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bitusa2012
Truly the greatest woman vocalist to have ever graced the recording and performance fields. Adele, this is who you aspire to.....

RIP to a true legend

I often wonder why she didn't have more original hits. How many hits did she actually have?

An article from last year prior to her 75th birthday:

Happy Birthday, Aretha Franklin! Looking Back at the Queen of Soul's Top 40 Biggest Hot 100 Hits
3/25/2017 by Kristin Corpuz

Aretha

The Queen of Soul celebrates her 75th birthday March 25.

As the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (in 1987), and an Icon honoree at Billboard's 2014 Women in Music celebration, Aretha Franklin is a revered living legend and one of the most prolific singers of our time. She's also won 18 Grammy Awards, was a Kennedy Center Honoree, and, for her humanitarian work, earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

On her 75th birthday (March 25), Billboard honors Franklin with a look at her biggest Billboard Hot 100 hits.

Franklin debuted her first song on the Hot 100 when she was only 18 years old ("Won't Be Long," which peaked at No. 76 in March 1961). Since, she's gone on to chart an additional 72 titles on the Hot 100. Although Nicki Minaj passed her on the chart week dated April 1 with 76 titles, Franklin held the record for the most entries on the Hot 100 of any female artist for nearly 40 years. Franklin has scored 17 top 10s, including two No. 1s on the chart: the iconic "Respect," which held the top spot for two weeks in June 1967, and her duet with George Michael, "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)," which also ruled for two weeks, in April 1987.

On the Billboard 200, Franklin has charted 46 albums, with 1967's I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You (featuring "Respect") her highest-charting, having peaked at No. 2. She's tallied six top 10s, while her most recent entry, Sings the Great Diva Classics, became her highest-peaking since 1985, reaching No. 13 in 2014.

Coincidentally, March 25 also marks Elton John's 70th birthday. Franklin and John share a duet, "Through the Storm," which ranks among her biggest Hot 100 hits on the list below (see link above).

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Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

Looking for a video of Aretha performing JJF, this one popped up:

video: [www.youtube.com]

The Band of the Welsh Guards show respect.

Crowds attending the Changing of the Guards Ceremony at Buckingham Palace this morning were treated to more than the usual respect by the troops from the British Army’s Household Division.

The Band of the Welsh Guards are world famous for their musical versatility and professional performance and this morning paid tribute to another musical icon and one that has been of huge influence and inspiration to our musicians – Aretha Franklin, whose funeral was being held in Detroit 3,748 miles away, at the same time of the Queen’s Guard Change.

In the Army Respect for others underpins all that we do, so there was only one tune that would do for today’s ceremony: the 1967 Aretha Franklin hit “R.E.S.P.E.C.T.” a declaration from a strong confident woman who knows that she has everything.

[www.facebook.com]

[www.youtube.com]


"As we say in England, it can get a bit trainspottery"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2018-09-01 03:53 by Deltics.

Filmmakers documented a historic Aretha Franklin concert. Nearly 50 years later, the public will get to see it.


In this July 27, 2010 photo, Aretha Franklin performs at The Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia. Franklin died in August from advanced pancreatic cancer. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

By Steven Zeitchik
November 5 at 3:04 PM

“Amazing Grace,” an Aretha Franklin concert film regarded as one of the great lost treasures of both the documentary and music worlds, will finally see the light of day, according to its longtime producer and overseer.

Producer Alan Elliott and the Franklin estate struck a deal to end a three-year dispute and enabling the movie to be shown at festivals and sold to distributors, Elliott told The Washington Post.

Elliott said the deal was struck with Sabrina Owens, Franklin’s niece and the executor of her estate. The film will now have its premiere next week at DOC NYC, a popular documentary gathering in New York, and will be shown to distributors for potential release without any apparent legal hurdles.

“We’re excited to finally bring the movie to the public and expose this legacy project — this is the premiere document of American popular music ever been filmed,” Elliott said in an interview.By Steven Zeitchik November 5 at 3:04 PM
“Amazing Grace,” an Aretha Franklin concert film regarded as one of the great lost treasures of both the documentary and music worlds, will finally see the light of day, according to its longtime producer and overseer.

Producer Alan Elliott and the Franklin estate struck a deal to end a three-year dispute and enabling the movie to be shown at festivals and sold to distributors, Elliott told The Washington Post.

