Happy Music Monday, you all. Hope that first weekend of August treated you well.
After watching the amazing documentary, Billy Preston: That’s The Way God Planned It, I was inspired to create this playlist.
Directed by Paris Barclay and co-written by Cheo Hodari Coker, the film chronicles the life, amazing six-decade career, and complex personal struggles of the legendary keyboardist, singer, and songwriter, Billy Preston.
The GRAMMY-winner started as a child prodigy backing his mother, his own gospel group, and the iconic Mahalia Jackson. I’ve included gospel tracks along with his hits, including chart-toppers like “Will It Go Round in Circles” and “Outa-Space”.
Billy Preston was a virtuoso keyboardist and powerhouse sideman who bridged gospel, R&B, rock, and soul. So no collection would be complete without his his iconic collaborations with The Beatles (earning him the moniker “the fifth Beatle” from John Lennon himself), The Rolling Stones, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Little Richard, Sam Moore and Eric Clapton.
I’ve gathered more than 100 songs by him as a solo artist, in duet, as sideman, and collaborator, defying genre. From “With You I’m Born Again” with Syreeta Wright to the “Warlocks” backing Red Hot Chili Peppers, you’ll find a wide-ranging collection of tracks by the often under-recognized maestro.
It’s commonly known if Aretha Franklin covered a song you wrote and/or recorded, it would from her recording forward be known as her song.
Otis Redding, composer and original performer of “Respect”, said as much at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967: “a girl took [‘Respect’] away from me, a friend of mine, this girl she just took this song.”
Other examples of this usurpation include “I Say A Little Prayer” (composed by Burt Bacharach/Hal David and recorded by Dionne Warwick), “Until You Come Back To Me”(composed by Stevie Wonder) and “Bridge Over Troubled Water” (composed by Simon and Garfunkel).
If you want to hear her versions of these songs along with even more evidence of Aretha’s virtuoso mastery of covers, check the link to my playlist “How I Got Over”: Aretha Franklin’s Cover Songs right here.
But today, on what would have been her 83rd birthday, I’m drawn to the songs that Franklin herself composed or co-wrote — ones that shaped her sound and offered insights into her own mind and soul. A collection of those gems, “Rock Steady”: Songs Aretha Franklin Wrote is included below:
While her classic bangers “Think”, “Dr. Feelgood” and “Rock Steady” contain, comment and reflect upon the energy of the civil rights and women’s movements of the 1960s and 1970s — movements rooted in opposing and dismantling white supremacy and patriarchy — and are more relevant than ever in the current political climate, it’s “Spirit in the Dark” that’s hitting hardest for me today.
Granted, “Spirit in the Dark” is an all-time Aretha favorite of mine, because it is simultaneously the most and least gospel gospel song I’ve ever heard.
It’s mind-blowing, really. The slow, rocking gospel intro, the lift into the chorus, the transition into the hyped up “get the spirit” section – the compositional structure is masterfully classic – yet also feels completely secular and modern in how Franklin arranges it.
The lyrics are as uplifting as they are raunchy and Aretha’s delivery of the song is deliciously desirous and divine. This intentional blurring of what were traditionally thought of as separate lines/sounds/philosophies/lifestyles brings a wholeness, a completeness and a joyousness to both the sacred and profane.
Because really, at the end of the day, life is life, love is love, joy is joy and rapture is rapture. All avenues to it that don’t harm others are all good and it is my strong belief that Aretha knew this and was expressing precisely this in this original song of hers – and throughout her life.
“Spirit in the Dark” expresses for me what I’ve been feeling since the fully disappointing result of the 2024 Presidential Election – the desire to connect to real spirit or be a real spirit amid the collective darkness and doom. To live our truths no matter what systemic forces attempt to proscribe or prohibit for us.
Also, it gave me the glorious excuse to rewatch and share the 15 minute video above of the live 1971 performance of “Spirit In The Dark” at the Filmore West where Aretha plays the Wurlitzer, spirit dances across the stage (damn if she doesn’t do an early version of the moonwalk in here!) and spontaneously brings up Ray Charles to riff and workout on the track as well.
