eMusic Review 0
01.11.10
Aretha's career-defining, "Respect"-demanding breakthrough
1987 | Label: Rhino Atlantic
Franklin had already been recording for more than a decade when she moved to Atlantic Records, teamed up with Jerry Wexler — who had the brilliant idea of getting her to play piano — and a crew of Southern soul musicians, and released this 1967 landmark. It became the blueprint for the next seven years of her career: its devotional title track and the gale-force cover of Otis Redding's "Respect" were the immediate hits, but the whole thing sketched out the new Aretha as a passionate, demanding lover whose passion and demands also spoke to the politics of black America, and who explicitly cast herself in the tradition of master pop singers brought up on gospel.
