I was just shy of 13 when Madonna released American Life, and it became the first Madonna album in my ever-growing music collection. I got my copy two weeks after it was released, for my 13th birthday, alongside The Very Best of Cher and a brand new 5-CD, 2-cassette stereo (which still works, by the way). I was a full-fledged VH1 junkie by this time, and had gotten a solid education in Madonna, her controversies, and the music she’d released over the half-decade leading up to American Life. My formal entry into Madonna’s albums had been years in the making.

I devoured American Life. I wouldn’t realize it until later, but it stands as one of Madonna’s most personal and vulnerable, not to mention cohesive bodies of work. It’s folktronica-tinged pop with deeply introspective lyrics. She not only provides critique on the American life and dream, but also does some significant reflecting on herself, career, love, motherhood, and loss. Listening to it today, with a matured ear and the glimmers of nostalgia sprinkled throughout the listening experience, American Life feels like brilliance in all its honesty.

“Do I have to change my name? Will it get me far?,” she considers on the eponymous opening cut. American Life marked yet another sharp turn for the ever-shape-shifting Madonna. After conquering techno and electronica and touching on country, Madonna found folktronica as she examined the American way of life and looked within herself to create her most introspective record to date. Celebrated by fans and dismissed by many critics, American Life remains a polarizing record from one of music’s biggest names.

At times, American Life looks and at times feels like a rebellion. The imagery of the album features Madonna, dressed militantly, wielding guns, and even imitating the famous shot of Che Guevera on the album’s cover. The entire packaging imitates redacted government documents and wielding an uzi. Yet for all the militant influences of the exterior, it’s actually more of a statement of brutal vulnerability. She juxtaposes her critiques and analyses of the American dream and experience with songs about love and reflection, touching on motherhood and the loss of her own mother.

Madonna crafted almost the entire album alongside Mirwais Ahmadzai, who she began working with on 2000’s Music. In leaning into the folk aesthetic of the album she even learned how to play guitar in the ramp up to the album’s release. And while she doesn’t appear to have performed any of the guitar parts on the album itself, she often played it during the album’s promotional appearances and subsequent tour, the Re-Invention Tour.

The title track also represented another notable moment in Madonna’s career. It’s one of the only times she didn’t push ahead with a controversial visual. The woman who had drawn attention to herself for everything from rolling around on stage in a wedding dress, rocking a cone bra, releasing a sex book, and cavorting with a Black Jesus elected to shelve the song’s music video due to the United States’ entry into war with Iraq.

Make no mistake, war was already raging in Afghanistan in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Madonna was aiming to make an anti-war statement, at one point even saying, “at any given moment there’s at least 30 wars going on in this world and I’m against all of them.” However, the entry into Iraq proved to be more significant enough to warrant reconsideration.On April 1 (of all days), Madonna made the following statement:

“I have decided not to release my new video. It was filmed before the war started and I do not believe it is appropriate to air it at this time. Due to the volatile state of the world and out of sensitivity and respect to the armed forces, who I support and pray for, I do not want to risk offending anyone who might misinterpret the meaning of this video.”

Talk about a significant move. Madonna never shied away from controversy. However, to get a fuller sense of what was happening at this time, not long before, The Dixie Chicks faced severe backlash in the face of critical comments of President George W. Bush and the war. Though the reshot video is more tame, it doesn’t detract from the messaging of the song.

“American Life” sets the tone for the album to come. It’s a touch flippant at moments, but delivers a crisp commentary on the American experience, interwoven with her own experiences. She recalls the numerous extremes she’s tried, yielding very mixed results. There’s also the revelatory case of the literal “fuck it”’s that she catches mid-record, which precedes the rap verse to end all rap verses. Is it absurd? Yes. But maybe it’s supposed to be. What better way to mock the American experience and dreams than to have a 40-something mother of two rapping about her soy latte, Mini Cooper, and yoga?

And if you didn’t think she had street cred after that, think again, and listen again. Better yet, spin the Missy Elliott remix, which laced Madonna with a dose of Virginia hip hop flavor. The verse actually lands much better over the rap-oriented beat, and Missy drops some fire herself in addition to her ever-underrated production contributions. Regardless of the rest of the verse, Madonna’s closing line in the rap, “I’m just living out the American dream, and I just realized that nothing is what it seems,” does have a certain resonance to it.

That bar also serves as a perfect precursor for the continued commentary on “Hollywood.” She offers a flippant take on the glamour and ghoulishness of the city of dreams. “There’s something in the air in Hollywood,” she muses. Even that can be interpreted two ways: either the air of opportunity and success, or the literal toxicity in the air that makes the LA environment infamous.

She encourages shining your light, but offers the reminder, “this time it’s got to be good… cause you’re in Hollywood.” She even offers a brief but searing commentary on the music industry, by complaining “music stations always play the same song.” The song serves as a warning, and at the end of the video, she simply unplugs the television responsible for the music and finds relief in the silence.

As she continues to critique the American dream, Madonna also offers commentary on herself. On the self-deprecating midtempo “I’m So Stupid,” she reflects on her own past mistakes and naïveté. The song, which begins with an acoustic introduction, gets pierced by an over-processed note that makes it hard to discern where Madonna ends and the computer begins.

Things take a notable turn after the album’s first three tracks, and Madonna points further inward. “Love Profusion”’s dismissive opening line, “There are too many questions,” is striking over strumming guitars, which expand into driving beat with electronic flourishes. She’s stuck, but still defiant as ever, making the first of a few Christian-dismissals with “There is is no resurrection.” However even that could be taken to simply be saying “you only live once.” Madonna has a knack for layering meaning within her lyrics.

She cleverly shrouds herself in Auto-Tune adjacent vocal effects on “Nobody Knows Me,” as she issues warnings of the world (which is “a setup”), and dismissals of people’s views (“I won’t let a stranger give me a social disease”). It makes for a striking, yet satisfying contrast.

“Nothing Fails,” which sits squarely in the middle of the album, is a tremendous love song and serves as the album’s glorious centerpiece. The song was written by Guy Sigsworth and Jem Griffiths, who produced a Dido-esque demo under the name “Silly Thing.” Listening to that demo against the final product showcases how Madonna’s small lyrical changes and the trio of Madonna, Mirwais and Mark “Spike” Stent on the boards transform the record into something fully her own. Against “Don’t Tell Me”-esque strumming Madonna declares “I’m not religious, but I feel so moved, makes me want to pray.” With a choir that follows, it’s a clear-cut nod to “Like A Prayer,” albeit a less cheeky version. Absent are the double entendres (and music video) that made it so controversial, and what remains establishes a deeper emotional connection.

On two back-to-back ballads, “Intervention” and “X-Static Process” she’s at her most vulnerable. She exudes uncertainty on both songs, but in different capacities. She’s conscious of the changes love will affect on “Intervention.” She’s in the throes of love at the tiny hands of her son Rocco, fully confident in love’s ability to ultimately solve and save everything. It’s a fantastically crafted pop song, with just enough percussion to tap your feet to, a chorus that’s catchy, and a hard-hitting bridge that opens with the gut-punching “In the blink of an eye, everything can change.”

She continues that vulnerability on “X-Static Process,” where she departs from pop sensibilities and instead leans into a poetic folk style for this confessional. She opens the song in front of acoustic guitars with a meek vocal. “I’m not myself when you’re around,” she confesses. The song is a rumination on her mistakes in previous relationships. The song ruminates on the consequences of giving too much power to men (and Jesus/organized religion). She gives men too much power, and in doing that finds herself in an existential crisis. It’s only through developing her own self awareness that she’s able to realize her errors and reaffirm herself.