As I wrote several years ago in elegy to her 2018 passing, among so many other things, Aretha Franklin was a Black woman from Detroit by way of Memphis who forever looked like my grandmother, my mother, my auntie, my deacon – and lived in the kind of body brought to this nation solely to serve this nation, not to sway it.
Yet that’s exactly what she did, with the breadth of a brilliance that will be revered and remembered forever.
Happy Black History Month, you all. Now it might seem counterintuitive to use my February offering to feature and honor Burt Bacharach, who died on February 8 at age 94.
The prolific composer, songwriter, record producer, and pianist is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential figures of 20th-century popular music. He was a six-time Grammy Award winner and three-time Academy Award winner, Bacharach’s songs have been recorded by more than 1,000 different artists.
However, no one would disagree that Bacharach’s (and his lyricist partner Hal David‘s) most popular success was with Dionne Warwick. They created a string of 39 consecutive chart hits including “Don’t Make Me Over,” “Walk On By,” and “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again.” Their collaboration would continue for decades including his production of “That’s What Friends Are For.”
This “Close To You: Soulful Burt Bacharach Covers” collection features generations of Black artists who have collaborated directly with Bacharach (Ronald Isley), covered beautifully (Aretha Franklin, Love), and sampled (Mos Def, Masta Ace, Floetry) the work of Burt Bacharach.
Stevie Wonder‘s live performance in 1972, of “Close To You” and the Jackson 5′s “Never Can Say Goodbye utilizing the ‘talkbox,’ inspired Frank Ocean’s cover on his 2016 album, Blonde.
Bobby Womack and Isaac Hayes each spent ample time covering Bacharach while pushing against what they saw as limits of what was acceptable for Black artists.
The 5th Dimension, who were stung by being called “the Black group, with the white sound,” are present with “One Less Bell To Answer.”Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. perform it twice in this collection.
There are ample examples of hip-hop artists using Warwick and Bacharach’s work on “Recognize,” “Hold U,” “Must Be Bobby,” “Know That” and other tracks.
So please enjoy this Black History Month celebration of Burt Bacharach’s impactful work through the creation of these great Black artists.
If you are a regular listener of Good Black News’ Music Monday playlists, we’re sure you’ve noticed by now that we’ve got some serious Stevie Wonder fans in the house. In 2020, we even celebrated his 70th birthday with a whole month of fantastic playlists (some links below).
And now that Mr. Wonder’s birthday week again (on this Friday the 13th), we’ve got a new playlist to share – this one built around songs that he composed for other artists – it’s called “Written By Wonder, First Sung By Another”:
This playlist is comprised of over 90 songs spanning from the mid-60s when he was still just a teenage songwriter, up through the list’s most recent composition, a 2011 release from smooth jazz vocalist Maysa called “Have Sweet Dreams.”
Many people already know of the hits Stevie wrote for others – classics such as The Spinners’ “It’s A Shame,” Jermaine Jackson’s “Let’s Get Serious,” Third World’s “Try Jah Love,” Rufus feat. Chaka Khan’s “Tell Me Something Good,” and of course, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles’ “The Tears of a Clown.”
But his writing legacy goes so much deeper than that.
Today we celebrate the one and only Aretha Franklin, who was born 80 years ago #OnThisDay.
Franklin, whose voice was rightfully declared a natural resource by her home state of Michigan in 1985 is the focus of our Daily Drop podcast as GBN takes a brief look at her legacy through career highlights and offers sources to learn even more about the Queen of Soul.
Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Friday, March 25th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.
