Aretha Franklin 'Knew You Were Waiting: The Best of Aretha Franklin 1980-1998' preview

The third major period of the career of Aretha Franklin, after her jazz years at Columbia and her hit years at Atlantic, are being collected on the Arista/Legacy album Knew You Were Waiting: The Best of Aretha Franklin 1980-1998.

Franklin, who will turn 70 on March 25, spent 18 years under the guidance of Clive Davis at Arista Records and, while the hits may not equal the years at Atlantic, the singer still turned out her share of classics.

The new chronologically-sequenced, 16-song collection is the first major U.S. release to focus on the nearly two-decades that marked Aretha's tenure at Arista. These range from her label debut, 1980's #3 comeback R&B smash United Together (her first Top 5 hit in over three and a half years), to 1998's iconic #5 R&B entry, A Rose Is Still A Rose, written, produced and arranged by Lauryn Hill of the Fugees.

"When Aretha Franklin signed to Arista Records in 1980," writes Ernest Hardy in his liner notes to Knew You Were Waiting, "she had nothing left to prove… She had redefined the terms and reset the boundaries of both R&B and pop. She had sung jazz, gospel and blues, and erased the lines between them. She embodied the beauty that was Blackness while providing a soundtrack to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. She had worked with the very best songwriters, musicians, producers, arrangers and visionaries, and proved herself to be one of the best singers, songwriters, musicians and visionaries the music industry had ever seen." Hardy is an award-winning cultural critic and essayist based in Los Angeles.

Underscoring Hardy's point, Aretha's Arista years were indeed marked by a steady flow of successful collaborations with contemporary music's "very best songwriters, musicians, producers, arrangers and visionaries." Virtually every track on Knew You Were Waiting supports this, starting with United Together, which was written and produced by Chuck Jackson (known for his career-making hits with Natalie Cole), and features Aretha's beloved Sweet Inspirations on backing vocals (the 'original' lineup of Cissy Houston, Myrna Smith, Sylvia Shenwell and Estelle Brown). Likewise, Love All The Hurt Away, a duet with George Benson, was written by Sam Dees, and produced by the late Arif Mardin, the legendary producer who worked on so many of Aretha's early breakthrough '60s and '70s Atlantic LPs.

Lauryn Hill, Arif Mardin and Chuck Jackson are just three of the important producers with whom Aretha worked at Arista. In addition to tracks produced by Luther Vandross (with arrangements by Marcus Miller), Narada Michael Walden, and Kenneth 'Babyface' Edmonds, Knew You Were Waiting also includes tracks produced by Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones and Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics.
In addition to the collaborations above, Knew You Were Waiting contains many more A-list collaborations that have become cornerstones in the Aretha canon:

Freeway Of Love (1985), featuring the late Clarence Clemons of the E Street Band on tenor saxophone, Randy Jackson on bass, and percussion by the Santana rhythm section, was a #1 R&B hit for 5 weeks, and went on to win the Grammy Award® for Best R&B Female Vocal
Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves (1985), a Top 20 pop hit with the Eurythmics' Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart (who produced), also features [Tom Petty] Heartbreakers band members Benmont Tench (organ), Stan Lynch (drums), and Mike Campbell (lead guitar)
Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986), a Top 20 R&B and pop crossover smash duet with Keith Richards (who produced and played lead guitar, along with fellow Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood), was the title song from the movie Jumpin' Jack Flash starring Whoopi Goldberg
I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me) (1986), a duet with George Michael, was another mega-hit, #1 pop for a fortnight and #5 R&B, and winner of the Grammy Award® for Best R&B Vocal Duo
Through The Storm (1989), a Top 20 R&B and pop crossover hit vocal duet with Elton John, is one of two Albert Hammond/Diane Warren compositions (among many!) that were brought to Aretha by Clive Davis

It Isn't, It Wasn't, It Ain't Never Gonna Be (1989), a #5 R&B hit duet with Whitney Houston, is the other Hammond/Warren composition here, from the same album (Through The Storm); and Ever Changing Times (1991), a Top 20 R&B hit vocal duet with Michael McDonald, written and produced by the hitmaking duo of Burt Bacharach and Carol Bayer Sager, in a mix previously unreleased on CD.

Knew You Were Waiting as Hardy concludes, "makes clear that Aretha Franklin was a vibrant, soulful, stretching, creative, forceful artist at Arista Records. She kept her fingers on the pulse of the world around her while sating old fans and scoring new ones. Her music at the label was about a place that exists behind and beyond mere words... No one expresses joy the way she does. No one conveys grief or loss with anywhere near her force or heartbreaking precision. She burns right through the words she sings, taking you straight to the core. That is her unmatched genius."

Track List:

United Together
Love All the Hurt Away (duet with George Benson)
Jump to It
Get it Right
Freeway of Love
Who's Zoomin' Who
Sister's Are Doin' It For Themselves (duet with the Eurythmics)
Another Night
Jumpin' Jack Flash
Jimmy Lee
I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me) (duet with George Michael)
Through the Storm (duet with Elton John)
It Isn't, It Wasn't, It Ain't Never Gonna Be (duet with Whitney Houston)
Ever Changing Times (duet with Michael McDonald)
Willing to Forgive
A Rose is Still a Rose

Artist: Aretha Franklin
Title: Knew You Were Waiting: The Best of Aretha Franklin 1980-1998
Release Date: January 31, 2012
Label: Arista/Legacy
Format(s): CD, DD