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Aretha Franklin
Charted: #10 in August 1968
“I just lost my song. That girl took it away from me.”
These were Otis Redding’s words when he first heard Aretha Franklin’s powerhouse version of “Respect,” but had he lived longer, he would have realized that he wasn’t her only victim. No matter what she sang, Franklin usually bettered what came before. Only when she delved into the mysterious world of rock lyrics, with its veiled references and indirect imagery, did she fall short of capsizing the song’s originator. Otherwise, she made mincemeat of the competition. “I Say a Little Prayer” was a casual knockoff that casually made Dionne Warwicke’s original recording sound stale in comparison. The only reason Franklin recorded the song in the first place was that she and the girls were singing Warwicke tunes during a break and realized they could do something interesting with“I Say a Little Prayer.” According to producer Jerry Wexler, they finished the song in one take. While somebody like Brian Wilson or Phil Spector would slave over a tape machine for months on end trying to perfect every nuance, Aretha and Co. were so instinctively together that they could walk in and complete a Top 40 hit without even rehearsing the number in advance. Aretha’s music was a feeling, not a construction. Every single that Franklin released since joining Atlantic Records went to the Top 10 on the pop charts. Her eighth single scored on both sides when “The House That Jack Built” reached #6, and the flip side, “I Say a Little Prayer,” peaked at #10.
An interesting part of the arrangement for “I Say a Little Prayer”is the way Franklin lays out for the entire chorus and inserts only tasteful but unreserved accents. Since her Atlantic debut, Franklin’s sisters Erma and Carolyn were constant companions on disk and often shared the backing vocal chores, along with Cissy Houston (Whitney’s mother) and her group, the Sweet Inspirations. The Sweet Inspirations sing the chorus here. Carolyn Franklin was not only a talented vocalist, but a formidable songwriter who supplied her sister with some of her best material, including the ethereal Top 40 ballads “Ain’t No Way” and “Angel.” Carolyn had her own record deal at RCA, and Erma recorded for Shout and Brunswick. In fact, Erma Franklin recorded the original version of “Piece of My Heart,” written by producer Bert Berns, which reached the Top 10 on the R&B charts for her and later became a signature tune for Janis Joplin.
 
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