Though the rapping on “American Life” is largely panned and mocked, Madonna dropped another rap verse on the deeply personal “Mother And Father.” That application proves much more effective in both delivery and content. The whimsical video game-sounding keyboard makes for a much better backdrop for a rap verse. While grappling with the magnitude of the loss, she bluntly describes how she “cried and cried all night and day” after her mother’s death when she was 5. “Oh mother, why aren’t you here with me? No one else saw the things that you could see,” she laments. When she focuses on her father, she concedes how she misconstrued his reaction to her mother’s death. What she initially interpreted as lack of emotion was really just his own processing of grief and enduring his broken heart.

The only significant misstep of American Life boils down to a sequencing decision. The penultimate cut is Madonna’s James Bond theme “Die Another Day,” which was released in late 2002. Though the song was a top 10 hit (making it the most successful on the album then and now; it’s the most-streamed track), and has a sonic profile that’s at home amongst some of these songs, it simply doesn’t fit thematically. It’s also sequenced amongst the album’s otherwise vulnerable and introspective second half, sandwiched ballads about parental grief and life. Though its sonic profile isn’t out of place on the album, the quick tempo and topic-matter don’t fit amidst Madonna’s. It’s a jarring disruption amidst a series of otherwise beautiful and honest expressions. It would have been more apt to simply flip it with the closing track and tack it on at the end and as a bonus track.

She quickly returns to that introspection on the album’s somber closing cut, “Easy Ride.” It serves as a perfect encapsulation for the album. It evolves from an acoustic record, into a trudgery of melancholic determination thanks to an orchestra and evolving complex beat, that at times is throbbing and at others hard and crackling. “I don’t want an easy ride,” she reveals. “What I want, is to work for it.” It’s a powerful statement that resonates differently when considering the commercial deficit that followed American Life. It also resonates when considering the extra work she put in in the weeks around the album’s release to create a new video for her lead single.

Despite scrapping the “American Life” video, Madonna did find a way to leap into some controversy before the American Life album cycle was over. Though it seems like a universe away, in the months following the album’s release, Madonna delivered an unforgettable performance on the MTV Video Music Awards stage, along with a cast of now-legendary women. Alongside Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, Madonna and her then-GAP collaborator Missy Elliott performed a medley of “Like A Virgin” and “Work It” that was centered around “Hollywood.”

The performance, in which Spears and Aguilera dressed as brides akin to Madonna’s VMAs debut and Madonna dressed as the groom, led to what only needs to be recounted today as “the kiss.” It was one of the most talked-about moments in the show’s history, and today feels like child’s play on the spectrum of controversies. With some different editing, it also might have been an even bigger deal, if that’s possible. Between Madonna kissing Britney and Christina (who’s kiss got nearly forgotten), whoever was in charge of angles had a camera right on Britney’s ex Justin Timberlake. Were that shot not featured, the term might be “the kisses.”

In late 2003, Madonna expanded the album cycle further and released Remixed and Revisited. The 7-track EP compiles four remixes from American Life, an extended version of her GAP collaboration with Missy Elliott, and the aforementioned MTV VMAs performance, as well as a b-side from 1994’s Bedtime Stories.

Depending on who you ask and how you choose to examine the facts, American Life is either a massive flop or a massive triumph. From a chart perspective, it certainly leans towards the former. It marked the beginning of Madonna’s absence from the Hot 100’s summit, which still continues 20 years later. But even that data can be examined from another angle. All five of the album’s singles hit number one on Billboard’s Dance Charts, adding five more to Madonna’s record-setting now-50 number ones on the chart. That’s no easy feat.

Throughout the album, Madonna sounds more herself than ever before. Relying on sparse, folktronic productions, gives her the space to be more raw and honest than she’s ever been. And she shows that she’s still not afraid to stir up some controversy on her own terms, and question the American ideals and way of life.

American Life closed a chapter for Madonna. She’d been careening towards this level of introspection since Ray Of Light, and would go on to squarely abandon it two years later when she returned with the massively successful Confessions on A Dancefloor, led by the ABBA-sampling disco-pop fodder of “Hung Up.” Gone were the ballads and deep reflection, (and military garb and dark hair), and instead here danced Madonna, with red hair and pink leotard. Though she’s found herself in reflection since, nothing has ever matched the depths she reached on American Life.

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I was recently at a friend’s house for game night, and upon finally finding the lost remote and taking over music (as I regularly do), I found an excuse to descend down a YouTube rabbit hole purely focused on performances from VH1’s Divas concerts. They’re my favorite series of concerts and are responsible for the most formative moments in my music taste.

At the beginning of 1998, a few months shy of my 8th birthday, I discovered Aretha Franklin. My entire world shifted the moment that I consciously heard her voice. As my interest grew, my parents took a blank VHS, labeled the spine with “Aretha Franklin” and began taping Aretha anytime she was on TV. The second entry on the tape took place on April 14, 1998. VH1 staged a benefit concert for their non-profit organization, Save The Music. The organization was formed in 1997 to combat the widespread removal of music programs happening across schools in America.

The benefit they produced was called VH1 Divas Live. It assembled an array of women from different corners of music, uniting all for a common cause: music. What transpired on that stage, and in the six years of shows that followed represents the most formative moments in my love and interest in music. I even half-jokingly refer to it as my “musical fertile crescent.”

For a decent chunk of time, I had just a fraction of that first VH1 Divas Live show. My parents taped Aretha’s parts only. Months later though, when the show was officially released, my dad got me the CD and I got my ears on the rest of the show. In between, I also caught reruns of the program, and eventually the whole show in the ramp up to VH1 Divas Live ‘99 the following April.

What happened on that stage still feels a little bit like magic, in part because programs like that just don’t take place in this day and age. Even when VH1 resurrected the Divas brand in the late 2000’s and 2010’s, none of their revivals ever matched the immensity of the initial run.

The magic was also in what happened at the show’s conclusion. Yes, there’s much to say about that finale, but for this moment, focus on the presence. All five of the show’s headliners stood shoulder-to-shoulder and sang together for the first (and only) time. Only one other time, at the 2000 show, did every performer from the show unite together on the stage. At every other show, it was fractions and fragments of those who took the stage that night. And at no show aside from 1998’s original did every woman get a moment to shine during the finale.

I had never heard the word ‘diva’ prior to the show, but I became obsessed with it thereafter. I have a few compilation cds from other corners of the world that bear the name. Aretha Franklin’s final studio album, released in 2014, even includes the word in its name.After the show I remember my mom printing out an article that created an acronym for “diva.” It’s been a quarter of a century so the “i” is lost to time, but I do remember “divine” and “virtuoso,” and the reason my mom printed it out for me was what they had for a: Aretha. From then on, when the word “diva” was mentioned, I perked up and paid attention.

What made the first Divas so special is that it sequenced all these formidable performers from different edges of pop and other genres, and then converged them all together for one culminating moment of female unity.

Revisiting the show a quarter of a century later, all of these women were in the midst of a high in their respective careers. Franklin was in a renaissance. Dion and her Titanic theme were ubiquitous. Carey was in a state of liberation. Twain was transcending the barriers between country and pop. And Estefan, perhaps experiencing the least remarkable moment of the group, was still in her own high, dancing her way into her next chapter.

I have a love for Mariah Carey that some believe is first and foremost in my musical palette (it’s the merch. I can go a solid 40 days in nothing but Mariah attire and never repeat a top). But like Mariah, Aretha is “my North star and high bar.” I am only a Mariah fan because I saw her sing with Aretha on Divas Live. And because of what I heard when I got the CD. With that said, when I think of Mariah, I first see her with the big hair and black dress she donned during the show’s closing number.

Mariah opened ‘Divas’ in true diva fashion: with a ballad. “My All” was her current single, slated to be physically released on April 21, the week after ‘Divas’ took place. The Puerto Rico-inspired production was rearranged to include an orchestra, adding a lushness to the dramatic record of longing.

At the end of the record though, instead of simply fading out, a pounding dance beat emerged. Mariah delivered what should have been the final “tonight” as the beat took hold, and tilted her head down and a smirk grew on her face. She couldn’t contain her own excitement as she launched a dance mix of the record, produced by David Morales. The audience loved it. As the dance beat took hold, audience members could be heard screaming in excitement for what was about to unfold. And Mariah delivered some powerhouse vocals over that dance beat, as any good diva should be able to do. Hey, divas gotta dance too!

