Aretha Franklin's life began the day she walked into the Fame studio.
Located in Muscle Shoals (Alabama), the venue was masterfully run by Rick Hall until his death in 2018. At the start of 1967, Aretha had to reinvent herself.
After nine chronically unsuccessful albums with the Columbia label, his career must take on a new impetus.
John Hammond - a scout of talent as important as Billie Holiday, Big Bill Broonzy, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen - took her under his wing ten years earlier, on the recommendation of her father, Pastor Clarence Franklin, who has an overwhelming influence over his daughter.
But in trying to make her a clean, smooth jazz singer, Hammond misses the artist.
Their association remains one of the missed appointments of popular music.
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Aretha Franklin, respect for a diva on Disney +
Now under the leadership of another artistic director, it was for the Atlantic label that she entered the Fame studio in 1967. The stage was at the heart of the biopic devoted to her.
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