972
IT'S REALLY quite a sad commentary on life that it took a pupil to bring the master to the attention of the world. But that's ...
Cornell Dupree: "Mean N' Greasy"
Interview by uncredited writer, Beat Instrumental, March 1973
"IT'S HIGH time that session musicians were given greater recognition. After all, it's often their playing which makes a hit record, rather than the singing ...
Erma Franklin: If It Wasn't For Bad Luck...
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 12 October 1973
SOME GUYS (so the latest Persuaders' single on Atlantic would have you believe) have all the luck and that goes for the gals too. In ...
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 21 December 1973
2008 introduction: Aretha Franklin had just enjoyed major success with the Stevie Wonder composition 'Until You Come Back To Me'. She was in contract re-negotiations ...
A Spirit in the Dark: Aretha at the Fillmore
Book Excerpt by Michael Lydon, Boogie Lightning, 1974
IT WAS A NIGHT of nights. Tower of Power set the mood: 'You Got To Funkify', and then King Curtis and his Kingpins and the ...
Aretha Franklin: With Everything I Feel In Me (Atlantic)
Review by Barbara Charone, Sounds, 1974
IT'S A sorry state of affairs when you put a new Aretha Franklin album on the turntable and it blends into the woodwork with the ...
Aretha Franklin: Apollo Theater, New York NY
Live Review by Vernon Gibbs, New Musical Express, 23 March 1974
Aretha: a Queen with no dignity? ...
Aretha Franklin: Apollo Theatre, New York, NY
Live Review by Dan Nooger, Phonograph Record, April 1974
MUSIC HAS taken its place with dope and women as a reason for coming to Harlem. Especially these bleak days, it's an emotionally regenerative experience ...
Aretha Franklin, Blue Magic: Radio City Music Hall, New York
Live Review by Vernon Gibbs, New Musical Express, 16 November 1974
ARETHA FRANKLIN ascended into the firmament that was always hers by right anyway with a spectacular Radio City Music Hall series of concerts that would ...
Live Review by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 19 November 1974
The first ladies of Soul: Aretha and Gladys ...
Aretha Franklin: With Everything I Feel In Me (Atlantic)
Review by Loraine Alterman, The New York Times, 24 November 1974
Aretha, You're the Top ...
The Age of Atlantic: Jerry Wexler
Interview by Max Jones, Melody Maker, 15 February 1975
Max Jones talks to Jerry Wexler, famed producer of Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and Maggie Bell, among others — and a vice-chairman of Atlantic ...
Aretha Franklin: You (Atlantic SD18151)
Review by Lita Eliscu, Phonograph Record, November 1975
Aretha's Latest is a Blend of All that has Made Black Music, American Music ...
John Hammond: From Billie to Bruce
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 6 December 1975
John Hammond recalls his 40 years atthe forefront of popular music recording ...
Aretha Franklin: Sparkle (Atlantic)****
Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 16 October 1976
SUBTITLED 'Music From The Motion Picture', Sparkle is a soundtrack album, that plays like a record. It doesn't, unlike most of the genre, hang limply ...
Curtis Mayfield: The Creative Mastermind
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, December 1976
TO TRY and describe Curtis Mayfield's enormous contribution to the music world would take far more adjectives than we have at our disposal. ...
Aretha Franklin: Sweet Passion
Review by Paul Rambali, New Musical Express, 25 June 1977
WHAT to do with Aretha Franklin? The question must echo around Atlantic's New York offices whenever it's time for her to make another record. ...
Aretha Franklin: Aretha Still Rules Okay
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 5 July 1977
A rare and exclusive interview with David Nathan. Aretha tells B&S about her new album, her movie and tour plans, and life on the West ...
Aretha Franklin: Queen Aretha #1 – From Detroit to The Columbia Years
Retrospective by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 2 August 1977
An appreciation of the career of Aretha Franklin ...
Aretha Franklin: Queen Aretha #2 – The Golden Years
Retrospective by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 16 August 1977
"THERE WAS a great zest, love and feeling for the music," states Jerry Wexler and when pressed further on the subject of that first session ...
Aretha Franklin: Queen Aretha #3 – Into the '70s
Retrospective by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 30 August 1977
1969 IS GENERALLY acclaimed as the year that saw something of a decline on Aretha's part. The decline was, in a sense, inevitable. The ridiculous ...
