Authors: Mark Bego
Aretha Franklin
Copyright © 1989, 2001, 2012 by Mark Bego
St. Martin's Press Edition, 1989
Da Capo Press Edition, 2001
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file
ISBN 978-1-61608-581-0
Printed in the United States of America
TO DON KEVERN :
My junior high school English teacher who taught me
to appreciate the written word.
Introduction: All Hail the Queen!
CHAPTER ONE: The Queen of Soul
CHAPTER THREE: Aretha Sings the Blues
CHAPTER FIVE: Young, Gifted and Black
CHAPTER SEVEN: Aretha Jumps to It
CHAPTER EIGHT: The Freeway Back to the Top
CHAPTER NINE: The Spirit of Detroit
CHAPTER TEN: A Rose is Still a RoseâThe 1990s and Beyond
CHAPTER TWELVE: How Does Aretha Keep the Music Playing?
Aretha Franklin's Grammy Awards
About “Aretha Franklin: The Queen of Soul”
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 herselfâthank 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 (1962â2011): “Dude, the coffee will always be on here for you, and I will always love you and never forget you!”
ALL HAIL THE QUEEN!
T
he book you are reading is one I have been writingâin one form or anotherâfor 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”
âwhich 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 2010â2011 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.”
âMark Bego
2012
DETROIT 1989
A
retha Franklin rarely grants interviews, and when she does, she never discusses the details of her personal life. In the summer of 1985 I had the unique opportunity of spending several hours at her home in the Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills, interviewing her for a national radio broadcast. Although Aretha was a bit shy at first, as the interview progressed, she relaxed and became quite warm and talkative.
Since the interview was for radio broadcast, we stopped the tape recorder a couple of times so that she could light up a cigarette and just chat off the record. I found her to be charming, and very down-to-earth. Having grown up in Detroit myself, I had known of Aretha as a local legend for three decades. As our interview progressed, I was pleased to find that she was not a prima donna. She opened up when she discovered that my interviewing technique was more like having a friendly conversation.
During one of our breaks in taping for the radio broadcast, I told her I was the author of several biographies of celebrities. I confessed that it was a dream of mine to collaborate with her someday on her autobiography. “I'm not interested in doing that,” she said, “I don't want to write a book.” I was disappointed, but at least I had gone on record as having asked.
We completed the interview, and it went quite smoothly. As she had requested, I stayed away from several topics of her personal lifeâespecially the recent death of her father. But she was comfortable enough with me to poke fun at herself, to discuss her very real fear of flying, and to talk about her French lessons. “
Moi?
” she said, laughingly referring to herself
in French. When our interview was over, Aretha took me on a tour of her backyard to see the swimming pool and her vegetable garden.
Although I had met her before, backstage at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, that afternoon in the Detroit suburbs I felt that I had met a charming, witty, suburban “lady next door” who was proud of her home and her garden. The fact that she was an international superstar was almost incidental.
I have been asked several times during my career, “What is the one book you would most like to write?” That afternoon at Aretha's house, I had my answer. With that interview, I officially began work on thisâthe most challenging and rewarding book I've ever written. There had never been a book published about Aretha Franklin. I have endeavored to write the most in-depth biography possible without her complete cooperation. Some of the information I have uncovered is shocking.