A few years later when I finally heard the studio version of “My All,” I was dismayed when the ballad simply faded out at the end, no pulsing dance beat to be found. I searched high and low for that dance version. Not long after securing the audio file of one of the dance mixes (thanks Morpheus!), began acquiring the CD singles that held all the mixes. My voracious appetite for CD singles, and undying love for dance remixes can be credited largely to Mariah incorporating that “My All” remix into her performance.

Mariah also served up Diva in her ensemble, which she playfully joked about between songs. “Do you like the ensemble?” To which you can hear an audience member respond with “you’re werkin it!” And she continues with “cause it’s all about the ensemble when you’re a diva.”

Her second song of the evening was a gospel-inspired cut from her 1991 album Emotions. The song, in which Mariah details some of the many perils she endured on her road to stardom, was co-written and produced with C&C Music Factory’s David Cole and Robert Clivilles. It’s a beautiful intersection between gospel and house music, and came accompanied by a gospel choir for this performance. “I know you’re all music industry people, but you can get up,” Mariah playfully shaded to the audience, who willingly obliged. Mariah got so into it that one point she started running back and forth on the stage, a moment that has been endlessly gif’ed in years that followed.

Up next was the incredible Gloria Estefan. It’s unclear how the sets were doled out, but Gloria was the only artist to receive a 3-song slot and not include any guests during her performance. She did however, give a solid history of her catalog, from old, to new.

Gloria was the only artist who’s promoted release wasn’t already in stores. Gloria! wouldn’t arrive until June of 1998, but Gloria still made sure to promote. She opened her set with her hit cover of Vicki Sue Robinson’s disco classic “Turn The Beat Around.” This live performance gives it a heavier emphasis on the Miami Sound Machine percussion. It’s also hysterical to watch Gloria fight with her wrap, which got caught in her heel as she attempted to shed it. Aside from a little laugh as it happened, she didn’t miss a note.

She gave the Divas audience the premiere of gloria!’s lead single. Funny enough, “Heaven’s What I Feel” was originally pitched to another diva on the roster that night: Celine Dion, who passed on it. The song made for a perfect fit for Gloria, with highs and lows.

Finally, Gloria gave the audience some “oldies” as she called them, a 5-song 80’s medley that began with her earliest hit with Miami Sound Machine, “Dr. Beat,” and spanned all the way to 1989’s “Get On Your Feet.” These selections further emphasized Gloria’s dominance over a dance beat, making her announcement of a “dance album, top to bottom” feel formidable for the audience.

Up next was one of country music’s brightest stars, Shania Twain. Shania was riding high by 1998. Her second album, 1995’s The Woman In Me, had recently been certified 11x Platinum (that’s a Diamond certification plus one). Her third album, 1997’s Come On Over was already 3x platinum by the time Divas took place. She opened her set with the now-classic “Man! I Feel Like A Woman.” It’s always been a Shania staple for me because of this show. However, it wasn’t a single when Divas occurred, and the iconic music video was likely not even conceptualized, let alone shot. In fact, it wasn’t even released as a single until almost a year later. It’s one of, if not the, earliest live performance of “Man! I Feel Like A Woman.”

Shania was the only performer who paused in the middle of her set to discuss the subject at hand and emphasized the importance of music education in schools. “If it wasn’t for music class in school, I think I would’ve been a dropout,” she told the audience.

She wasn’t the only one who shared remarks though. Just before Shania’s set, Mariah took to the podium to not only crack a few diva jokes but also emphasize the importance of music education. She then looked to the monitors, where a video package provided more information. It also included a special message from President and First Lady Clinton, who helped kick off the initiative, which included President Clinton presenting his famed saxophone to a budding school-age musician, underscoring just how significant Save The Music was.

After her first song, Shania grabbed her guitar, sat down, and delivered a stellar rendition of her then-current single “You’re Still The One.” It remains one of my favorite tracks on the album. It’s country enough to twang through, but pop enough to satisfy my pop-leaning palette. And Shania’s vocal that night is flawless. Then it was time for the big moment.

The center spot on the show was given to Aretha, who damn near skipped the whole thing. As has been heavily documented, an air conditioning snafu caused Aretha to walk out of rehearsal and leave the entire crew unsure as to whether or not she would actually return for the show. There’s actually rehearsal footage that’s been broadcast where Aretha can be heard recognizing the issue. “The air is on,” she can be heard saying to producer Ken Ehrlich, prior to her departure.

I most enjoy Mariah’s recollection of the situation. Mariah was simply in awe of the fact that she was going to sing with Aretha. It also didn’t help that Aretha initially suggested the two sing a Mariah song that she loved, “Dreamlover,” which Mariah said her heart wouldn’t have been able to take. At Mariah’s suggestion and relief, Aretha “mercifully” agreed to do “Chain of Fools.”. Until she arrived, giddy as a schoolgirl to rehearsal, to find Aretha on her way out. She greeted her with, “Mariah, they’re playing games, and I’m not having the games. So we won’t be rehearsing this evening.” Though she didn’t say it out loud, Mariah’s reaction was “Wait. Who the fuck is playing games?!”

Aretha did return, and the twelve dozen roses the producers sent her ahead of the show as an apology for the air conditioning probably didn’t hurt the situation. Aretha was on fire in 1998. Aretha’s first studio album in 7 years, A Rose Is Still A Rose, had been released just weeks earlier. The lead single, produced by an on-the-cusp-of-superstardom Lauryn Hill was proving to be a surprise hit. And less than 2 months before Divas, Aretha had made her monumental last-minute opera debut stepping in for Pavarotti at the Grammys.

Her set opened and closed with cuts from A Rose Is Still A Rose. She performed the title track and the second single, “Here We Go Again.” The latter was coincidentally produced by Mariah’s friend Jermaine Dupri and co-written by Mariah’s friend/background singer Trey Lorenz. Both performances were curiously left off the official releases of the show. They were the only performances from the broadcast omitted from the releases.

Despite the omissions, Aretha’s label didn’t waste her appearance. The single cover for “Here We Go Again” used a photo taken at Divas. And the song’s music video was built around Aretha’s performance of the song on the show.

That didn’t mean it wasn’t available through other methods. My interest in Aretha prompted my dad to start taking me to then then-abundant record stores in the West Village. The first stop was a spot called Revolver Records on 45 W. 8th St. As I’ve learned in my adult years, they specialized in bootlegs. One such bootleg was of VH1 Divas Live. With a blue cover instead of the standard red, along with some photo editing worse than the actual design, it stood out. What also stood out was that it had both of Aretha’s tracks that were cut from the official release. It took a few trips but I finally convinced my dad to shell out the $24.98 for it (the very faded price sticker is still on it, along with the very faded 10-98, indicating the month it hit the shelves). And I’m glad he did.

The crowning moment of Aretha’s mid-show set came mid-set. After receiving an overwhelming response from the audience (hey, this was the Queen of Soul after all), she launched into a not-untrue story about not being able to rehearse, and how her “newest girlfriend” came and hung out with her in her trailer. That new, unnamed girlfriend would be joining her on stage. As Aretha launched into “Chain Of Fools,” out came Mariah Carey, donning not just a new dress, but also new nail polish. She had three dresses and three polish changes throughout the show “just for laughs.”

The performance garnered a lot of attention for how Aretha performed around Mariah. Whenever Mariah hit a note, Aretha hit a note beyond that, higher or lower. To some, it seemed as though Aretha was asserting dominance or trying to upstage Mariah. Producer Ken Ehrlich didn’t see it as a conscious effort. “I think Aretha just falls in love with those lights, and falls in love with crowd.” Mariah didn’t see it that way, either. Moments after leaving the stage with Aretha, she told VH1 cameras the moment was “an incredible honor.”

