Princewill Pius
During a 2010 interview for Time, in regards to her songs, Aretha Franklin said, “I have a lot of favorites.” She insisted, “I don’t have any one favorite.” However, she did name some of the songs that she likes the most, regardless of fan opinion. Right off the bat, she gave a surprising response. The legend said, “Nessun Dorma, of course.” Yes, she’s talking about the opera song. In 1998, Franklin stepped in for Luciano Pavarotti, to perform the piece at the 1998 Grammy Awards while the opera singer rested with a sore throat. And, as expected, she absolutely killed it.
She also named “Respect,” because, well, how could she not? Franklin added, “A lot of Curtis Mayfield’s things from Sparkle are some of my favorites.” Of course, she was referring to the soundtrack for the movie Sparkle. Franklin sang every track and Mayfield wrote and produced all of them, including “Something He Can Feel.”
In that same interview, she dished on her favorite collaboration. The Grammy winner shared, “I think George Benson.” She continued, “We were one of the best duos just because we were so beautifully, musically matched.” She even shared a behind-the-scenes scoop on their dynamic, revealing, “We were doing ‘Solid Gold.’ You know how long ago that was. He was giving me these eyes, you know, but I wasn’t falling for it. I just stuck to the script and we did some really, really good singing.” Yes. They. Did.
Written by: Nicki
