Before the Grammy Awards, I thought of starting a thread in celebration of Aretha Franklin. There has been discussion in the Huffington Post, among other newsies, that Aretha has pancreatic cancer. This got me to thinking a lot about her music and the ways in which it has intertwined with my life. I want to celebrate her while she lives. To thank her in my own way. So, I will tell a short something and post a music video. I invite anyone who loves her music to do the same. Be nice
My first relationship, every time I heard this song, I was filled with something so powerful, so deep inside, such love, that when I heard it, I nearly cried. That first love: the racing hormones, the newly found poetry that expressed secret desires, the recall of the first kiss, the first uh huh, all of that at one time just hearing this song. I still get goose flesh... and I remember.
Now, music lovers will probably just have to say that Dionne Warwick sang this song too around the same time (and many others followed later). True dat. But there is something so evocative in Aretha's version. So much in the gut, so very real, that I favor hers over Dionne's.
I'm posting two versions because there is a palpable difference in sound (and it coheres with her history, her pain, her story/ies.). The first is rather sweet, song by the choir soloist. The second, well you be the judge.