Elliott said the deal was struck with Sabrina Owens, Franklin’s niece and the executor of her estate. The film will now have its premiere next week at DOC NYC, a popular documentary gathering in New York, and will be shown to distributors for potential release without any apparent legal hurdles.

“We’re excited to finally bring the movie to the public and expose this legacy project — this is the premiere document of American popular music ever been filmed,” Elliott said in an interview.

"Amazing Grace” has been seen by scholars as a historic document to which the public has long been prevented access. The movie chronicles a landmark performance the soul great gave of the eponymous double album at a Los Angeles church in 1972. It was originally shot by the Oscar-winning director Sydney Pollack. But it remained in the vault for decades, first for technical reasons -- technology did not allow the audio and video to sync properly -- and then for financial reasons, with not enough money to complete it.

According to Elliott, Pollack had asked him on his deathbed in 2008 to finish the movie, which Elliott did for the following seven years. The former producer, who now is a college professor, also called it “a really interesting tableaux we formed out of shrapnel.”

But Franklin opposed the release and went so far as to get an injunction stopping the movie from premiering at the Telluride Film Festival in 2015 on the eve of its premiere. The Toronto International Film Festival subsequently pulled the film because of the injunction as well. Franklin’s objections at the time were unclear.

A distribution deal with Lionsgate was later mooted after Franklin decided not to sign the papers, and the film was stuck in limbo.

After her death in August, The Post reported a deal could be more likely, though the possibility was complicated by the fact that Franklin left no will.

Endeavor, the Hollywood agency, has been selling rights to the movie, which could garner a significant distribution deal in the absence of any legal hurdle. An Endeavor executive did not respond to a request for comment. A representative for the Franklin estate did not respond to a request for comment.

Thom Powers, the Toronto doc programmer who also runs DOC NYC, told The Post he thought the movie was “one of the great lost treasures of documentary film."

“A lot of us have been following this project for many years and waiting for the day when it would come to light,” he said. “About the biggest thriller I could imagine as a film-festival programmer is to be able to host this and bring it before an audience." The screening will take place with a conversation between Elliott and the cultural critic Nelson George."

Due to a dispute between Elliott and the Pollack estate the director’s name was taken off the film. It will premiere without a director.

“Amazing Grace” had earlier been qualified for the 2018 Oscars — essentially, a token week-long release in a theater to enable Motion Picture Academy members to nominate it for the year’s biggest prize. The move was somewhat unusual for a film without a distributor. (Distributors like to formulate Oscar plans themselves.) Though the film is most likely a candidate for the documentary Oscar, Elliott said he would like to make a push for top categories including best picture. “We want to dare the academy to honor Aretha,” he said.

The film does not have a publicist or other rudiments of Hollywood’s Oscar-industrial complex. That is by design, Elliott said, who noted he’d prefer a more homespun campaign.

Elliott had told The Post in August that “Ms. Franklin said ‘I love the film.’ Unfortunately for all of us, she passed before we could share that love. 'Amazing Grace’ is a testament to the timelessness of Ms. Franklin’s devotion to music and God. Her artistry, her genius and her spirit are present in every note and every frame of the film. We look forward to sharing the film with the world soon.”

The development is likely to be welcomed by fans and scholars. “Amazing Grace,” which this reporter saw in 2015, contains an intimacy rare for a movie about an icon and also showcases its subject’s incipient talent, all taking place in a church. Franklin performs such gospel standards as Marvin Gaye’s “Wholy Holy” and gives a religious spin to pop hits like Carole King’s “You’ve Got A Friend.”

At the time of her death, the music publication Billboard extolled the performance it documents as central to the history of American music.

“For all the historic moments that she helped soundtrack and elevate over the span of decades, it was the pair of concerts delivered at New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles in 1972 that rank as her finest hours,” the magazine wrote of the L.A. shows.

“For 11 full minutes she lives in a state of grace, as she sings to the Lord, for the Lord, letting his light and his love fill her body and soul, and then sending it pouring out into the microphone placed inches from her face and into the ears of the people sat rapt before her in the pews, and those listening months later at home or in their car, for all eternity."

[www.washingtonpost.com]

Edit- never mind, sorry.

I would desire to see the new release God Bless Aretha I hope she and Prince are having a good laugh—-



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-01-03 07:09 by 35love.

Amazing Grace, the fabled, never-released 1972 Aretha Franklin concert film, will finally make its way to theaters in 2019. Premiering April 5, the film documents the two-night performance of Amazing Grace—gospel music's biggest-selling live album and the most successful LP of Franklin's remarkable career—at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles.