“Queen of Soul” Aretha Franklin was born on this day 80 years ago and offered a heavenly blend of gospel, R&B, blues, jazz, rock and pop (and even classical!) that this Earth may never see again. A piano prodigy from childhood, this Grammy-winning Rock & Roll Hall of Famer wrote and performed classics such as “Think”:
[Excerpt from “Think”]
“Dr. Feelgood”:
[Excerpt from “Dr. Feelgood”]
“Day Dreaming”:
[Excerpt from “Day Dreaming”]
“Spirit in the Dark”:
[Excerpt from “Spirit in the Dark”]
and “Call Me”:
[Excerpt from “Call Me”]
Franklin also used her musical genius to turn cover songs into signature masterpieces such as “I Say a Little Prayer” – first recorded and released by Dionne Warwick:
[Excerpt from “Say a Little Prayer”]
“Until You Come Back to Me” – originally recorded by Stevie Wonder, though Aretha released her version first:
[Excerpt from “Until You Come Back to Me”]
And, the mother of all covers and remakes, ever, originally written, recorded and released by Otis Redding… “Respect”:
[Excerpt from “Respect”]
https://youtu.be/6S1_skidDFI
Additionally, Aretha Franklin’s 1972 Amazing Grace double album remains the best-selling live gospel music recording of all time, and her rendition of the title track to this day remains superlative:
[Excerpt from “Amazing Grace”]
Aretha continued to define and redefine singing and the sound of music in the 1980s and 1990s with songs like “Jump to It”:
[Excerpt from “Jump to It”]
“Freeway of Love”:
[Excerpt from “Freeway of Love”]
“I Knew You Were Waiting For Me” with George Michael:
[Excerpt from “I Knew You Were Waiting For Me”]
The anthemic “Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves” with Annie Lennox:
[Excerpt from “Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves”]
and her 1998 collaboration with Lauryn Hill, “A Rose Is Still A Rose.”
Still going strong in the 21st century, in 2014 at the age of 72, Aretha scored a #1 hit on the U.S. Dance Charts with her remake of Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep”:
You can also check out a few Aretha Franklin playlists curated by me, one of the biggest Aretha Franklin stans around, on Spotify and Apple Music.
Links to these and other sources are provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.
This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing, and available at workman.com, Amazon,Bookshop and other online retailers.
Intro and outro beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot. Excerpts of songs performed by Aretha Franklin are permitted under Fair Use.
If you like our Daily Drops, please consider following us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon,Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You could give us a positive rating or review, share your favorite episodes on social media, or go old school and tell a friend.
For more Good Black News, you can check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.
In honor of Academy Award-winning filmmaker Spike Lee‘s 65th birthday yesterday, we’re celebrating the music from his movies in today’s Music Monday playlist, “Mo’ Better Music: Spike Lee’s Greatest Hits“:
Lee first made his mark on the Hollywood scene in the summer of 1986 with his independently-financed debut feature, She’s Gotta Have It. From that start, it was clear that not only was Lee an original filmmaking voice, but also that he valued the role of music in his movies.
The body of musical work he has enabled through his movies spans the history of Black music, including Blues, Hip Hop, traditional R&B. His early career bloomed in the heyday of new jack swing, but he’s also served us gospel, jazz, and plenty of Stevie Wonder.
Lee’s usual composer of choice, Terence Blanchard, has earned two Oscar nominations for his work on BlacKkKlansman and Da Five Bloods.
There also have been Number One Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Hits, E.U.‘s “Da Butt” from School Daze and Teddy Riley & Guy‘s “My Fantasy” from Do the Right Thing.
Working with his father, jazz musician Bill Lee (still alive at age 93) through his first four movies, Spike’s soundtrack choices displayed a musical depth of knowledge from the start.
“Nola” – the song about Nola Darling, the central character in She’s Gotta Have It – was sung on the original soundtrack by legendarily unsung vocalist Ronnie Dyson (the subject of a previous GBN playlist and profile – https://goodblacknews.org/?s=ronnie+dyson).
Though that soundtrack is one of the few Spike Lee soundtracks unavailable on Spotify, we’ve included a fairly faithful rendition of the song from contemporary jazz vocalist Jose James on our playlist.
