August 1968, London
As noted in post #63, Aretha Franklin has performed in Britain for the first time in May to rapturous reviews and glorious audience reaction. It’s been such a personal joy for me to see Aretha in person, knowing that less than two years earlier, I had written a letter to her c/o of her father’s Detroit church in hopes that she might receive it and then to end 1966 actually talking with her on the phone, becoming the very first Brit she would speak to, with neither of us knowing that within literally months, she would go from being a ‘marginally’-known Columbia recording artist to becoming a global hitmaker at Atlantic.
Naturally, working at Soul City – the record shop I co-own with Dave Godin and Robert Blackmore – I have been championing Aretha’s music, trying to convince Dave G that Columbia recordings like her incredible version of the standard “Skylark” are amazing even though he thinks of her as being a little too ‘middle of the road’ for his deep soul tastes! When Soul City opens its doors in December 1966, I am playing Aretha’s CBS single, “Cry Like A Baby” (co-written by the up-and-coming team of Nick Ashford & Valerie Simpson and then-frequent collaborator Joshie Armstead) non-stop since it does seem more in the realm of the kind of ‘uptown’ soul that Dave approves of and that our customers seem to like. The “Soul Sister” LP is a firm favourite, a collection of tracks that Aretha has recorded over the year or so before. And then, 1967, Aretha is riding high with “I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)” at a time when I am temporarily absent from Soul City due to an incident with Dave Godin involving his ‘threat’ to tell my mother that I am dating a man (Franklin by first name) unless I return to work…which I don’t for several months, as detailed in post #35.
Aretha’s impact on European audiences is felt in the aftermath of her visit: “Think,” a song that will become an integral part of her recording and performing repertoire for years, has been a Top 30 UK hit but it is her August release, a cover of Dionne Warwick’s “I Say A Little Prayer,” with its famous call-and-response interplay between Aretha and The Sweet Inspirations (whose line-up includes Dionne’s aunt Cissy Houston!) that catapults Aretha to the upper reaches of the British pop listings. For me, there’s an interesting touch of personal irony since my very first exposure to Aretha was in 1965 when I heard her version of Dionne’s “Walk On By” on a battery-operated record player on a beach at a fan club gathering (see post #16)! Seemingly, Aretha and Dionne are forever going to be connected in my world – and as my work as a music journalist unfolds from 1970 onwards – in a much more direct way…
Personally, I am not over keen on Aretha’s version initially and later hearing the story of how the recording came about (when Aretha and The Sweets are ‘fooling around’ with the song during a recording rehearsal at Atlantic studios and it turns out so well that producer Jerry Wexler thinks they should record it) does little to affect my feelings about it. There is just a touch of irony inasmuch as the track is first released as the ‘B’ side of Aretha’s version of “The House That Jack Built,” a song originally cut in 1967 by soul singer Thelma Jones; as our Soul City Records’ label continues to make strides as an outgrowth of the Soul City store, we license Thelma’s recording of the song (which also features The Sweet Inspirations!). Connections abound since Thelma and I will get to know each other a decade or so later and remain friends for decades after…
“I Say A Little Prayer” stays at No. 4 on the pop charts for three weeks in a row in Britain and the joy of seeing Aretha Franklin, whose name was virtually unknown (even to avid UK soul fans) less than two years earlier, achieving such mainstream success in the UK, is truly a prayer answered!