[www.esquire.com]

This movie will also be exhibited in UK theaters in May.

New trailer:

Amazing Grace







Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-03-07 06:54 by Cristiano Radtke.

[youtu.be]

Take me to church can’t wait, prefer to see it @ home will wait for stream/rent.

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whitem8
[youtu.be]

At 1:31

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"As we say in England, it can get a bit trainspottery"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-03-09 19:26 by Deltics.

And this, from the trailer previously posted (1:55):

'Amazing Grace': Exclusive look at never-aired footage of Aretha Franklin





Charlie, Mick and Stu (at 2:24):

Some reviews about this movie:

The Guardian: Amazing Grace: the story behind the electrifying Aretha Franklin movie

Vanity Fair: Amazing Grace Is a Truly Religious Experience

Vulture: The Wild Story Behind Aretha Franklin’s Long-Delayed Documentary

The New Yorker: “My Soul Is Satisfied”: An Intimate New Documentary Explores the Source of Aretha Franklin’s Power

NPR: Aretha Franklin's 'Amazing Grace' Gets LA Premiere In The Church Where It Took Place

"Amazing Grace" is not only a Gospel Live album by Aretha Franklin but also a movie that has just been released recently in the Us in some selected film festivals after being shelved for more than 4 decades.
It should be released soon on dvd and/or movie theatre.
2 concerts were recorded by Sydney Pollack in a church in Los Angeles in Jan 1972 but because of stupid technical issues were never released. In fact the director forget to use the "Clap" so they couldn't synchronized the sound and image.
A private screening took place in London a few days ago and one in Paris yesterday, the movie was introduced by famous producer Joe Boyd.

Terrific concerts with Mick Jagger & Charlie Watts attending the second one, we can see them several times in the audience, with Mick enjoying himself and clapping his hands like mad, funny.

Amazing Grace

My God I saw this last night ---- I'm totally dumbfounded, it was that good. I'm going again on Sunday morning. Any music fan on here has to treat themselves to this gift from the heavens. I did not want it to end and Mick looked like he was enjoying it in the audience as much as everyone else. This is what it's all about folks.

Trailer:
[www.youtube.com]


[www.newyorker.com]


“Amazing Grace” Gives Us Aretha Franklin at the Spellbinding Height of Her Powers

By Vinson Cunningham

One of my favorite moments in all of music is from the album “Songs of Faith,” which Aretha Franklin recorded live, in 1956, at the New Bethel Baptist Church, in Detroit, when she was barely fourteen years old. Having already sung a sweet, sorrowful version of Thomas Dorsey’s gospel classic “Precious Lord,” Franklin begins to hoarsely moan. She goes on for close to three minutes—almost as long as her delivery of the song proper—sometimes shouting, sometimes intensely humming, finally tossing out the final phrases of Dorsey’s song, less, this time around, to convey their meaning than to explore their potential as a vehicle for melody. At one point, near the end, she drops into a melisma so dense it’s impossible to describe. The run is like a syllabus of black scalar material: a pentatonic plunge here, a gospel tremble there, some sweet soul swoops holding the whole thing together. The intelligence and self-reference of the moment makes it almost funny.

Franklin wasn’t simply the soul singer par excellence. She was also a kind of historian of vocal performance, almost teacherly in her eagerness to point out how soul, still in creation as she set out to master it, had one foot—melodic and attitudinal—in the blues, and the other—harmonic and ecstatic—in the gospel. “Amazing Grace,” the concert film that débuted at the DOC NYC film festival, last month, after many years of delay, and which opens at Film Forum on Friday, shows Franklin in this impressive mode: artist and archivist. The movie documents Franklin’s recording of the live album “Amazing Grace,” at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church, in Los Angeles, over two nights in January, 1972. Aretha was backed on both nights by the great gospel singer, songwriter, arranger, and choirmaster James Cleveland and his excellent Southern California Community Choir. Warner Bros. commissioned the director Sydney Pollack to film the sessions, but problems with the sound recording prevented its release at the time, and problems with Aretha prevented its release when the sound issues were finally resolved, in 2010. She sued to stop the movie from screening, insisting that the filmmakers did not have the right to use her image.