To celebrate his 65 years, the playlist is comprised of 65 original songs and score selections from all of Spike Lee’s scripted features films with tracks were available for streaming (all the rest of his movies are included except Summer of Sam and the recent made-for-streaming Pass Over).
We’ve focused on titles that were either newly released or recorded for Spike’s movies, not on classic hits that just made their way onto the soundtrack.
And there’s plenty of great material to choose from, including multiple tracks from Prince, backup singer turned indie soul darling Judith Hill, Public Enemy, Terence Blanchard, and Stevie Wonder.
The Spike Lee soundtrack for Bamboozled introduced the first major song ever released by India.Arie — “Always In My Head.”
Though the soundtracks to Girl 6 and Get on the Bus are also unavailable on Spotify in album form, we’ve located the original Prince track “She Spoke 2 Me” from Girl 6 as well as a number of songs from the Get on the Bus soundtrack from God’s Property, Stevie Wonder, and Curtis Mayfield.
While Lee has mostly worked with Black composers and musicians, rootsy White rock musician Bruce Hornsby has worked on multiple Spike Lee movies, including songs for Bamboozled and Chi-raq, and a full score for Red Hook Summer. He was also the composer for the lovely ballad “Love Me Still,” sung by Chaka Khan for the soundtrack to Clockers.
For his soundtrack to Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus, a 2014 horror film that Lee funded through Kickstarter, he issued a social media call for unsigned artists to submit songs and picked through over 800 submissions to find the songs he used – which included “As We May Dream,” another beautiful ballad from singer/songwriter Siedah Garrett of Michael Jackson duet fame.
Spike’s movies have also yielded some smooth new remakes of R&B standards – and we’re happy to include Stevie Wonder’s take on Bob Marley‘s “Redemption Song,”Erykah Badu‘s cover of Rufus featuring Chaka Khan’s “Hollywood,” Marc Dorsey‘s version of The Stylistics‘ “People Make the World Go Round,” and of course, Aretha Franklin‘s beautiful contribution to the Malcolm Xsoundtrack – her epic 8 minute rendition of Donny Hathaway‘s “Someday We’ll All Be Free.”
Most recently, Spike introduced his BlacKkKlansman‘audiences to a Prince rendition of the gospel classic “Mary Don’t You Weep” that had been originally recorded in 1983, but left in the vaults until its appearance in the closing credits of Lee’s movie.
In addition to all the above, you’re sure to uncover plenty of great but lesser-known material from Spike’s movies. With 24 scripted feature films under his belt, a Spike Lee film festival might take you a week of evenings to complete – but with our GBN playlist, you can cover all the musical memories from Spike’s movies in an afternoon.
Happy 65th birthday to Spike Lee! Though for many that’s retirement age, we hope to be updating this playlist with more great music from many more movies in the years to come.
It’s about Grammy-nominated R&B and gospel singer Erma Franklin, who was born #OnThisDay in 1938 and grew up in Detroit, Michigan. Yes, she’s one of those Franklins:
You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.comor create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):
SHOW TRANSCRIPT:
Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a bonus daily drop of Good Black News for Sunday, March 13th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.
Today we’re going to celebrate R&B and gospel singer Erma Franklin, eldest daughter of Barbara Siggers and the Reverend C.L. Franklin, and she was born #OnThisDay in 1938.
Though known chiefly for touring with and singing backup for her younger sister (you might have heard of her – Aretha Franklin?) on songs such as “Respect” and “Jump To It,” Erma was a recording artist in her own right. When Aretha Franklin was signed early in her career to Columbia Records, Erma in kind was signed to Epic and released her one and only album for that label in 1962 entitled Her Name is Erma. The music was basically jazz standards and R&B covers and didn’t perform well.