Later, she expanded further. “I was there in reverence of the Queen of Soul,” Mariah said in 2001. “I was inconsequential in that moment, That was Aretha’s moment, cause she’s her.” “She’s just a really cool person as well as an amazing idol. But the moment doing “Chain of Fools,” I didn’t know what was gonna happen.” And one of the most amazing things that occurs during this performance neither could have predicted. Mariah begins to follow Aretha’s runs. They hit first notes, second notes, and then on the third and final, they hit the same note. On the right footage, you see a look of satisfaction exchanged between the two.

The final performer of the night was Celine Dion. Forget winning album of the year at the 1997 Grammys, Celine was on fire thanks to a famous shipwreck. “My Heart Will Go On” was absolutely inescapable, to the point where Saturday Night Live even had to get in on the fun, and their parodies of the Divas even made it into 1999’s show.

Celine was the first confirmed booking for the show. While it’s never been suggested, it’s something of a coincidence that the date of the show was the “exact date, 86 years ago, that the mighty Titanic struck that iceberg,” as Celine told the audience. Funny enough, it was the one moment during the show that relied on a backing track. Not a vocal backing track, but the music itself. The band did play along, but the application of the track had something to do with the complexity of the music. Either way, Celine delivered a stellar performance and no one was the wiser.

My sister latched onto Celine, which I’ve always thought was because Celine’s jacket had a pink lining and she loved pink. I’m not entirely sure though. But either way Celine became hers and I became a closet Celine fan as a result. It was something about us both not being able to like her. God knows. I was young. Celine opened her set with another diva’s classic: Tina Turner’s “River Deep, Mountain High.” It had been included on her 1996 album Falling Into You, even after the song’s original producer, the now-disgraced (and dead) Phil Spector, refused to produce Celine singing the song. It was a dynamite performance.

One of the other high points of the show, was Celine’s duet with Carole King. Carole had just contributed a song to Celine’s 1997 LP Let’s Talk About Love, and this marked their first live performance of the song together. She was also a late addition to the show, and confirmed her appearance 9 days prior to the show date.

Despite being labeled a “special guest,” Carole King proved to be a crucial element in the show. As the Aretha drama unfolded, it provided an opportunity to add another performance. They came up with an acoustic piano-bar style performance of “You’ve Got A Friend.” Carole took the lead and accompanied on the piano, with Celine, Gloria, and Shania sitting shoulder to shoulder. They rehearsed it for the first time just hours before the show.

And then, it was time for the grand finale. As the audience cheered the immensity of the acoustic performance, Carole King emphatically told them, “this is why we write songs, so you get people like this to sing them… and this!” Aretha took the stage mid-sentence for the grand finale.

It wasn’t a guarantee that it was going to happen though. Wayne Isaak, VH1 Divas co-producer and EVP of Music & Talent Relations at VH1 (and the author of the album’s liner notes) said on a 2001 VH1 All Access episode about the Divas shows that there was no plan set in stone for the finale to actually happen with all six women. They had asked everyone to participate, but there were no guarantees, especially concerning Aretha.

A Page Six item the day of the show also helped compel participation. It implied that Mariah didn’t want to be on the same stage as Celine Dion. As the producers recalled though, Mariah saw the article and effectively said, “to hell with that, I’m going to blow that whole notion out of the water.” Shania Twain even recalled everyone doing a run-through of the finale in her bus before the show.

The Divas all lined up, and after Aretha not only credited Clive Davis and VH1 for her appearance at the show, she acknowledged that she’d never performed “ (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” with Carole King, and that the song had been associated with her for “almost *ahem* 20 years,” a little time joke that didn’t seem to land. And away they went.

As it began, Aretha sang “would you forgive me? If I didn’t sing this song tonight? I don’t think so,” naturally nodding to her near-absence after the air-conditioning fiasco. The plan was for Carole to start it off, and in the live audio you can hear Carole begin, but Aretha took the reins instead. Aretha thanked her and continued on, and after Carole made one more failed attempt to get a verse in (Celine took over instead), she stuck to the chorus. Each Diva got their line in, with Aretha adding some authoritative melisma after, and they delivered a once-in-a-lifetime rendition of the classic.

At the end of the song, Aretha took charge, acknowledged her background singers, and delivered a stunning finish that reaffirmed her title of Queen of Soul. Celine inserted a few runs that have been deemed “competitive,” but Aretha maintained her dominance over the moment, which only extended as she immediately cut into Rev. Clay Evans’ “I’ve Got A Testimony,” which was retitled “Testimony.”

For nearly 10 minutes, Aretha took the Divas and the audience to church. Though the full footage has either never been released or is sitting in a vault somewhere, watching the other women attempt to keep up is amazing. They truly had no idea what to do, short of Mariah Carey, who has endlessly recalled slipping back towards the background singers and giving Aretha room to run the show.

This of course, is that big “diva moment” that is seen as a competition. Out came Celine, seemingly attempting to compete with Aretha again. And yet, it was a simple cultural gap. Celine didn’t understand gospel and what was happening, she saw it as an opportunity to have her moment with Aretha, and has said as much in years that have followed. Aretha on the other hand, was, as Mariah put it, the equivalent of a jazz bandleader. She ran the show, and was going to make sure you knew it.

Eventually, Aretha had delivered an adequate testimony, and the surprise gospel performance wound down as the women said their goodnights. They posed for a group photo backstage, and VH1’s first installment of Divas came to a close. At the time, it became VH1’s highest rated program in the network’s 13-year history, with over 20 million tuning into the initial broadcasts. It also helped raise significant awareness for Save The Music, which has done tremendous work in its 25+ year history.

I have worn out the audio of that show. The CD and booklet are a little beat-up, and I love that it shows the life it’s lived since I got it nearly a quarter century ago. The performances I staged in front of my tv and in my bedroom as a child, pretending to be each of these incredible women, have long informed the person I am today. And I can go riff-for-riff lip-syncing nearly every performance of this show. Try me sometime.

With the exception of Aretha, my first exposure to so many of these great women began on that stage, and the stages the show occupied in the years that followed: Mariah Carey. Gloria Estefan. Shania Twain. Celine Dion. Carole King. Tina Turner. Mary J. Blige. Whitney Houston. Brandy. Faith Hill. Diana Ross. Destiny’s Child. RuPaul. Jill Scott. Celia Cruz. I learned all of their names and became fans of many of them because of VH1’s Divas series. That’s the power of music, and of a solid concept.

25 years later, I’m still waiting for a lot on the Divas front. Right now, only Mariah’s solo performances, and her duet with Aretha have made it into the streaming age. The show is in desperate need of a reissue on vinyl. It’s also long been time that not only Aretha’s solo tracks, but also Carole King’s performance of “It’s Too Late” (which happened before “You’ve Got A Friend”), all see the light of day. Plus all the years that followed. These shows were formative to so many, not just me. It’s long been time that they be made available for the world to enjoy and marvel over. The network had no problem officially uploading “Chain Of Fools” to YouTube in the wake of Aretha’s 2018 passing. Now it’s time to do the rest. And that’s my testimony.

The post VH1 Divas Live: A Life-Changing Show appeared first on THE 97.

“Lift Me Up” serves not only as Rihanna’s long-awaited musical resurgence, but also as the lead single to the similarly-anticipated Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, arriving in theaters November 11. The touching ballad seemingly picks up where ANTI left off: with a focus Rihanna’s voice. Over bare bones production, Rihanna’s unique tone comes front and center as she delivers a touching vocal. It’s a tribute song that sounds akin to a lullaby steeped in melancholy, landing somewhere between a plea and a prayer. 

