Studio Stories by Dave Simons

Author:Dave Simons [Simons, Dave]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781476852768
Publisher: Backbeat
Published: 2013-12-06T00:00:00+00:00

RESCUING ARETHA

She’d been recording professionally since the age of 12, including six years with a major label, and yet most people had never heard or 25-year-old Aretha Franklin when ‘I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You),’ her debut single for Atlantic Records, hit the charts in March 1967. Columbia, which had signed Franklin in 1960, had attempted to mold the skilled gospel singer and pianist into a Dinah Washington-styled pop balladeer. The result was one minor hit by 1966. Long before her CBS contract expired, a frustrated Franklin had even contemplated retirement.

Enter Jerry Wexler, president of Atlantic Records. In Franklin, Wexler saw the makings of a world-class artist who’d simply been working for the wrong team. Realizing that the label’s soul and R&B lineage was far closer to the spirit of her gospel roots, Franklin signed on with Wexler’s group in late 1966 and prepared for one-week session to record a new album.

ARTIE BUTLER (producer-arranger) “The thing about Atlantic during the 1960s was that sound — it wasn’t a huge studio, only around 20 by 40 feet or so. And there was practically no separation in there as well. You can hear it — and that was the magic of those records! It was a really live kind of ‘round’ sound. They had a vocal booth, but there wasn’t any drum booth or anything like that — in fact, they had the drums out in the middle of the room, which is why the drums are all over those records. Just a beautiful sound.”

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