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Top Dance Hits
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Aretha needs no introduction. Acclaimed as the "Queen of Soul" based on
her phenomenal string of late 60's hits including Respect, Think, and
(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman, Aretha continued to release classic hits through much of
the 1970's, but by the end of the decade her popularity was fading. Work with Luther Vandross as producer brought her
an entirely new Dance club audience in the early 80's, and by the end of the 80's
Aretha's voice was heard regularly on the dancefloor. Her recording has become sporadic
over the last decade, but the albums A Rose Is Still a Rose in 1998 and So Damn Happy in 2003
proved Aretha can still move bodies and minds.
Aretha's legendary 1971 album, Young, Gifted and Black included Rock Steady, a key
recording in early development of what became Disco music. Built on a solid funk framework,
this song created a bridge between Aretha's 60's Soul and the Disco music that would come a few short years later.
Aretha's other recordings in the early 70's included Soul classics such as Spanish Harlem and stunning
versions of Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water and Elton John's Border Song. Her collaboration with Curtis Mayfield on the music from the film Sparkle in 1976 was another highlight, but in the latter part of the
decade her creative output began to pale.
Aretha left Atlantic Records in 1979 and was signed to Clive Davis' Arista Records.
Davis pulled out all the promotional stops with her first Arista album, Aretha, in 1980. Despite his efforts, the album was disappointing. It did include a Disco version of the Doobie Brothers' What a Fool Believes which
scratched the bottom reaches of the Dance chart. 1981's Love All the Hurt Away included a Dance remake of Sam and Dave's Hold On, I'm Comin' but also failed to catch fire. The following year would mark Aretha's ascendance as a top Dance vocalist.
Emerging as a solo star in the early 80's, Luther Vandross was asked in an interview if there was any particular artist with whom he wished to collaborate. Unhesitatingly, Aretha Franklin was a top choice.
Clive Davis
heard of Luther's wish and arranged a meeting. The final result was the album Jump To It in 1982. The title song Jump To It returned Aretha to the top of the R&B chart and resulted in her first top of the chart Dance hit. The follow-up album Get It Right once again featured Aretha working with Luther Vandross, but, despite a hit with Get It Right, they seemed to be running out of creative ideas.
It was 2 years before Aretha's next studio recording. This time she worked with producer Narada Michael Walden and surpassed even the success of Jump To It. 1985's Who's Zoomin' Who? featured 3 smash Dance hits in Freeway Of Love, Who's Zoomin' Who, and Another Night. Aretha's soaring vocals and heartfelt spoken ad libs reigned in Dance clubs and on the radio. Her duet with Annie Lennox of the Eurythmics, Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves brought her another club smash. 1986's
Aretha album was eclectic and featured another Dance hit with Rock-a-Lott. Also on the album was her all-stops-out remake of Jumpin' Jack Flash produced by Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones.
The year 1987 brought out additional colors of Aretha's prodigious vocal talent in her majestic Pop duet with George Michael,
I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me), that topped Dance and pop charts. She returned to her roots in gospel on
the album One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism that earned her a Grammy Award, one of 15 thus far.
Unfortunately, her next studio release, 1989's Through the Storm was disappointing. Her much anticipated duet with Whitney Houston, It Isn't, It Wasn't, It Ain't Never Gonna Be underwhelmed audiences.
Aretha's studio output since the 80's has been sparse, but a few cuts, notably her Dance remix of Everyday People in 1991 and 1998's gorgeous hip-hop A Rose Is Still a Rose with production work by Lauryn Hill, demonstrate that,
given the right context, she
maintains the power to excite and move the crowd on the dancefloor. Aretha is clearly the Queen of Soul as well as a full member of the royal court of Dance music.
