Aretha Franklin: The Queen of Soul

411 Pages·2012·4.32 MB·English

by  Mark Bego

Copyright © 1989, 2001, 2012 by Mark Bego
St. Martin’s Press Edition, 1989
Da Capo Press Edition, 2001
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file
ISBN 978-1-61608-581-0
Printed in the United States of America
T O D O N K E V E R N :
My junior high school English teacher who taught me
to appreciate the written word.

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction: All Hail the Queen!
Prologue: Detroit 1989
CHAPTER ONE: The Queen of Soul
CHAPTER TWO: The Gospel Years
CHAPTER THREE: Aretha Sings the Blues
CHAPTER FOUR: Aretha Arrives
CHAPTER FIVE: Young, Gifted and Black
CHAPTER SIX: Trouble in Mind
CHAPTER SEVEN: Aretha Jumps to It
CHAPTER EIGHT: The Freeway Back to the Top
CHAPTER NINE: The Spirit of Detroit
Dénouement 1989
CHAPTER TEN: A Rose is Still a Rose—The 1990s and Beyond
CHAPTER ELEVEN: So Damn Happy
CHAPTER TWELVE: How Does Aretha Keep the Music Playing?
Quote Sources
Aretha Franklin Discography
Aretha Franklin’s Grammy Awards
Index
About the Author
About “Aretha Franklin: The Queen of Soul”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
From the 1989 edition of this book:
The author would like to thank the following people for their help, assistance,
and encouragement: Vince Aletti, Bob Altshuler, Bob and Mary Bego, Fran
Boyar, Nathaniel Brewster, Ray Bryant, Joe Canale, Andy Carpenter, Mark
Chase, John Christe, Rita Coolidge, Paul Cooper, Jack Cunningham, Billy
Davis, Clive Davis, Sandra DeCosta, Brad DeMeulenaere, Simo Doe, Jack
Donaghy, Shellie Ellis / Oklahoma Daily, Tisha Fein, Dennis Fine, Joann
Forsyth, Neil S. Friedman, Stacia Friedman, Gary Graff / Detroit Free Press,
Rita Griffin / Michigan Chronicle, Dan Hartman, Isiah James, Randy Jones,
Marilyn and John Kelly / WXYZ-TV Detroit, Barb Knudson, Virginia Lohle,
Toni Lopopolo, Diane Mancher, Bob Margouleff, Sindi Markoff, Peter Max,
Walter McBride, Sue “Muffy” McDonald, Joe McEwen, Charles Moniz, Terry
Morgan, Ernie Needham, Carolyn O’Connell, Clyde Otis, Greg Porto, Stephen
Pullan, Kenneth Reynolds, Sherry Robb, Melani Rogers, David Salidor, Barbara
Shelley, Brendan Thompson, Ted White, Mary Wilson, and special thanks to
Glenn Hughes … AND all of my “confidential” sources.
For the 2011 / 2012 edition of this book:
Cindy Adams, Sam Alexander, John Botticella, Marten Brandt, Mary Anne
Cassata, Jay Cassell, Tom Cuddy, Sarah Dash, Dan DeFilippo, James Edstrom,
Sasha Goodman, Yvette Grant, Giovanni Jackson, Ronit Jariv, Dave Marken,
Scott Mendel, Kevin Milburn, David Nathan (Thank you for quoting this book in
the liner notes of all of Aretha’s great Atlantic repackages!), Luke Nicola, Mark
and Bonnie Olson, Christopher Pavlick, Freda Payne, Anne Raso, Marsha Stern,
Derek Storm, Ann Treistman, George Vissichelli, Beth Wernick, Patrick Wood,
and to Aretha Franklin herself—thank you for the in-person interview that
started me on the path to writing this book.
I would like to dedicate this new edition of this book to the memory of my dear
friend John Klinger (1962–2011): “Dude, the coffee will always be on here for
you, and I will always love you and never forget you!”
INTRODUCTION
ALL HAIL THE QUEEN!
The book you are reading is one I have been writing—in one form or another
—for forty years. The first time I wrote about Aretha Franklin was when I
was a journalism student at Central Michigan University. I wrote a record
review column for my college newspaper, and that very first year of its
existence, I declared Aretha’s Young, Gifted and Black to be one of my “Ten
Best Recordings of 1972.” At the time, I had no idea I would be consistently
writing about her life and her music for the following four decades!
In 1985 I interviewed Aretha Franklin in person in her Detroit area home, and
this book was conceived that very day. The first edition of Aretha Franklin: The
Queen of Soul was published by St. Martin’s Press in 1989. It was not only the
first full biography ever published about Aretha Franklin, it was also critically
acclaimed. The original book comprised nine chapters and a conclusion, labeled
“Dénouement”—which is the French term for the final outcome or “resolution”
to a story.
Da Capo Press published the second version of this book in 2001. It
comprised the original 1989 edition, plus an additional chapter, entitled “A Rose
is Still a Rose,” and an updated Discography section in the back of the book to
take the book from 1990 to 2001.
By the end of 2010, Aretha Franklin was back in the headlines again. She had
been continuing to record and to perform across America, when she was
hospitalized, battling a mysterious and life-threatening illness. The world drew a
collective gasp, worried for her health. At the same time, the rights to this book
again reverted back to me, and suddenly it was time to update this book again.
This time around I had to do more than just add a new chapter and update the
growing list of Aretha’s recordings presented in the Discography. Since the
original book written in 1989 was such a favorite of Aretha’s fans, I have chosen
to leave it more or less intact and to build some new pieces around it.
While everything in the 1989 and 2001 editions of this book is included, this
new version has been completely updated. In addition, I have added over one
dozen Aretha Franklin stories and two new chapters in order to bring the story
all the way up to 2012 and to make this edition of the book completely unique.
The new chapters, entitled “So Damned Happy” and “How Does Aretha Keep
the Music Playing” discuss Aretha’s final recordings with Arista Records, her
alarming weight gain, the highly-publicized feud she started with Tina Turner,
her 2010–2011 health issues, her sudden weight loss, an all-star salute to Aretha
on the 2011 Grammy Awards telecast, rumors of a film about her remarkable
life, her first Number One pop album appearance, and an overview of her
amazing career.
As concerns about Aretha’s health grew in 2010 and 2011, record labels
scrambled to issue new compilations of her iconic music. So, in an effort to
make certain that this book remains the “definitive” book on Aretha, it needed a
new up-to-the-minute list of all of her recordings. I decided that, rather than
adding a separate updating section to the segmented Discography that appeared
in the 2001 version of this book, I needed to reconstruct the whole thing so
Aretha’s devoted fans will now have a new “ultimate” list of her recorded music
at hand. Since it was Aretha’s music that first made us all fall in love with her, I
am able to present a “new and improved” Discography that is truly fit for rock
and roll royalty.
Since this soul-singing Detroit diva is such a unique performer, this new
version of Aretha Franklin: The Queen of Soul had to be unique, exciting, up-to-
date, and filled with information that is unobtainable anywhere else. This has
offered me the opportunity to revisit one of my all-time favorite books and to
give it a new lease on life. In addition, for the first time, this book will not only
be available in America, it will also be published in several different languages
in several countries, around the world.
The great soul man James Brown once claimed in song that “It’s a Man’s
World.” That’s not Aretha’s side of the story. After you have read this book, I
am confident you will come to the conclusion that it is Aretha Franklin’s world
and clearly she is and always will be the “Queen of Soul.”
—Mark Bego
2012