Aretha Franklin: Queen Aretha #4 – The Brand New Aretha
Retrospective by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 13 September 1977
Part 4 of an appreciation of the career of Aretha Franklin, by David Nathan... ...
Aretha Franklin: Queen Aretha #5 – The Future
Comment by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 27 September 1977
David Nathan concludes his in-depth appreciation of Aretha Franklin ...
Aretha Franklin: Almighty Fire
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, 29 June 1978
THERE'S A SONG on Almighty Fire that has little to do with the rest of this Curtis Mayfield-produced album. 'I'm Your Speed' ends side two ...
The Aretha Franklin Interview...
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 29 August 1978
In one of the very rare interviews she grants, Lady Soul gave this in-depth story to B&S' David Nathan at her beautiful Encino, California home. ...
Aretha Franklin: La Diva (Atlantic)
Review by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 20 March 1980
IT'S NO news that, during the last several years, Aretha Franklin has regressed from being one of our most powerful R&B performers into a mere ...
Various artists: The Blues Brothers Soundtrack (Atlantic SD16017)
Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 6 July 1980
DESTRUCTION OF THE BLUES ...
The Blues Brothers: Original Soundtrack (Atlantic)
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 4 September 1980
WITH THEIR second LP, Blues Brothers John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd have moved from the gratuitously racist to the merely patronizing — progress of a ...
Aretha Franklin: Lady Soul Cooks!
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 21 October 1980
David Nathan drops in on Aretha at home in Los Angeles to talk about her debut album for Arista and her first movie role.... and ...
Aretha Franklin: Once More With Feeling
Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 18 November 1980
Mick Brown on Aretha Franklin's return after years of soul searching ...
Aretha Franklin: At the Victoria Apollo
Live Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 29 November 1980
PREJUDICES ON THE TABLE: I think Aretha Franklin has the most stirring, moving voice I've every heard, but I'm much less sure about the use ...
Aretha Franklin: Love All The Hurt Away (Arista SPART 1170)
Review by Paul Sexton, Record Mirror, 3 October 1981
DOES IT strike you as a little odd that the Queen of Soul (as I believe she likes to be called), the woman who we're ...
Aretha Franklin: Jump To It (Arista 204 742)
Review by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 24 August 1982
WELL, THE teaming of Aretha Franklin and Luther Vandross as her producer is magical and this is perhaps one of the really great Aretha albums ...
Aretha Franklin: Telephone Hang-Ups
Interview by Lloyd Bradley, New Musical Express, 9 October 1982
Aretha Franklin keeps LLOYD BRADLEY hanging on the transatlantic telephone — the new Duchess of Disco fails to 'Jump To It'... ...
Luther Vandross, Into the Limelight
Profile and Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 21 November 1982
LUTHER VANDROSS is singin' on top of the world nowadays, master of a string of professions: singer, songwriter, arranger, producer. ...
Singles Reviewed by MARK COOPER
Review by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 22 January 1983
THE GAP BAND 'Outstanding' (Polygram) Yet another soul concerto from The Gap Band with a monstrously hard-hitting handclap from the engine room and a vocal ...
Aretha Franklin: Who's Zoomin' Who? (Arista)
Review by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 27 July 1985
SINCE HER Atlantic heyday, critics have bemoaned Aretha's descent into the rhetoric of showbiz glamour. They want her to return to the transcendent flights and ...
Aretha Franklin: Who's Zoomin' Who? (Arista)
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, September 1985
ARETHA FRANKLIN has never made a bad record. When her records lacked the fire that ignited her greatest singles, that voice has been enough to ...
James Brown: Gravity (Scotti Bros.); Aretha Franklin: Aretha (Arista)
Review by Jon Young, Creem, March 1987
LADIES AND gentlemen, the Godfather and the Queen of Soul, Mr. James Brown and Ms. Aretha Franklin. Whether you hail 'em as living legends — ...
Obituary by Hugh Fielder, Sounds, 25 July 1987
WHO'S GOING to find the next rock legend now that John Hammond's gone? Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Bessie Smith, ...
Obituary by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 27 August 1987
LEGENDARY RECORD producer and talent scout John Hammond — who played a key role in the careers of Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Aretha ...
