As it states on Arkansas ArtsCouncil she is a jazz singer and after a bit of digging I found this video of her singing 'Wild Is The Wind' (posted in 2013) - this one's for the jazz purists only!
I was prompted to do this post after an aricle in
The Guardian newspaper published yesterday (7th Jan 2021). The article refers to
a rehearsal session which I have been fortunate to have found some footage
of and posted below.
Carolyn Franklin
was the youngest of 6 children of New Bethel Baptist Church minister Rev.
Cecil L. Franklin and of course sister to Aretha and Erma. She wrote many
songs for Aretha, arguably, two of her very best:
'Ain't No Way'
and
'Angel', and certainly two of my favourites by her.
Amazingly, I found a few clips that someone has posted of Aretha
rehearsing 'Ain't No Way' with Carolyn in the footage. They are each about
a minute long, a great piece of history.
Ain't No Way has been covered by many artists in every decade since its
release, but the best versions for me are
Joann Garrett
1968,
Jean Carne
20 years later in 1988, Aaron Neville
in 1993 and
Meli'sa Morgan almost 40 years later in 2005.
Surprisingly, 'Angel' hasn't been covered as much (only about 10 covers
and 3 of these are by British artists
Kokomo, Simply Red and
Brian McFadden (Westlife) & Mica Paris
(duet)). The best by a long way is Walter Jackson's retitled, album only,
version
'Gotta Find Me An Angel'
on 'I Want To Come Back As A Song' in 1977. Kokomo's version is a
decent one and Mica Paris' performance is excellent - she should have
recorded it solo.
Franklin released 5 albums and 8 singles on RCA between 1969-72. Prior to
that she released a couple of singles as Carol Carroll on Double L.
Soul Brother in UK released two tracks from her 1976 album 'If You Want
Me' on a 45 in 2014.
She retired from the music business in 1976, but made an appearance in
The Blues Brother's movie in 1980 as one of Aretha's backing
singers. She died of breast cancer in April 1988. aged just 43.
Erma
died in 2002 aged 64 and
Aretha
in 2018 aged 76, but all have left us a legacy of some fine music that
will enjoy for many years to come.
Several of her recordings were produced by NS legend
Jimmy Radcliffe
who's recording of Bacharach & David's 'Long After Tonight Is All
Over' was played as the first of the
'Three Before Eight'
played at the end of every Wigan Casino all-nighter (the other two were
Tobi Legend - 'Time Will Pass You By' and Dean Parrish - 'I'm On My Way').
Sadly he died in July 1973 just 2 months before the Casino all-nighters
opened their doors, so was unaware of the cult status his record would
achieve. He is also loved for his original version of 'My Ship Is Coming
In' written by Joey Brooks and also recorded by The Walker Brothers,
Walter Jackson and Carmen McCrae, and a reworking of a Pontiac commercial
recorded with Steve Karmen's Big Band - 'Breakaway'.
This was a compilation of earlier material - sounds like early 60s
mainly Popcorn recordings. This is probably borne out by the fact
that it includes East Livin' which she released as a single as Candy
Carroll in 1964. Joy was a British label distributed by President and on
the sleeve it states Rock/Blues/Early Soul so I guess they must have got
hold of some previously unreleased masters. The label ceased around 1976
but someone 'must' own the rights but it has never been reissued, hence
only a handful of the tracks are posted on YouTube. She wrote 9 of the
12 tracks.
Kent released her one, and only, compilation in 2016 with 22 tracks
which covers all her RCA singles and several album tracks. (NB all
have been posted above hence no links, but there is a link to the
complete album playlist - click on title)
I can't find a clip for You're Cheatin' Heart written by Hank Williams
which he recorded in 1953, so unless she did a marvellous rework on it,
it's probably of not much interest anyway?
1964 - Easy Living / When I Fall In Love [Double L #LL 731]
There's a couple of exclusive, not yet released, tracks on the album and possibly a couple of different mixes.
I'm not going to embed the YT clips as it will clutter the page, so click on track title to listen to track on YT, and click on Amazon link if you wish to be directed to Amazon to buy. Please note that these are free links i.e. they are not monetised.
Here's a nice rare groove stepper from around 1982 and one of only 2 listed 45s on B.J., but I think the other one listed may actually be a different label. It was reissued on Soul7, a subsidiary of JazzMan owned by Gerald Short (aka Jazzman Gerald), in 2013. An original will be hard to find and could cost you into 4 figures. I think the vinyl 45 reissue has long sold out but there are a few available on Discogs around the £50 mark or it's still available as a download from Amazon.
U.R.
Written by Mary Williams and Melvin Winn, who were also both involved in writing / producing tracks for both sides of a Karizma 45 'Will You Dance With Me' / 'Magic Lady' on FRP in 1984 which was another one-off for group and label, so wonder if there is some connection between the groups as Trace Of Smoke 45 was recorded at Lone Star Studios, Austin Texas and Karizam 45 at Austin Recording Studios?
Officially released on 28th Dec 2020, so 'hot off the press' is this sweet and smooth soulful release from another new name to me, Bridget Sheron. I wish when they posted the tracks they would give some info or some links to where you could find something about the artist, there is nothing about this release and comments are off so can't even ask. I suspect that it's her debut single as I can't find any info on her. The YT video has only had 23 views so far so let's put that right as I think this is a pretty good track.
Top quality Modern Soul / Jazz from Raymond Jones' Intimate album from 2001 featuring Lori Perry on vocals, a member of Perri - a sister group from the 80s.
A not so well known tune from the late great, 'Walrus Of Love', Barry White which came out in 1979 but it would appear was flipped in US as it only charted R&B #75 for the B side 'Love Ain't Easy'. Taken from 'The Message Is Love' album. Having consistently hit the charts with virtually every single he released between 1973-78, his 'barren' period began in 1979 until 1987 in UK with 'Sho' You Right' and 1994 in US with 'Practice What You Preach'.
Whilst digging around I came across this clip on Lisa Stansfield's channel of footage of her performing her hit 'All Around The World' with Barry White in 1992. For all the 'knockers' listen to what 'The Man' says about her at the beginning of the video ... and he was proved right as she's still performing 30 years later! She was only the second white woman (and only British white woman) to top the US R&B chart in 1989 after Teena Marie topped the chart in 1988 with 'Ooo La La La'.
It's not the colour of someone's skin that determines whether they can sing soulfully. Dusty Springfield and Lulu had soul on 'some' of their recordings. I dont think anyone could argue that Joss Stone wasn't a soul singer. Amy Winehouse and many more could capture the 'mood'. If you haven't already, watch the clip I put up last week of another white British female singer Jessie J. There is an 'inverted' snobbery that it must be Black, American and ideally rare before it can be 'accepted', but as the famous Gordy logo states 'It's what's in the grooves that count'. Lisa Stansfield is often dismissed by soul 'purists' purely because she's white, British and has been 'unfortunate' enough to have actually had pop hits and become a mainstream artist. The same 'purists' will probably also dismiss Barry White as he was 'too mainstream', although he paid a lot of dues before he hit the big time in 1973, having his first single released in 1960 as a member of The Upfronts and his first solo single in 1963, and as stated above his 'popularity' waned after only 5 years and he had to wait another 15 years before he entered the US pop charts again and only had one further entry in 1995 before his death in 2003. So, in a career spanning 43 years he was only 'mainstream' in 5 of them.
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