Recommendations of the Editorial team
As a producer, I always talked to my singers about phrasing and emphasis, but I couldn’t teach Aretha Franklin. On the contrary, I would only have disturbed her. Today singers often apply too thick when they want to sound soulful. Aretha Franklin couldn’t happen because her taste is infallible.
This is not due to the gospel school. Most young African American singers receive their musical training in the church. That can give you the shape, a feeling for tradition, the rhythm, but training does not genius. The genius lies in your personality.
“Respect” had an unimaginable, global effect, even for civil rights movement and women’s emancipation. There are love songs, there are songs about sex. But I remember no other song that connects all of these elements. Aretha wrote most of her pieces himself or selected the arrangements developed her at home at the piano.
Aretha Franklin has polished Otdings Song a bit, and when she came to the studio, she had everything in her head. Shortly before “Respect” was released, I played Otis the tape.
He said, “She took away the song for me.” He said it friendly and a little wistful. He knew that the identity of the song would pass from him.
Nobody can copy it. She is unique
Aretha Franklin had been a little light at Columbia before she came to Atlantic. I think at Columbia you didn’t let her play much piano. I am convinced that you are a singer who plays an instrument that should also let her records play on her records because there is something unmistakable for the recordings.
In Aretha’s case, I didn’t have to compromise. She was a brilliant pianist, a mixture of Mildred Falls – Mahalia Jackson’s companion – and Thelonious Monk. I don’t think she had enjoyed classic training. It was part of her genius. Nobody can copy it. It is unique.