Power from the pulpit — Aretha Franklin: One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism (Arista 303178, 2 discs)
Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 12 December 1987
Aretha Franklin has returned to her gospel roots. Richard Williams hears the result ...
Aretha Franklin: One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism (Arista); Swans: Children Of God (Caroline)
Review by Chuck Eddy, Creem, April 1988
GOD: THE ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK ...
Aretha Franklin: Through The Storm (Arista)
Review by Amy Linden, Spin, August 1989
ARETHA'S THE Queen of Soul; you know it, I know it, it's so obvious that it should be a Jeopardy question. Hell, even she knows ...
Essay by Barney Hoskyns, Vogue, 1990
FOR ALL THE LEGENDARY kings of soul music, the Sam Cookes and Otis Reddings and Marvin Gayes, the true spirit of this great black American ...
Interview by John Pidgeon, Record Hunter, March 1991
DAN PENN WROTE his first hit ('Is A Bluebird Blue?' for Conway Twitty) at fourteen, and collaborated prolifically with Spooner Oldham, turning out mid '60s ...
Aretha Franklin: Westbury Music Fair, Westbury NY
Live Review by Wayne Robins, Newsday, 24 June 1991
ARETHA FRANKLIN is so far beyond having anything to prove that it would be easy to excuse her if she just wanted to go through ...
Aretha Franklin: Radio City Music Hall, New York NY
Live Review by Jeff Lorez, Blues & Soul, 25 May 1993
IT WAS A packed Radio City Music Hall that turned out to witness the Queen Of Soul on this, the first of a two night ...
Jerry Wexler: Production without style — on purpose
Interview by Fred Goodman, Musician, June 1993
Hands-off from Muscle Shoals to Stax to New York City ...
Aretha Franklin: The Columbia Years
Discography by David Nathan, Goldmine, 8 July 1994
IN AN EFFORT to glorify the outstanding work that she did at Atlantic Records (1967-1979), musicologists and music industry pundits frequently refer to Aretha Franklin's ...
Aretha Franklin: Return Of Soul Sister Number One
Comment by Carol Cooper, Pulse!, June 1996
ARETHA – a name so singularly musical that it rolls off the tongue like an incantation. Almost four decades after 1967’s ‘I Never Loved ...
Retrospective by Johnny Black, MOJO, May 1997
The most crucial moment in Aretha Franklin's career ...
Discography by Fred Dellar, MOJO, July 1997
DURING 1956, a 14-year-old Aretha, daughter of gospel superstar the Reverend C.L. Franklin, sang and played piano before an enthusiastic congregation at her father's new ...
Aretha Franklin: The Rockport Rhythm and Blues Festival, Fort Adams State Park, Newport RI
Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, The Observer, 10 August 1997
Aretha's having a bad hair day. But she's got some very good wings ...
Aretha Franklin: Queen Aretha Holds Court
Report and Interview by Jeff Apter, nyrock.com, March 1998
THERE ARE few performers for whom one name is sufficient (and no, this list does not include Yanni). Think Bruce, Garth, Iggy, Janis. And, of ...
Arif Mardin: A Man For All Musical Seasons
Interview by Bill DeMain, Performing Songwriter, July 1998
READING THROUGH the list of artists that producer/arranger Arif Mardin has worked with is like looking at a chapter of history from American pop music. ...
The 100 Greatest Singers Of All Time: #1 Aretha Franklin
Retrospective and Interview by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, October 1998
"She has all the Olympian leaps and trills, plus what's so often missing from others — believability." Eddi Reader "The essence of human spirit." Vic Chesnutt "I'm ...
Book Excerpt by David Dalton, Lenny Kaye, Cooper Square Books (reissue), 1999
IN 1972 WHEN ARETHA FRANKLIN RECORDED Amazing Grace, her first gospel album in 14 years, at the New Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago, it was ...
Interview by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 13 August 1999
JERRY WEXLER, co-founder of Atlantic Records and in-house producer, was picking himself up off the floor of Muscle Shoals studio in Alabama when he received ...
Aretha Franklin: The Queen's Greatest Tracks
Review by Martin Colyer, Barney Hoskyns, Mark Pringle, Rock's Backpages, May 2002
"THEY USED to call me a jazz singer," Aretha told Val Wilmer in 1968. "Now I think what I sing is closer to R&B and ...