It is a stunning image. Franklin dresses, first, in a white, sequinned frock, half-hippie, half-diva; then in a white and green tie-dyed-looking number that would’ve looked just as loose and flattering on Sly Stone. On both nights, an Afro haloes her jarringly young face. The choir members twinkle in spangling outfits—at the outset, they march down the aisles, toward the stage, in a kind of Baptist usher’s bop (eerily like the church ensemble in which my parents met, as it happens). Cleveland not only puppeteers the singers but also acts as a kind of wisecracking m.c., first warming up the crowd, then sweatily helping to move everybody from song to song. But, to Aretha, you can tell, this is not a concert, not a performance for a crowd. Until the end of the last night, she barely utters a word to the people assembled: they’re there, sure, fine, but as props, part of the sonic texture she’d like to achieve, perhaps, and not, at least this time, as a group of patrons to please. Between numbers she averts her eyes and appears to be thinking. She’s a deadly focussed, monastically disinterested professional; the great value of the film is that it lets us see her as she works, as she performs her art without performing for us. One way to enjoy her presence throughout the evenings is to marvel at how unaware she is of the camera. I can’t recall ever seeing an equally undistracted artist on film.

Pollack often swings his camera very close to Franklin’s face, and what you see is all craft. Never does the strain of singing climb the bridge of her nose and onto her forehead’s smooth surface: all the tension’s in the mouth, and in the muscles that surround it. The corners of her lips squeeze inward as she ventures higher into her range—just beneath that signature mixed-voice high spike, the only note that ever makes her really unhinge her jaw—and her mouth squirms into a set of curved brackets, urging the music forward. Her tongue protrudes just so and sits atop her bottom row of teeth. Beads of sweat start popping loose early on, and never stop. The rhythm section that Cleveland pulled together is formidable—the whole band is, really—and this helps, in turn, to showcase Franklin’s own brilliant, and under-discussed, approach to rhythm. She has a quicker heartbeat than most singers; her vibrato hums like a drumroll, and she often fits in four fast notes—airy staccato jabs—in the space between one bass note and the next. As much as her vocal runs communicate melody, they also draw a herky-jerky sketch around the drum kit and the lower tones of the guitar.

Franklin leaves herself and flies into abandon a few times; at each of these moments, she is throwing a rope between herself and the past. Once, singing “Precious Memories” with Cleveland as a duet partner, she starts egging him on with fanciful passages, each of them centered on the blue note, the flattened third scale-degree that gives the blues its ambivalence and emotional dexterity. Cleveland and Franklin excite one another, and soon they sound like duelling Howlin’ Wolves. She closes her eyes and seems happy. In a way, the exercise—filling gospel to the gills with blues sensibility—is a callback to Dorsey, who helped, through “Precious Lord” and many other compositions, to bring the secular sound into the church and start the motion that would culminate, amazingly, in Aretha. Similarly, on the second night, toward the end of the film, she strolls over to the piano—she’s got a mean tomtom of a left hand that gives her playing a jutting edge—and plays “Never Grow Old.” She’s not too far from where her father, the famous preacher C. L. Franklin, sits, flanked by friends. “Never Grow Old” is an old song, but Aretha claims it, making her elders trade expressions of devotion, glee, and terror at her talent, and dismay at the passage of time. People cry and throw their towels.

I’ve known preachers’ kids all my life, and, watching Franklin here, so clearly respectful of, even cowed by, her father, made me consider her personality, and the music it produced, afresh. She was, as David Remnick detailed in a recent profile, embedded deeply into the byways, hierarchies, hidden codes, and often bitter familiarity of the church—so deeply that she must have been ever so slightly alienated from the scene, and able to make of it a dispassionate study, even the subject of a private joke. Maybe that’s how she achieves such distance from her fans, and also the kind of parodic control that leads to mastery. After “Never Grow Old,” she sits and rocks for a bit, then starts to sing again, seemingly impromptu, now a refrain of “I’m So Glad I’ve Got Religion.” She knows that everybody knows it. She probably wants to hear the hollers.

The show is a cataclysm for the crowd and for the choir. They cry and shout—at Aretha or God, it’s hard to tell. Just two nights at the office for this great artist at the earliest of her several peaks. On film, we see every shivering bead of sweat and flex of the mouth. It works as entertainment—musical, visual, emotional. But Franklin was only worried about the sound.

It's one of the finest ever albums, so what it will be like cinematically would, quite possibly, be beyond category.

Aretha was on a mighty roll at that time; her Fillmore album was a great live album (so too, the King Curtis live album, recorded at the same gigs), and that was around the same time-frame.

What was upsetting was that she descended into some poor choices, recording wise, for the next few years, and could be hit or miss within the same song even.