Erma toured for a time as a featured vocalist with Lloyd Price until in 1967, she signed to a new label and scored a Top 10 R&B hit and Grammy nomination with her original recording of “Piece of My Heart”:
A few years later, that song would become a rock n roll staple when remade by Janis Joplin. Erma Franklin also recorded another Top 40 R&B hit “Gotta Find Me A Lover (24 Hours A Day)”:
[Excerpt of “Gotta Find Me A Lover (24 Hours A Day)” by Erma Franklin] She also covered “Son of a Preacher Man” on her Soul Sister album before her sister Aretha did on the same on her This Girl’s In Love With You album:
And not to be outdone by her songwriting sisters, Erma even wrote some of her own material, such as the could-have-been-a-hit with-proper-promotion song “You’ve Been Cancelled”:
Although Erma’s singing career had its peaks and valleys, her career in public service in her home state was steady.
Erma devoted most of her time and energy to Boysville of Michigan Inc., the largest childcare agency in the state, and acted as the liaison for twenty-five or more similar agencies in Michigan for decades.
In 1992, Erma Franklin’s singing career experienced a resurgence when in Great Britain, her original version of “Piece of My Heart” was re-released after its use in a popular Levi’s Jeans commercial.
It hit number nine in the UK, and Erma made her first and only solo music video, which is available on YouTube.
To learn more about Erma Franklin, check out the sources provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org. And of course, you can stream or buy her music online.
Intro and outro beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot. Excerpts of music by Erma Franklin were included in today’s episode under fair use.
If you like these Daily Drops, please consider following us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links of your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.
For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.
Happy 14th of February! It’s your friend and selector, Marlon!
We are halfway through Black History Month. It’s Valentine’s Day! If you are like my kid, it could be your birthday too. And of course, it is Music Monday here at GBN.
I am thrilled to offer this collection of mushy stuff. Here is a full workday wit of music devoted to affairs of the heart. Love is the thing all right here, at Good Black News.
This playlist brings together classics by Aretha, Stevie, Marvin, Sade, and others, along with new voices of artists like Tamia, Mario, and Liza.
There are songs here about new and enduring love. Tracks about the peril and pain of romance, everything in between.
Hope you enjoy this Valentine’s Day offering. See you all next month.
Hey, it’s Lori, GBN’s Editor-in-Chief, with this week’s Music Monday share. Although it’s one day early, I offer a list to set the vibe for what February signifies to many in these United States: Black History Month!
Today’s playlist, “Black and Proud: Songs About Being Black” features songs that examine, express, critique and celebrate differing iterations of what it means to be Black in America.
The gamut of human emotions are present in this collection, as African Americans have been creating genres like Jazz, Blues, Soul and Hip Hop and transforming others from the 1600s on.
Artists such as Louis Armstrong, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Beyonce, Esperanza Spalding, india.arie, Prince, Janet Jackson, Mickey Guyton, Nas, Jay Z, Common and Kendrick Lamar all have their takes on Blackness and the perceptions of it by themselves, lovers, strangers, authorities and oppressors.
I’ve also included several versions of “Young, Gifted and Black” by Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin, Donny Hathaway and Big Daddy Kane who each in their own way interpret the phrase popularized by playwright Lorraine Hansberry to great effect.
I hope you enjoy this compilation and that it gets you into the mood, groove and spirit of Black History Month.
Throughout history countless women have given the blues their unique stamp. They have fought their way to the front of the testosterone saturated genre, oftentimes with little praise.
Here’s a collection of modern and early masters of the form, including Ma Rainey, Memphis Minnie, Koko Taylor, Etta James, Ann Peebles, Odetta, Aretha Franklin, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Bettye Swann, Bettye LaVette, Irma Thomas, LaVern Baker and so many more.
Please enjoy. And as always, stay safe, sane, and kind.
When Aretha Franklin was signed early in her career to Columbia Records, Erma in kind was signed to Epic and released her one and only album for that label in 1962 entitled Her Name is Erma. The music was basically jazz standards and R&B covers and didn’t perform well.
She also covered “Son of a Preacher Man” on her Soul Sister album before her sister Aretha did on the same on her This Girl’s In Love With You album:
