The Arista release that delivered her final US number one single with George Michael and featured Andy Warhol’s last album artwork reaches four decades.
by Paul Cashmere
Aretha Franklin’s thirty-first studio album, simply titled Aretha, turns 40 on 27 October. Released by Arista Records in 1986, the record became the vehicle for her final American number one single, the duet with George Michael “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)”, and carried a cover created by Andy Warhol in what proved to be one of the artist’s final commissions before his death early the following year.
The album followed the commercial breakthrough of Who’s Zoomin’ Who? the year before and continued Franklin’s late-career revival under producer Narada Michael Walden. Where the previous set had restored her to platinum status, Aretha was certified gold within weeks of release and went on to sell approximately 900,000 copies in the United States, her ninth gold album.
“I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)” remains the centrepiece. Written by Simon Climie and Dennis Morgan and produced by Walden, the song was recorded in Detroit in May 1986. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 in April 1987, Franklin’s first number one since “Respect” nearly two decades earlier and her last. It also reached number one in the United Kingdom, the only time she achieved that position there. The track earned Franklin and Michael the 1987 Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. In later years Billboard ranked it as Franklin’s biggest Hot 100 single.
Franklin herself later described the session with characteristic directness. After Michael’s death she recalled that Clive Davis had suggested the pairing and that she had been ready. “It reminded me of working with Jerry Wexler,” she said. “We’d go in the studio and cut songs. If we were happy with what we recorded, Jerry would say, ‘Let’s wait until tomorrow. If we feel the same way that we do now, maybe we have a hit.’ ‘I Knew You Were Waiting’ had that. Musically, it does not grow old.”
The album’s other singles kept Franklin visible across formats. “Jimmy Lee” opened the set and reached the upper ranks of the R&B chart. “Rock-A-Lott” supplied a dance-floor track whose vocal would later be sampled extensively by the 49ers on their 1990 hit “Touch Me”. The cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”, produced by Keith Richards and featuring Richards and Ronnie Wood on guitar with Franklin on piano, became the title song for the Whoopi Goldberg film of the same name. Music videos for the four main singles received heavy rotation on MTV, BET and other outlets.
Walden handled the bulk of production, with Franklin producing two tracks herself, “He’ll Come Along” and the standard “Look to the Rainbow”. The sessions drew on a wide circle of musicians, among them Walter Afanasieff, Randy Jackson, Kenny G, Chuck Leavell and, on the Stones cover, Steve Jordan. A second duet, “If You Need My Love Tonight” with Larry Graham, further underlined the album’s collaborative spirit.
Commercially Aretha peaked at number 32 on the Billboard 200 and number 7 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. International placings included number 20 in New Zealand, number 12 in both Norway and Sweden, and number 33 on the Australian Kent Music Report. An expanded edition with extensive remixes and additional mixes appeared in 2014 via Funky Town Grooves, later issued digitally by Arista and Legacy.
Forty years on, the album stands as a snapshot of Franklin at a particular commercial and creative moment. The Warhol cover, the final US chart-topper, the Stones collaboration and the lasting presence of the George Michael duet continue to give the record a distinct identity within a catalogue that already contained some of the most consequential recordings in American popular music.
Tracklisting – Aretha (1986)
Jimmy Lee
I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me) (with George Michael)
Do You Still Remember
Jumpin’ Jack Flash
Rock-A-Lott
An Angel Cries
He’ll Come Along
If You Need My Love Tonight (with Larry Graham)
Look to the Rainbow
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