Aretha Franklin Getting Plenty Of Respect
Interview by Fred Shuster, Los Angeles Daily News, 9 September 2004
Soul Survivor On Her First Tour In 21 Years ...
Aretha Franklin/King Curtis: Live at the Filmore West
Review by John Swenson, Offbeat, 1 August 2006
THIS IS Aretha Franklin at her absolute peak, fronting a supercharged band led by King Curtis and featuring the Memphis Horns with special guests Ray ...
Comment by David Nathan, Stax 50th Online Blog, 1 September 2008
I'M NOT sure the first time I saw Gerald Wexler's name on an album. ...
Some Things Are Sacred: A Jubilant Appreciation of The Music Of Aretha Franklin
Overview by David Nathan, SoulMusic.com, December 2008
YOU JUST have to know that some things are sacred. ...
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Uncut, Fall 2008
WHEN JERRY Wexler convinced the young Aretha Franklin to defect from Columbia to Atlantic in late 1966, few grasped that the signing was in fact ...
Blue-Singing Gospel Girls: Aretha and her Forebears
Book Excerpt by Anthony Heilbut, 'The Fan Who Knew Too Much' (Knopf), June 2012
AMONG THE SEVERAL MYTHS Aretha's father Reverend C. L. Franklin incarnated was a familiar type, Reverend Eatemup, the man with pastoral appetites in food and ...
Deep Soul: How Muscle Shoals became music's most unlikely hit factory
Retrospective and Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, October 2013
IN JANUARY 1967, a young singer named Aretha Franklin arrived in the small Alabama town of Muscle Shoals, her career hanging in the balance. ...
Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 15 June 2016
Guitarist, record producer and songwriter who co-wrote 'The Dark End of the Street' and worked with Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin and Tammy Wynette. ...
Why the early '70s was the greatest period for live soul albums
Guide by Mitchell Cohen, Music Aficionado, December 2016
JAMES BROWN invented the modern live soul album with the release of Live at the Apollo in 1963, and Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, and Etta ...
Aretha Franklin: The Good, The Bad & The Queen
Retrospective by Lois Wilson, MOJO, February 2017
IT'S THE EVENING of January 24, 1967, downtown Florence, Alabama. Rick Hall, the owner of Fame Studios in nearby Muscle Shoals, is stood in the ...
Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 16 August 2018
Queen of soul whose voice could scald or soothe, and whose talent drew on both sacred and secular traditions ...
Obituary by James Maycock, The Independent, 16 August 2018
"I JUST LOST my song!" howled Otis Redding in 1967. "That girl took it away from me!" ...
Honoring Aretha Franklin, legendary "Queen of Soul," the greatest singer of our time
Obituary by Caryn Rose, salon.com, 16 August 2018
The following is a chapter from Women Who Rock: Bessie to Beyoncé, Girl Groups to Riot Grrrl (Black Dog & Leventhal, 2018), edited by Evelyn ...
The First Lady: Aretha Franklin, 1942-2018
Obituary by Mark Kemp, Rock's Backpages, 16 August 2018
CHILDHOOD MEMORY: I'm ten years old and sitting on the floor in the living room of the family home in the early 1970s, vinyl albums ...
Obituary by Carol Cooper, The Village Voice, 17 August 2018
IT MAY BE difficult for anyone born after 1980 to fully grasp how important Aretha Franklin has been to America. There is simply no longer ...
Aretha Franklin: The world says a little prayer for the Queen of Soul
Obituary by Nicholas Jennings, Hello!, 3 September 2018
SHE HAD A VOICE that perfectly blended the sacred and the secular, one that could scale gospel highs and move effortlessly from jazz and blues ...
Amazing Grace: Inside the hellish struggle to release Aretha Franklin's heavenly concert movie
Retrospective and Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 29 April 2019
IT MIGHT SEEM odd to suggest that the most enthralling film you are likely to see this year is not a thriller, a love story ...
The 30 best live concert albums of all time
Guide by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 22 April 2020
LAST WEEK, A STORY appeared in the New York Times that predicted that live music would not return to the world's stages until the autumn ...
Aretha Franklin: Preacher's Daughter
Book Excerpt by Tony Scherman, PopMatters, 12 March 2021
Our recent glimpse of Tony Scherman's biography in progress, I Gave My Heart and Soul to You: The Triumph of Aretha Franklin, told the story ...
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