Gerry and me went like this:
“Ya think Ahmet’ll like it?”
“Why wouldn’t he?”
“What about Aretha?”
“I have no idea.”
“Ya think they’re gonna do it?”
“God, I hope so!”
We heard nothing—not a word—until Jerry Wexler invited us to come in and listen to the finished recording.
Oh. My. God.
Hearing Aretha’s performance of “Natural Woman” for the first time, I experienced a rare speechless moment. To this day I can’t convey how I felt in mere words. Anyone who had written a song in 1967 hoping it would be performed by a singer who could take it to the highest level of excellence, emotional connection,and public exposure would surely have wanted that singer to be Aretha Franklin.
Few people would consider it hyperbole to call Aretha’s voice one of the most expressive vocal instruments of the twentieth century. Hearing that instrument sing a song I had participated in creating touched me more than any recording of any song I had ever written. I knew that Gerry and I had delivered a song that took Jerry Wexler’s title to its most romantic, emotional conclusion, and I knew that the music I had written had captured the spirit of black gospel in a way that gave Aretha something familiar she could run with—and run with it she did! But Aretha was not alone in creating that incomparable recording. She was assisted by the soaring string crescendos that wrapped themselves around her glorious vocal performance and brilliantly complemented by a solid rhythm and blues basic track and the soulful background vocals of her sisters, Erma and Carolyn Franklin.
But a recording that moves people is never just about the artist and the songwriters. It’s about people like Jerry and Ahmet, who matched the songwriters with a great title and a gifted artist; Arif Mardin, whose magnificent orchestral arrangement deserves the place it will forever occupy in popular music history; Tom Dowd, whose engineering skills captured the magic of this memorable musical moment for posterity; and the musicians in the rhythm section, the orchestral players, and the vocal contributions of the background singers—among them the unforgettable “Ah-oo!” after the first line of the verse. And the promotion and marketing people helped this song reach more people than it might have without them.
But in the end it was Aretha’s performance that sent our song not only to the top of the charts but all the way to heaven.
It takes a lot more people to deliver a song than most people are aware of, but you, the listener, are the most important personin the process. You complete the circle. You inspire us to write, sing, arrange, record, and promote songs that move us because we hope they will move you, too. There might still be an “us” without you, but you make us matter, and you make us better.
In 1970 I would record “Natural Woman” with a simple arrangement along the lines of the original demo. My 1970 version is slower than Aretha’s and has a few chords from Arif’s arrangement that weren’t on my original demo.
Q : How do you follow Aretha Franklin?
A : You don’t. You can only precede her.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Sold
I n 1963, with something like thirty-three top 10 hits to Aldon’s credit, Donnie had begun negotiating with Screen Gems Television and Columbia Pictures to sell Aldon Music. The sale took place on April 12, 1963, with Donnie, then twenty-nine, becoming executive vice president in charge of all music publishing and recording, conducted primarily under the banners of Screen Gems–Columbia Music and Colpix Records. Al Nevins stayed on as a consultant until he passed away on January 25, 1965. He would have been fifty that year.
At first Gerry and I were unhappy about the sale, and Barry and Cynthia shared our dismay. We thought of ourselves as members of the Aldon Music family, and we were convinced that the new circumstances would herald the end of our careers. To assuage our vehement
“Ya think Ahmet’ll like it?”
“Why wouldn’t he?”
“What about Aretha?”
“I have no idea.”
“Ya think they’re gonna do it?”
“God, I hope so!”
We heard nothing—not a word—until Jerry Wexler invited us to come in and listen to the finished recording.
Oh. My. God.
Hearing Aretha’s performance of “Natural Woman” for the first time, I experienced a rare speechless moment. To this day I can’t convey how I felt in mere words. Anyone who had written a song in 1967 hoping it would be performed by a singer who could take it to the highest level of excellence, emotional connection,and public exposure would surely have wanted that singer to be Aretha Franklin.
Few people would consider it hyperbole to call Aretha’s voice one of the most expressive vocal instruments of the twentieth century. Hearing that instrument sing a song I had participated in creating touched me more than any recording of any song I had ever written. I knew that Gerry and I had delivered a song that took Jerry Wexler’s title to its most romantic, emotional conclusion, and I knew that the music I had written had captured the spirit of black gospel in a way that gave Aretha something familiar she could run with—and run with it she did! But Aretha was not alone in creating that incomparable recording. She was assisted by the soaring string crescendos that wrapped themselves around her glorious vocal performance and brilliantly complemented by a solid rhythm and blues basic track and the soulful background vocals of her sisters, Erma and Carolyn Franklin.
But a recording that moves people is never just about the artist and the songwriters. It’s about people like Jerry and Ahmet, who matched the songwriters with a great title and a gifted artist; Arif Mardin, whose magnificent orchestral arrangement deserves the place it will forever occupy in popular music history; Tom Dowd, whose engineering skills captured the magic of this memorable musical moment for posterity; and the musicians in the rhythm section, the orchestral players, and the vocal contributions of the background singers—among them the unforgettable “Ah-oo!” after the first line of the verse. And the promotion and marketing people helped this song reach more people than it might have without them.
But in the end it was Aretha’s performance that sent our song not only to the top of the charts but all the way to heaven.
It takes a lot more people to deliver a song than most people are aware of, but you, the listener, are the most important personin the process. You complete the circle. You inspire us to write, sing, arrange, record, and promote songs that move us because we hope they will move you, too. There might still be an “us” without you, but you make us matter, and you make us better.
In 1970 I would record “Natural Woman” with a simple arrangement along the lines of the original demo. My 1970 version is slower than Aretha’s and has a few chords from Arif’s arrangement that weren’t on my original demo.
Q : How do you follow Aretha Franklin?
A : You don’t. You can only precede her.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Sold
I n 1963, with something like thirty-three top 10 hits to Aldon’s credit, Donnie had begun negotiating with Screen Gems Television and Columbia Pictures to sell Aldon Music. The sale took place on April 12, 1963, with Donnie, then twenty-nine, becoming executive vice president in charge of all music publishing and recording, conducted primarily under the banners of Screen Gems–Columbia Music and Colpix Records. Al Nevins stayed on as a consultant until he passed away on January 25, 1965. He would have been fifty that year.
At first Gerry and I were unhappy about the sale, and Barry and Cynthia shared our dismay. We thought of ourselves as members of the Aldon Music family, and we were convinced that the new circumstances would herald the end of our careers. To assuage our vehement
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