The song is clearly built for a crucial moment in the film, one that will likely illuminate how the script handles the devastating and sudden loss of Chadwick Boseman. It’s billed on Apple Music as a remembrance of Boseman. This will be an underwhelming listen for some, namely those hoping for something more upbeat and anthemic. It’s certainly not the banger many will hope for, which will likely arrive with the long-awaited album. However, “Lift Me Up” has a catchy, emotionally-charged melody, giving it strong replay value. Coupled with vocal-forward production, it’s ripe for the remixing. In fact, a quick search of SoundCloud will already yield a number of unofficial results that reinforce the song’s remixability. 

Listening to the content of the record, it’s as if Rihanna never missed a step. On ANTI, she was exploring the texture of her voice, utilizing it more prominently than she had before in her more confectionary, radio-ready material. “Lift Me Up” continues that thread. Look at how she delivered vocals on the buzz single “FourFiveSeconds,” or album cuts “Love On The Brain,” and “Higher.” They were a marked difference from previous records. “Lift Me Up,” is certainly more akin to those records than earlier ballads “Unfaithful” and “Hate That I Love You.”

And look, Rihanna’s never going to top the greatest singers list. But she’s staking her claim for inclusion on the list, and it’d be foolish to exclude her. Remember, we don’t go into a Britney Spears record expecting Christina Aguilera-level vocals. Don’t come to Rihanna expecting Beyoncé-level vocals. And don’t mistake that for an inability to affect. For every “The Voice Within” and “1+1,” there’s an “Everytime” and “Lift Me Up.” Let her lift you up in her own way.

The post Rihanna “Lift Me Up” Song Review appeared first on THE 97.

Mariah Carey had one of the most notable transformations of the last few decades. Her rebellion on 1997’s Butterfly embraced a stripped-down, sexy image and heavier reliance on R&B and hip hop than previous efforts. It also served as a direct defiance to abusive ex-husband and label head Tommy Mottola’s controlling hand. It set the tone for Carey’s career from there on out. 

Mariah was a huge influence on Christina Aguilera. As Christina recorded her debut album, she listened to Carey’s albums on repeat and studied her riffs. She even wrote a song for her debut based on Carey’s 1990 piano ballad “Vanishing.” “I Will Be” didn’t make the final tracklist for her debut, but was released as the b-side to Stripped’s lead single, “Dirrty.” It also makes its digital/streaming debut on the newly released 20th anniversary edition of Stripped. 

After notching zero writing credits on her debut and being built up as a big-voiced bubblegum star, twenty-one year-old Christina popped the bubble. She fired her management, replaced them with industry power-player Irving Azoff, and did a heavy rebrand. She also co-wrote all but two songs on Stripped, and even racked up her first production credits, co-producing nearly half the album. 

Stripped is, without a doubt, Christina Aguilera’s magnum opus. Over twenty, yes twenty tracks (which does include a few interludes), she embodies the album’s title, empowering herself to strip down, both literally and figuratively. On the album’s black and white cover Christina stands topless in a pair of american flag jeans, front and center. Her eyes are shut, she’s posed with a bend at her hips, extensions covering her bare breasts, and arms above her head. It’s a statement in its own: Christina’s bubblegum era is over, and she’s letting loose. 

The album is also unrestricted to a single genre. It can be classified as pop thanks to the infectious melodies she weaves together from song to song. Like her debut though, there’s a heavy R&B influence. Below that R&B influence are elements of hip hop, rock, and latin music all of which bring welcomed diversity to the album’s sonic profile. It’s also an album full of big statements. Christina is dirrty. She can’t be held down. She’s beautiful, no matter what you say. She’s underappreciated. She needs to walk away. She’s leaving today. She’s okay. She needs to trust the voice within.  

Stripped’s introduction (and the later arriving part II) hone in on the gossip that surrounded the starlet, with clips that highlight everything from the men to the embellished Britney rivalry. “We’re gonna let Christina tell her side of the story,” crackles through as those sound-bites dissipate. She unravels a list of half-apologies between the two tracks: “Sorry you can’t define me, sorry that I speak my mind,” she declares in part 1. On part II she’s more blunt, declaring, “Sorry I’m not a virgin, sorry I’m not a slut,” carefully distinguishing herself from the virginal image being put forth on behalf of Britney Spears, while attempting to dismantle the idea that she can exist between the two extremes. “This is me… stripped,” she declares as the introduction slides into the album’s first full-length track. 

One of the most important players that helped craft Stripped is hip hop icon Scott Storch. Producing and co-writing seven of Stripped’s twenty tracks, Storch made the largest contribution outside of Christina herself. It’s his adept ear for hip hop and R&B that fuels most of the album’s first half. His experience as a keyboardist for The Roots and mentee of Dr. Dre helped him develop a sound that became absolutely essential to the landscape of pop, R&B, and rap in the 2000’s. Stripped was also his first major success as a leading producer. 

The album’s first full length song is the Storch-produced feminist anthem “Can’t Hold Us Down.” Aguilera runs through a list of inbalances between the treatment of men and women when it comes to authority, sex, and more, while vowing not to be suppressed. To further herpoint, Christina’s “Lady Marmalade” cohort Lil’ Kim cruises through and ponders things on her own. It’s a fitting reconnection. After all, this is the woman who just two years earlier brashly declared “if I was a dude I’d tell y’all to suck my dick.” It’s one of Kim’s many other moments of unapologetic sex-positive music that forever turned hip hop on its head. She pulls no punches, questioning why a man can have three girls and be considered “the man,” but when a woman does the same, “she’s a whore.” 

Fun little aside: the original version of “Can’t Hold Us Down” featured Eve, not Lil’ Kim. No one knows what happened there, but a “Christina Aguilera” ad lib from Eve sits largely unrecognized at the end of Lil’ Kim’s verse on The Sharp Boys’ vocal mix of the song. I spoke with George of The Sharp Boys to see what they might know about the situation. He remembers receiving a call the day they finished their remix. They were notified that they would have to remove Eve’s verse because “Lil’ Kim was recording the new vocals that HAD to be used.” Though they couldn’t remember (and may not have been privy) to the specifics, “I think there was some sort of fall out after the original recording,” George told me. The mystery continues. 

On the rock banger “Fighter,” she dismisses victimhood in the face of “this man I thought I knew… (who) turned out to be unjust, so cold.” Instead she draws on being used to emerge with an empowered statement of defiance. “Made me learn a little bit faster, made my skin a little bit thicker… thanks for making me a fighter,” she declares on the anthemic chorus. It’s a big, arena rock record that allows Christina to display her versatile instrument in a new arena. It also showcases Storch’s capacity for flourishing in genres outside of hip hop and R&B. Dave Navarro provides the lead guitar for some extra rock edge. 

What makes Stripped such a strong record is the multifaceted nature of the material. Aguilera comes out looking like a helluva songwriter. She captures emotions ranging from frustration and infatuation to heartbreak and resilience. In most cases she’s just one of two or three writers on the songs, indicating that she’s not just a name added to the credits. 

She painstakingly details the inner tug-of-war trying to detach from a poisonous significant other on “Walk Away.” She describes them like a drug, suffocating and haunting her, like a nightmare she can’t wake up from. The music is top tier; it’s a torch song with fluttering piano notes layered alongside strings and a hi hat-heavy drum part. Her vocal performance on “Walk Away” is dizzying. The runs she executes embody the torture and conflict she’s conveying with expect precision. She does some fantastic vocal work across Stripped, but her work here is some of the album’s best. It also foreshadows the vintage R&B material she’d dig into further on her next album. 

One of the most exciting collaborations on Stripped was Alicia Keys, who was riding high after exploding on the scene in 2001. Though she almost gave Christina what would become one of her signature records, “If I Ain’t Got You,” she was advised against that move and instead composed a new record. “Impossible,” is dripping with Aretha Franklin. After a glittery introduction, the record simmers like the Muscle Shoals backbone of “I Never Loved A Man,” while knocking off “Ain’t No Way,” both musically and lyrically. Phrases like “give you all you need” and “how can I” are applied in similar fashion on across the two songs, which both detail an exasperation with an inexpressive significant other. Built on the foundation of such classics, with two forces like Christina and Alicia bringing it into 2002, it’s a stellar collaboration. 

There’s feistiness and defiance on the funky “Underappreciated.” It also possesses flairs of Aretha at her feistiest (down to the ooo’s during the chorus), not to mention that “I feel underappreciated” is just a roundabout way of saying she wants some respect. Given a contemporary edge with a hip hop-minded drum track and funky keyboards from Storch, it even nods towards some of the funkiest sounds that had recently been emerging from the neo-soul movement. 

Halfway through the album, the tone flips and the R&B and hip hop influence is largely superseded by rock and edgier sounds. Enter Linda Perry. The former 4-Non Blondes member was introduced to a new generation in 2001 thanks to her work with P!nk on Missundaztood. That caused Christina to take notice, and recruited Perry to help her access a new side of herself. 

The first Perry contribution sequenced on Stripped is the massive second single, “Beautiful.” The heartfelt, resilient record about finding the beauty in yourself “no matter what they do, no matter what they say,” struck a chord. It rocketed to number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped Billboard’s Dance, Adult Contemporary, and Top 40 charts. It also topped charts in ten countries across three continents. The accompanying video was gritty and full of representation, most notably of the LGBTQ+ community. It ultimately earned Aguilera recognition by GLAAD and remains one of her signature songs. 

Though “Beautiful” was written solely by Perry, her other contributions are co-writes with the singer and stoke Christina’s introspection. The Mexican-flared “Make Over,” highlights the singer’s angsty side finds Christina “ready to fight… (wanting) to live simple and free,” while “feeling confined.”  On their mid-tempo “Cruz,” Christina is on the other side, feeling the freedom and liberation in the face of shedding resistance and restriction. 

Perry and Christina dive deep on “I’m Okay,” the album’s most personal track. It achingly details the abuse at the hands of her father and the effects of trauma she continues to feel. She pulls back at first, delivering the early verses in a delicate and fragile voice that magnifies the vulnerability of raw lyrics like “hurt me to see the pain across my mother’s face, every time my father’s fist would put her in her place.” As the song progresses, she finds her strength, belting “It’s not so easy to forget, all the marks you left along her left,” during the bridge, into an empowered final chorus. 

The influence Perry had on Stripped extends beyond the four tracks she contributed to the album. Another single, “The Voice Within,” has a “Beautiful”-esque quality to it. It’s a big ballad that again showcases her vocal immensity. Where “Beautiful” is a pillar of confidence that comes both externally and internally, “The Voice Within”  pushes for that same self-love by finding reassurance from within. 

Then there’s the album’s lead single. “Dirrty.” Based on Redman’s 2001 cut “Let’s Get Dirty (I Can’t Get In Da Club)” it was an explosive statement to introduce Stripped to the world. Hard percussion and synth bass lines courtesy of producer Rockwilder gave Christina a gritty foundation to make it crystal clear that singing about genies on the beach was a thing of the past. Redman joined the party to lend his stamp of approval to the experience. 

“Dirrty” also highlights the importance of the music videos for Stripped. With the release of “Dirrty,” Christina caused an uproar. Here was the sweet “Genie In A Bottle” girl from the beach, descending to an underground boxing ring donning leather chaps, a barely-there bikini, and a nose ring all while surrounded by dirt and grime. There’s mud-wrestling and a shower scene. It’s chaotic, it’s messy, and most importantly, it successfully got her point across. 

The aforementioned “Beautiful” video made a splash in its own way, and Christina even remade the video in 2022 as a commentary on the world and the impact social media has on children. Its message continues to resonate even with a new set of visuals to accompany it. 

She’s an insect personified going through a tense metamorphosis on “Fighter.” There’s no pretty butterfly here a la Mariah. Instead, Christina comes out looking more like an ant that bursts through to become a glowing moth. It’s more gritty and defiant, and also displays Aguilera going dark, literally. She debuted black hair that would last through the touring piece of the album cycle. 

Stripped closes on with one last Aretha nod, on the ah-oo background vocals of “Keep On Singin’ My Song.” It’s also one last Scott Storch production to close out the record after cohesive, yet diverse production in the second half. He even recruits The Roots’ inimitable drummer Amhir ‘Questlove’ Thompson to contribute percussion to the track. It’s a sort of resilient to-be-continued after a record of introspection and vulnerability. It perfectly punctuates the record. “They can do what they wanna, say what they wanna, but I’m gonna keep on singin’ my song,” she declares, completing her evolution through empowerment.

Stream the 20th Anniversary edition of Christina Aguilera’s Stripped:

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It’s been 6 years since Lemonade was released, and 16 years since I got my hands on a Beyoncé album through a traditional release, without significant piracy interference (I remember cutting out of a meeting for a group project in college because 4 leaked and I *had* to go home and download it). Renaissance is the most traditional release of a B record since 4 dropped 11 years ago, making it the most liable for a leak. At 16 tracks, it’s also the longest Beyoncé release since 2008’s I Am… Sasha Fierce. That fuels the already sky-high anticipation.

Something started to itch in me Wednesday morning. There was an air on Twitter, and then there were pictures of Renaissance on the shelves in Europe. The leak was coming. The Beyhive is, after all, one of the most unhinged and unchecked fan bases in existence, in part thanks to Beyoncé’s radio silence on their abusive behaviors. For every stan commenting on posts about a leak with instructions on how to file a DMCA complaint against a leak, there were a few looking for the leak to get a listen. Can you blame them? They lodge death threats in the name of this woman. Of course they want to hear the new music as soon as they can.

Conversation started on Twitter and the forums. But it wasn’t definitive. People might be lying. People do that, you know. So I started digging. And though I’m rusty, I’m clever. Within a half-hour: boom. 10:44am and Renaissance was on my hard drive, more than 36 hours before its official release in the U.S. This is what I took away after living with Renaissance for 24 hours.

Renaissance is, like its first single, a statement of resistance and a call to action, but also a testament, ode, and expansion of the dance floor. For the first six songs, it’s a continuous and interrupted dance party. The opening sextet of songs are mixed into one another, culminating in the anthemic but cool “Break My Soul.” With a not-quite-sample-but-still-credited nod to Robin S’s classic “Show Me Love” and more samples of Big Freedia (just like “Formation”), Beyoncé blends house and bounce to issue a cool battle cry to the overworked, oppressed, and suppressed.

She’s “one of one” and the setting the bar in the category of ‘bad bitch’ on “Alien Superstar,” which drives right to the heart of the ballroom. It’s braggadocious and boastful, but simultaneously encouraging “unique, that’s what you are,” she proclaims during the hook. “Cuff It” folds at the intersection of funk and disco. It’s a hard beat accentuated by bass plucks that’s sweetened with flourishes of strings, a sonic sibling to the infectious “Blow” of 2013’s BEYONCÉ. It should be no surprise that Nile Rogers had a hand in this one. There’s also a slick incorporation of Teena Marie’s “Ooh La La La.” “Virgo’s Groove” assumes a similar position, with thick synths, heavy bass and guitar parts that evoke late 70’s and early 80’s R&B.

She does switch dance floors from the ballroom and smoothes things out on the multilayered “Plastic Off The Sofa,” which sounds like it could have first lived on Dangerously In Love and has since been updated with a heavier groove. It’s a gorgeously smooth R&B record. This is for those breezy summer nights.

Sparse with features, one of the few rises above the rest, because Grace Jones is, for lack of better words, Grace fucking Jones. In her four and a half decade-long music career, she’s been extremely elusive when it comes to working with other artists. By my count, she’s granted less than 10 artists a feature on their albums. Her dominant voice is unmistakable on the afro-beat driven “Move,” a perfect follow-up to Grace’s last solo release (“Original Beast”) and an expansion on the sounds Beyoncé fully embraced on The Gift. The afro-beat influence runs throughout the album.

Renaissance closes with a very familiar progression: “I Feel Love” by Donna Summer. Beyoncé’s incorporation of the progression and melody indicate the tonal similarities she shares with the Queen of Disco, like she did on 2003’s “Naughty Girl” with “Love To Love You Baby.” It’s a perfect punctuation to this stellar, dance-driven record, the first of an apparent trilogy.

Stream Renaissance:

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A year or two before the album dropped, my dad joined Sam Goody’s rewards program Replay because I basically lived at our town’s Sam Goody by that point. Joining the program included a subscription to their members’ magazine, Request, which I reasonably devoured each month. As I thumbed through the June 2002 issue, Anastacia’s photo caught my eye. Accompanying the photo was a blurb about her new album Freak of Nature. I was immediately taken by the writer’s audacious comparison of Anastacia’s voice to that of my idol, Aretha Franklin. They name checked the album’s lead single “One Day In Your Life” and within 10 minutes I was in the basement on the computer I shared with my sister downloading the song on Kazaa. I was hooked from the first listen, and days later was at Circuit City buying my copy of Freak of Nature.

“One Day In Your Life” begins slowly; The first verse lands on top of a building arrangement that gives way to the song’s big, driving hook. It’s a tenacious record that kisses off a detached lover in a fashion that is reminiscent of Mariah Carey’s “Someday.” She swirls with heartbreak, but is also confident in her convictions that he’ll come around. It’s driving, with an emphasis on the keyboard and synthesizers, giving it a funky, Euro feel. 

In the U.S. it was the album’s lead single and though it didn’t make any waves on the pop charts, it did top the Billboard Dance chart. “One Day In Your Life” is one of three songs on Freak Of Nature that was remixed for the U.S. market. The original version was produced by Sam Watters and Louis Biancaniello, who co-wrote the song with Anastacia. The duo handled a bulk of co-writing and production duties on both Freak of Nature and Anastacia’s 2000 debut Not That Kind. 

The US version was produced by Wake, which retains all the vocals but replaces most of other parts of the track. What was a funky, Euro club track became a pop-rock track. Keyboards  became electric guitars to cater to the U.S.’ rock-leaning pop market. Both are stellar, but the original version resonates more and better fits Anastacia’s sonic profile. Because the song wasn’t widely released in the U.S. and I was downloading before the album dropped, the version I downloaded on Kazaa was the original, international version. It took me years before I understood the difference. I sensed it when I listened, but I just figured some Kazaa user doing their own thing to augment the version I’d downloaded. I still prefer that international version.

Anastacia’s voice sounds like something you might expect to hear from a drag queen, because despite it’s clear femininity, it has some masculinity in its depth and tone, which is combined with a nasally quality. Make no mistake, her voice is massive. It has just the right amount of grit and rasp, but also can soar to stupendous heights. Her voice recalls Taylor Dayne, but Anastacia’s is more intense and has a greater emphasis on her head voice. It’s one of the most versatile voices in contemporary music. In the years since her debut she’s demonstrated a unique ability to seamlessly move between genres. She can command the dance floor with a pulsing uptempo, compete with big-voiced balladeers, and go toe-to-toe with rock royalty. 

On Freak of Nature though, she focused her energy on being a funky diva with a voice big enough to conquer Celiné Dion-level ballads. She’d already begun laying this foundation on her 2000 debut Not That Kind, which included her most successful U.S. single “I’m Outta Love,” which can still be heart at the club on the right night. Her style was quirky: sunglasses became a trademark, and she bounced around stage in belly shirts, leather pants, platform boots, and the occasional oversized hat. As a closeted gay boy, her style showed me a lot of things I wanted (I still need some of those belly shirts). She was also knocking 8 years off her age at the time, succumbing to the sexist industry pressure for women to be young.

The album opens with the title cut and an impression of a New York Puerto Rican accent that has certainly aged poorly, to say the very least. Introduction aside, it’s a strong opening cut where she leans into her unique voice and personality, which initially hindered her ability to get a record deal. The song represents her owning her shit and spinning it into gold. 

Ric Wake, who produced a third of Not That Kind (and, coincidentally, Taylor Dayne’s early work), returned to take the lead on the album’s production. Remix aficionado Richie Jones joined Wake on most of his contributions. Sam Watters and Louis Biancaniello of The Runawayz cover most of the other tracks. Together they threaded together an eclectic mix of funk, pop ballads, and in the US market, touches of pop-rock. 

Second cut (and lead single) “Paid My Dues” oozes with resilience as she details the trials and tribulations she faced in her quest for success. “So like I told you, you cannot stop me,” she declares, between verses. It’s a powerful cut that serves as a vessel for her soaring vocal capacity. It’s more of a power ballad with funk undertones (featuring thick keyboards that recur throughout the album). It also proved to be the album’s most successful track, topping half a dozen international charts. 

The album’s two big ballads hit both sides of the Celine Dion coin. “You’ll Never Be Alone” is an inspirational record with an abstract subject, in the tradition of records like “Hero,” “When You Believe,” and of course the similarly titled “You Are Not Alone.”  It has a big, dramatic climax that lets Anastacia show off the full breadth of her voice. The other is the adoring, acoustic closer “I Dreamed You.” It dials back the fireworks and lets Anastacia shine over a stripped back arrangement, akin to some of the ballads from Not That Kind. 

The second half of the album also features two songs which were not new for U.S. listeners. “Why’d You Lie To Me” and “Don’tcha Wanna” were included on the U.S. release of Not That Kind and unapologetically reappear here. “Why’d You Lie To Me,” with hard acoustic guitar strums and effervescent synths is not far from the sounds of Destiny’s Child and TLC at the time. It was the album’s fourth international single, and is one of the most unique cuts because of its contemporary R&B-driven sound. I gravitated towards the song early on, and the artwork of the CD single, which I stumbled on a year and a half after the album came out in the US. 

“Don’tcha Wanna” cuts 17 seconds of fade-out from the version that appeared on the U.S. edition of Not That Kind. The song contains the only sample on the album, a prime cut of the breakdown from Stevie Wonder’s “I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever).” The sample moves sensually as Anastacia prowls towards her target. It fits the funky motif of the album perfectly, and hey, let’s be honest, not everybody can rock a Stevie sample like that.

In a strange and seemingly contrary move, the U.S. version plopped one new song into the middle of the album. “I Thought I Told You That” is a very middle of the road pop record, with both funk and rock elements in the arrangement. The record is an indictment of a cheating man, more topically in the vein of Whitney Houston and Deborah Cox’s 2000 “Same Script, Different Cast” than Brandy and Monica’s classic “The Boy Is Mine.” But while both of those songs pitted the protagonists against each other, this one finds them uniting to decry the cheater. 

What made the song particularly unique is that it landed Anastacia the only feature on the album: Faith Evans. She judged Anastacia on MTV’s The Cut in 1998 and offered her some “encouraging words,” according to Anastacia’s thank you’s in the liner notes. Anastacia does most of the heavy lifting on the verses and blends to the backgrounds to let Faith take the lead on the choruses and bridge. It’s a solid, albeit perplexing collaboration that didn’t get the attention it warranted. 

As if all the musical changes weren’t enough, the U.S. version of Freak Of Nature even featured a slightly different shot for the album cover. The U.S. cover shot features a more sensual pose that accentuates her breasts more than the original cover. Sex sells, and the label was intent on putting her chest on the market. 

They tried, and boy did they try hard to make Anastacia work in the US. She made her formal US debut (after two singing cameos on Ally McBeal) duetting with Celiné Dion on the opening number of 2002’s VH1 Divas Las Vegas. She performed on The Tonight Show, The View, Regis and Kelly, The Late Late Show, Good Morning America, and sang the National Anthem at the MLB All-Star Game. In late 2002 she even landed on the Grammy Award winning soundtrack to the film Chicago. “Love Is A Crime” played during the film’s end credits, and would have been heavily promoted had Anastacia not been diagnosed with breast cancer in January 2003 (she famously filmed the song’s music video that month with a 104 degree fever). Nothing took, and aside from “One Day In Your Life”’s success on the dance chart, Freak of Nature floundered in the United States. Twenty years later it remains her most recent album to be physically released in the United States, much to this fan’s frustration. 

