Saturday, May 20, 2006

Yahoo LAUNCHCAST song of the day

Artist:Aretha Franklin
Song:Didn't I (Blow Your Mind)
Album:Young, Gifted & Black




Aretha Franklin is a very important figure in pop music because of how her roots in the black church were brought into the forefront of her music. A lot of the credit for this should go to Atlantic Records producer Jerry Wexler. When Aretha started her career at Columbia, John Hammond tried to turn her into a jazz singer of sorts and didn't really use her gospel roots or musicianship. Wexler saw her church background as something that should be emphasized and that's how Aretha was presented. Young, Gifted & Black is one of her best records and every song is a winner. I have the 4CD Queen Of Soul box set which covers the prime of her career at Atlantic. It's probably best to steer clear of anything else as Aretha has proven to be inconsistent when she doesn't have a great producer like Wexler.

No comments:

Post a Comment