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Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, has died at the age of 76.
I first came across her as Mrs Murphy in John Landis’ incredible 1980 comedy, The Blues Brothers, where she belted out the classic track, Think, as if the Earth’s cycle of night and day depended on it.
Although she started as a child singer, she was given the nickname The Queen of Soul in the ’60s following many other songs which became classics such as Respect, (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman, and a cover of Ben E King’s Spanish Harlem.
My era for pop music was in the ’80s and I was less enamoured of her throwaway pop tracks Freeway of Love and Who’s Zoomin’ Who, in 1985, but it wasn’t long before Aretha duetted with Annie Lennox for the Eurythmics hit, Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves, which I thought reached No.1, but only made No.9.
However, she did crack that top slot – and for her only UK No.1 – in 1987 with the late, great George Michael, with I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me). Alas, her 1989 duet with Elton John, Through the Storm, suffered that “No.41” just-missed fate, and never got its chance to shine in the sun, but Elton had a singles slump at the time. Although I loved 1987’s I Don’t Wanna Go on with You Like That (which made No.30), he hadn’t had a studio-based Top 10 hit since Nikita in 1985 (No.3), and then a live version of Candle In The Wind, recorded in December 1986, and released on his 1987 Live in Australia album, where the single reached No.5.
Still, the older you get, the more you realise how irrelevant the singles charts are, and you don’t win 18 Grammys, 3 Grammy Special Awards and countless others on the basis of singles alone.
Check out a couple of the biggest hits by Aretha Frankin below – Think, as performed in The Blues Brothers, and her George Michael chart-topper.
RIP Aretha Frankin x
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.