"Sparkle" by Aretha Franklin
In which Ree gets help from an old friend- and crosses an even older one.
“Sparkle”:
“Curtis and I ran into each other in Chicago,” remembers Carolyn Franklin. “And he mentioned another score he was working on for a film about three sisters who start out in church and wind up singing R&B, naturally I thought of Aretha, Erma and myself.
“It had been a couple of years since I’d Rather Be Lonely, my last album for RCA, and I was eager to start another project…The songs were not only sensational but, taken together, told a story I could relate to- the hopes, aspirations and heartaches of sisters who saw singing as a way to make it in the the world.
“It was just perfect. I remember thinking that it was too good to be true. And on that score, I was right.”
Meanwhile, after You was ignored, Aretha Franklin was looking for a new producer. Jerry Wexler, the man who’d been instrumental in bringing her genius to the world, would never produce another Franklin session. In a meeting with Atlantic CEO Ahmet Ertegun, Ruth Bowen and Cecil Franklin suggested Curtis Mayfield. Mayfield was an old friend of the Franklin family, a client of Bowen’s at Queen Booking, and a massive star. It was perfect.
Cecil made the initial call to Mayfield. “I thought he’d be overjoyed,” he recalls, but instead he demurred, saying, “‘Oh, wow, Cecil, I’ve got a great project but I’ve promised it to Carolyn.”
“There shouldn’t have been any problems,” insists Erma Franklin. “Aretha should have left it alone. She should have let Carolyn sing those Sparkle songs and then, afterwards, do her own record with Curtis.”
She didn’t. Wexler claims Mayfield, in need of a hit himself, sent the material to Aretha. And once she heard the songs, the cat was in the bag- and the bag was in the river. “It got a little nasty between the sisters,” Cecil recalls. “The verbal catfights were intense. Carolyn didn’t want to let it go, but Aretha wanted those songs. When Ree wants something, watch out!”
“Hooked On Your Love”:
Cecil was tasked with informing Carolyn she was off the project, but he “couldn’t do that. I loved all my sisters equally.” Eventually, the judgment fell to the ultimate power in the Franklin family- the Rev. Clarence LaVaughan.
“None of us were surprised that Daddy came down on Aretha’s side,” said Erma. “He loved all his children- he lavished all of us with attention and care- but Aretha always had her special place. It took Carolyn a long time to get over this. She kept saying that she had been denied her big break.”
It’s certainly a defensible stance, as Sparkle was the best album that either Mayfield or Franklin had cut in years. With a warm, supple, small-hours atmosphere, the album’s production smoothed some of Franklin’s rougher edges whilst sacrificing none of her strength.
The hallmarks of Mayfield’s production- the stacked harmonies, funky chorus breaks, Rich Tufo’s untethered strings- are evident from the first notes of sweet, soaring opener “Sparkle”. Franklin radiates the bliss and confusion of infatuation on the expert, undeniable “Hooked On Your Love” (#17 R&B).
Franklin sounds liberated throughout Sparkle. There is a palpable joy in her singing, as if she is casting off the weight of the last few dreary years. The romantic lyrics and what Franklin dubbed Mayfield’s “sweet funk” add to the general uplift. Lead single “Something He Can Feel” (#1 R&B, #28 Pop) is a sizzling masterpiece, durable enough to reach the top twice- once for Aretha in 1976, and again in 1992 when it was covered by En Vogue. “Jump” is an agile dance track, with Franklin firmly in command of its skittering rhythm. Mayfield re-animates a small measure of that Superfly menace on the brooding “I Get High”, the only minor-key song here.
“Something He Can Feel”:
Sparkle, in a minor miracle, managed several difficult tasks at once. It renewed Franklin’s flagging confidence, gave its principles some much-needed chart success, and reminded the public that Franklin’s voice had lost none of its ability to enthrall and excite, nine years post-“Respect”. Some of the tracks have a throwback quality, especially the brassy, swinging finale “Rock With Me” and the easy-rolling “Loving You Baby”, further emphasizing the durability of Franklin’s artistry.
Sparkle was her last great Atlantic album and the most stylistically cohesive work she’d released to date. There are no bad songs, no melodramatic ballads to suffer through. Her vocal performances were her best in years. Even those whom she’d spurned were compelled to recognize its brilliance: “Humility isn’t my strong suit,” attests Jerry Wexler. “But when Mayfield sent us the masters, I had nothing to say but ‘Bravo!’ I realized that Aretha was back…I couldn’t have provided that inspiration. Only a peer like Curtis could have done that.”
But, in the interest of fairness, I’ll let Carolyn Franklin, who lost much to facilitate her sister’s success, have the last word on Sparkle:
“It’s hard for me to talk about it now. It’s hard for me to say that Aretha sang those songs better than anyone could have. But I do have to say it because it’s the truth. It’s not that I couldn’t have sung Sparkle. It’s not that I might have had a couple of hits off the album. But even if I had- and God knows I wish I had- I still couldn’t have given what Aretha gave: Aretha gave it her genius.”
All quotations taken from David Ritz’s “Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin”, Little, Brown and Company, 2015.