Aretha Franklin (48 page)

Although—at this point—she had amassed the astonishing number of fifteen Grammy Awards for her recordings, on March 1, 1994 Aretha added another of the gramophone-shaped trophies to her collection. Being awarded a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award put her into an exclusive category of historic recording artists. Through the years, other recipients of this honor have included: Nat “King” Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Patsy Cline, Billie Holiday, Paul McCartney, Lena Horne, and Fred Astaire. On 1994's live telecast of
The Grammy Awards
show from Radio City Music Hall, Aretha was seen singing “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” for the international viewing audience of millions. To many of her fans—this one song would always be regarded as her greatest single hit.

Although it had been promised for years, finally in 1994 Arista Records released a “best of” disc comprising all of that label's most popular and most successful Aretha cuts. Entitled
Aretha Franklin Greatest Hits 1980–1994
, it has all of the big hits, including “Freeway of Love,” “I Knew You Were Waiting,” “Deeper Love,” “Jump to It” and “Get It Right.” It also contains “(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman” by the trio of Bonnie Raitt, Gloria Estefan and Aretha from her TV special, as well as “I Dreamed a Dream,” complete with the Edward James Olmos introduction she received when she performed it at the Presidential Inauguration. In addition, it includes two new Franklin ballads, produced by Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds: “Honey” and “Willing to Forgive,” both of which were released as singles. “Honey” made it to Number 114 in the United States, and Number Thirty on the R&B chart. “Willing to Forgive” however made it to Number Twenty-six on the US pop charts, Number Five on the R&B chart, and Number Seventeen in the UK.

Babyface had already had success producing Toni Braxton and Whitney Houston, so he seemed like a natural choice to work with Aretha. It was originally Clive Davis who orchestrated their meeting, uncertain of how they would get along in the studio.

Babyface was later to explain to Aretha—in a dialogue in
Interview
magazine, “I was a little nervous when I went into the studio with you because I didn't know what you thought of me as a producer or writer or artist. I didn't know if it was just a hook-up organized by Clive. And because of your talent, I didn't know if you would think anything of what my opinion would be. I have worked with people who don't hold a candle to your credit but have far more attitude than they should, acting like they should be Aretha. But I'm glad to say, I was very happy about how things went.”
(12)

She in turn said to him in the same article, “Long before we got to the studio, I knew that you were highly qualified, but I didn't have any reservations at all. I was just hoping I'd really get a good one! And I did—I love both of the songs we did.”
(12)

Although the album
Aretha Franklin: Greatest Hits 1980–1994
only made it to Number Eighty-five on the
Billboard
magazine album chart and Number Twenty-seven in England, it eventually sold a million copies in America, and was certified Platinum.

The year 1994 was another high profile one for Franklin. On March 12, Aretha was the musical guest on NBC-TV's
Saturday Night Live
, and on April 22 she attended and was part of the seventh annual
Essence
Awards, which were again held at the Paramount Theater in New York City. On May 1 she performed at the 25th annual Jazz & Heritage Festival in New Orleans, Louisiana.

It seemed like everything was in order in her life. She was also very happy with the quality and diversity of the music she was creating. Aretha stated at the time, “I'm very pleased with the music at this point. I'm still looking for the man, though, I've met a lot of gentlemen, and I date occasionally, but I haven't met the one I've been waiting for.”
(12)

What kind of man was she looking for? “I usually tend to prefer a taller gentleman. Stylish. A positive person. Ambitious. And successful,” she proclaimed at the time.
(13)

Like many media stars, unfortunately, Aretha finds that she has a tendency to intimidate suitors. According to her, “It has been a problem. I have even discussed it with other ladies in the business to see whether or not they were having the same problems. Some men feel like they're gonna be called ‘Mr. Franklin' or something. Any
real
men can rise to the
occasion with no sweat. One guy I was interested in told a friend of mine that he thought I was gonna ask him to carry my bags someday. That sounds like he doesn't think very much of himself.”
(12)

That same year Aretha was also one of the featured artists heard on the disc
A Tribute to Curtis Mayfield
. While Gladys Knight ripped her way through the feisty “Choice of Colors,” Bruce Springsteen went rhythmic on “Gypsy Woman,” and B. B. King got soulful on “Woman's Got Soul,” Aretha took the ballad route—choosing “The Makings of You.” It is great to hear her on this wonderful album—which is one of the best of the 1990s proliferation of all-star songwriter tribute discs.

Rhino Records that year released two excellent single disc greatest hits CDs,
The Very Best of Aretha Franklin, Volume One, The
‘
60s
, and
The Very Best of Aretha Franklin, Volume Two, The
‘
70s
. Essentially they represent the
30 Greatest Hits
album, divided in two, with the addition of “Border Song (Holy Moses),” “All the King's Horses,” and “Something He Can Feel,” and the omission of the gospel song “Wholly Holy.”

On June 20, 1994, Aretha Franklin gave a historic concert, performing for the first time at the White House. Singing before 180 invited guests, plus President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton, Aretha dazzled the crowd which gathered in the Rose Garden. The varied program highlighted several of her classic hits—”Respect,” “Freeway of Love,” “I Say a Little Prayer” and “Brand New Me”—as well as several standards from her early sixties jazz past, including “I Want to Be Happy,” and the ballads “Smile” and “Cottage For Sale.” She was then joined on-stage by Lou Rawls for a moving version of the song “Tobacco Road.” For that particular number, she dismissed her musicians with a wink: “We don't need ‘em,” she said.
(14)
With that, she sat down at the piano and accompanied herself. She and Rawls were next joined by the choir of Washington's Eastern High School, and they all closed the show with the song “I Was Born to Sing the Gospel.”

That night's one-hour concert was also taped as a PBS TV special entitled
In Performance at The White House
, which was broadcast on October 12 of that year. As fabulous as her singing was that evening, no one could stop talking about the super-low cut white beaded off-the-shoulder Arnold Scaasi dress that she wore. At one point during the
evening's presentation, a less-than-svelte Aretha bowed down to accept a standing ovation, and it looked like she was about to pop out of the dress. It was to become acknowledged as her most dramatic fashion
faux pas
of the decade.

The press was quick to jump on the Queen of Soul's case. According to Toriano Boynton in
USA Today
, “Low cut was the dress and mum was the word for Aretha at her post-White House concert party. Before reporters in the Ritz-Carlton ballroom could open their mouths, Franklin said, rolling her eyes, ‘Thank you for not asking me any questions.'” The same article also reported that Aretha wasn't very interested in the dinner buffet “but didn't miss the chocolate-covered strawberries at desert.”
(15)

On November 3, 1994, Aretha performed at a benefit for the New York chapter of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences. On the 25th of that month, along with Chaka Khan and Tevin Campbell, Aretha performed at the third annual Franklin Scholarship Awards Dinner and Dance, which was held at the Cobo Hall exhibition center in downtown Detroit. This was her own pet charity, and that evening she was the “belle” of the ball. However, for Franklin, the best was yet to come.

As Aretha explained it, she was sitting at home watching television one day, when she caught President Bill Clinton on the air, saluting the National Council of Negro Women. According to her, “I was very touched to see that, and I thought maybe one day the President will give me something. And, I went on cooking . . . And the very next day, I got the call from my agent.” Her agent informed her that she had been chosen as one of that year's five recipients of the Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement Award. “I was so stunned!” she proclaimed, “because the President does bestow this honor as well. So you never know what the Lord has in store for you.”
(16)

It was on December 4, 1994, that Aretha Franklin received this particular honor, which is one of the biggest and most prestigious awards any American citizen can have bestowed upon them, as one of the Kennedy Center Honorees. Every year the President and First Lady present this honor on legends of the humanities, citing the person's expertise in music, dance, film, stage, directing, or producing. Along with Aretha, that year's
honorees included actor Kirk Douglas, Broadway director Harold Prince, folk singer/songwriter Pete Seeger, and composer Morton Gould.

The festivities are a two night affair. The recipients were first fêted at a White House dinner reception hosted by President and Mrs. Clinton. At the White House dinner, President Clinton proclaimed, “You could say that Hillary and I went to college and law school with Aretha, because scarcely a day passed we didn't listen to her songs . . . She took the genius God gave her and applied it to earthly pain and joy.” Following the dinner, President Clinton had to fly to Budapest, and was unable to attend the actual presentation ceremony which was held the next night at the Kennedy Center. That evening at the black tie White House dinner, Aretha looked stunning in a long white dress with ruffles, designed by Arnold Scaasi.
(17)
&
(18)

At the 1994 Kennedy Center presentation, Aretha arrived twenty minutes late. She had a case of stomach flu, and was not feeling well. However, when she came sweeping in wearing a low-cut red velvet gown and a shawl framing her bare shoulders, all eyes were on her. Aretha was escorted by her new on-again-off-again beau, handsome actor Renauld White, from the television soap opera
The Guiding Light
. That evening on-stage, Aretha was saluted in song by members of New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, by Patti LaBelle, by the Four Tops, and treated like sheer royalty.

In addition to the prestige this award represented to Aretha, at the age of fifty-two, she was also the youngest person ever to be have it bestowed upon them. Franklin later cooed, “This award is absolutely stunning. No question that this is the
piece de resistance
.”
(17)

According to Aretha, during this era she had been seeing Renauld White, “on and off for years.” When asked about her relationship with him by
Ebony
magazine, she revealed, “Renauld and I are close, very close … There's a kind of unexplainable something that happens between he and I. It's warm. I like it.”
(7)

What happened to her 1980s engagement to handsome fireman Willie Wilkerson? It went by the wayside, Wilkerson was later to reveal. According to him, “She's a homebody, she really is as far as I can see. She likes being around the house and likes having a man around the house.
The type of person I am, I can't sit around the house. If I could be that type of guy. I would have been there. I'm too hyper.”
(10)

Aretha has said in the past that she always remains friendly with the men she has dated, even when the blush of romance has faded. In 1994 Aretha asked Wilkerson, with whom she had broken up, to assist her on an upcoming concert tour. He gladly accepted, considering her to be a dear friend in need of his help. “My title is music librarian,” he said at the time. “I handle sheet music. I make sure nothing is lost. I make sure music gets to her. She just asked me to do this job recently. Sounds like something small, but it's major.”
(10)

Years after the affair had cooled off, Aretha finally admitted that the mystery man she had talked about dating in the early 1980s was indeed Dennis Edwards, formerly of the Temptations. “Dennis Edwards was about fifteen years too late,” she proclaimed. “Meaning by the time he realized the value of what he had, it was just too late. I was no longer interested. He had drop-kicked me a couple of times and I had just had enough.”
(7)

Edwards has since admitted, “I should have married Aretha. It was all in my court and I think I'm the one that was so scared of marrying this superstar.”
(10)

On January 10, 1995, Aretha performed at the Universal Amphitheater, in Universal City, California, at a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald. At that time Ella was in ill health, so it was a great honor for Franklin to lend her support to the woman whose prowess in jazz music parallels Aretha's stature in the world of pop and R&B music.

When the Grammy Awards were handed out in Los Angeles on March 1, 1995, Aretha's “A Deeper Love” was nominated as the “Best Female R&B Performance” of the year. However, it was Toni Braxton's “Breathe Again” which ultimately took that trophy.

Although Aretha was still very much “mum” about discussing her children, a 1995 article in
Vanity Fair
spoke frankly of her sons. The article, which gave a rare glimpse into her private life, reported on what they were doing with their lives by describing them as: “Edward, a theological student; Kecalf, a rapper; Teddy junior, who plays guitar and travels with his mother; and Clarence, a chronic schizophrenic.”
(8)
Although Franklin
has remained very closed-mouthed about Clarence's difficulties, the
Vanity Fair
piece brought to the public eye, the rumors about him. According to one confidential source at a suburban Detroit mental facility, “We see Clarence in and out of our programs from time to time.”
(19)