I loved that 1993 television concert Aretha Franklin did, where she was backed by her new backing group: The Aretha-aires, comprising of her old pal Smokey Robinson and those Brit guys Elton John and Rod Stewart, the three of them provided a smoking backing combo as Aretha - caught at a good point here, looking and singing good - bounced off them. She, by the way, was introduced by the likes of Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman.
I recorded this on vhs cassette at the time, but don't know where it is now - but a few clips are on YouTube. She and Elton also did a great version of his "Border Song" .... my late best friend Stanley would love this:
A new biography on Aretha is out too, RESPECT by David Ritz, and should be quite a good read, from the excerpts available on Amazon. It doesn't seem the usual scissors and paste job, but quite insightful and he had several meetings with her. It will be winging its way to me on my return from my next visit to Ireland, next week. Then there is her new album, see Aretha label - seems she is going to continue surprising us in her 70s. As I said before here, we (Stanley and I) saw her in her prime years, 1968 and 1970, here in London, before she stopped flying.
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