Overseas Freak Of Nature was a star-solidifier for Anastacia, but she was on the precipice of an even biggest moment in her career. A 2003 battle with breast cancer proved to be a blessing in disguise, inspiring her third album Anastacia, which moved away from funk and into a blend of soul, pop, and rock that she termed “sprock.” The album was massive, debuting at number one in almost a dozen countries and landing at number 2 on the European Year-End chart for 2004 (behind Norah Jones). Future albums would delve more pointedly into both pop and rock, but the funk she forged on Not That Kind and Freak of Nature continue to be her unshakable foundation, and a crucial element of her catalog and her 20-plus year career. 

Listen to both versions of Freak of Nature on Spotify:

U.S. Version:

Deluxe International Version:

The post Anastacia’s Freak Of Nature Was A Turning Point appeared first on THE 97.

“As America moved deeper into its love affair with disco, my sales stayed slightly off,” Aretha Franklin said of her mid-late 70’s slump. By 1977, the fusion of pop, gospel, and blues known as R&B that Aretha Franklin forged and drove to the top of the charts a decade earlier no longer had the chart dominance it did in the early 1970’s. In its place was a mix of genres and subgenres that were thrusted ahead by the beat. Funk and disco were dominating, and Aretha was struggling to find her place in the mix. 

With Jerry Wexler, Arif Mardin, and Tom Dowd at the boards, Aretha forged a winning musical partnership that lasted from 1967 through 1972. In 1973 she branched out and worked with the brilliant Quincy Jones. The resulting work was a pretty, albeit lopsided and strangely presented album, Hey Now Hey (The Other Side Of The Sky) (seriously, have you ever seen the album cover?). Her return to Wexler and co. that year only resulted in one more timeless record, 1974’s “Until You Come Back To Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do),” penned by Stevie Wonder. The old team made three albums together in 1974 and 1975 that failed to recapture the magic of years passed, so Aretha moved on. 

In 1976 Aretha partnered with Curtis Mayfield for the incredible Sparkle, which momentarily restored her to the summit she once occupied. Aretha hadn’t seen that level of success since nearly a half decade earlier, and was determined to sustain her resurgence. She kicked off 1977 on a high note, performing as part of President Jimmy Carter’s inauguration celebration. Her performance culminated in a chill-inducing acapella rendition of “God Bless America.” In an attempt to keep the momentum going, she shifted producers once again and enlisted Motown legend Lamont Dozier to produce her next LP. 

Dozier’s credits as part of songwriting and production trio Holland-Dozier-Holland speak for themselves: “Heat Wave.” “Where Did Our Love Go?” “Baby Love.” “Come See About Me.” “Stop! In The Name Of Love.” “Nowhere To Run.” “I Hear A Symphony.” “This Old Heart Of Mine.” “My World Is Empty Without You.” “You Can’t Hurry Love.” “You Keep Me Hangin’ On.” “Reflections.” “Give Me Just A Little More Time.” “Band Of Gold.” By 1976, Dozier was in a similar position to Aretha; His relationships with the Hollands and Motown were fractured, and he was in need of his own resurgence.

Slump aside, with a resume like that, who could resist such an opportunity? Not the Queen of Soul. Plus, the two had history dating back to their youth. “Aretha and I went to school together in Detroit, Hutchins Junior High.” Dozier revealed to Billboard in 2018. When Aretha reached out to Dozier, he quickly agreed to produce her next LP and the duo got to work. They brought their own compositions to the table, along with a cover or two, as well as one record that didn’t involve Dozier at all. The resulting album was 1977’s Sweet Passion. There’s some fine material that was received variably by critics, but it failed to continue the fire ignited with Curtis Mayfield the previous year. 

Unlike the sibling rivalry that prefaced the Sparkle sessions (another story for another day), or tension that existed during the Almighty Fire sessions, the album’s recording sessions reportedly went over without conflict. “She was probably the easiest act I ever had in the studio as far as directing… She made my job easy.” Dozier said.  “She just had a natural talent, and you didn’t have to direct her; She directed herself, mostly, and if there was something you wanted to hear she’d do it automatically and then had her own interpretation or her riff on whatever you wanted her to do, as far as the feeling was concerned.” 

Interestingly, the album’s lead single was outsourced. “Break It To Me Gently” was written and produced by Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager and co-produced by Marty Paich and his son David, who formed a little band called Toto that same year. The structure of the song is interesting, with a psychedelic introduction, sweet strings, and randomly emphasized chords throughout. “Why’d you give me what you knew I would miss?” Aretha laments as she pleads to be let down gently. She suggests tomorrow instead of now, in hopes that in time, he’ll change his mind. Though it didn’t have any staying power, “Break It To My Gently” did top the R&B charts in 1977. 

Despite her aversion to disco, she takes another stab at it on “Touch Me Up” (there was another earlier attempt on 1974’s “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”) It’s a lively blend of brass and piano on top of a driving beat, and probably could have done some damage on the charts had it been released. She finds beauty and love on her own composition, the effervescent “Meadows of Springtime,” and proclaims superior devotion on Dozier’s “No One Could Ever Love You More.”  

Her cover of “What I Did For Love” from ‘A Chorus Line’ is another strong entry. Though in context of the show the ‘love’ sung about is dance, Aretha takes that and turns it into romantic love for another. She sprinkles in a “you” or two as she stakes her claim for all she’s done in the name of l-o-v-e. It’s a gorgeous reading of this Broadway classic. 

The 7-minute title track features nearly two minutes of an introduction. It defies the standard structure of a pop-oriented record, as does “Meadows of Springtime.” Aretha had previously experimented with song structures on the still-unreleased “Springtime In New York,” from the mid-70’s. That record is a complete rollercoaster ride of tempos, instrumentations, and moments in general. “Sweet Passion” isn’t that scattered, once the introduction cedes to the first verse, it maintains a largely standard, albeit extended structure. 

“There comes a time in every woman’s life… when she meets… that special someone,” Aretha says during “Sweet Passion”’s opening stanzas. “And he makes her feel, like a woman… ow!” Who knew she was telling her own future? In the months leading up to the album’s release, Aretha connected with Glynn Turman, who would soon become her second husband in 1978. “Sweet Passion” isn’t about Glynn, but Aretha was certainly looking for her man. She had recently ended a long-term relationship with Ken Cunningham that dated back to the late 60’s. 

“Sweet Passion” was inspired by a different man, one whose identity remains unknown. Aretha referred to him as ‘Mr. Mystique’ in her 1999 autobiography, Aretha: From These Roots. She said she was moved to write the song after their first ‘real’ encounter. The man had missed his plane in New York and what followed was Aretha being “kissed, touched (and) loved” in a way that she’d never experienced before. They met at a hotel and got a room, something she’d never done either. 

The true gem of Sweet Passion is one of the compositions Aretha brought to the table. “When I Think About You” is a mid-tempo that hits all the right notes. It’s 70’s R&B at its finest, with an infectious blend of strings and brass that compliment Aretha’s earthy and intense ooo-ooo-ooo’s. Aretha does some real good singing throughout, making it all around one of her strongest songs on her final trio of albums for Atlantic. 

You won’t find Sweet Passion on Spotify… or Apple Music, or Tidal, or Amazon Music. Nor will you find it in CD bins anywhere. You might encounter it on vinyl though, because that’s the only format (aside from 8-track and cassette) that housed the album in significant quantities. It is one of five Aretha Franklin albums from the 70’s that has never been fully issued on CD or digital. 

The story goes that, when Aretha departed Atlantic Records in 1979, she left with the master recordings to these five LPs (With Everything I Feel In Me, You, Sweet Passion, Almighty Fire, and La Diva). That meant that it was challenging to acquire and reissue the albums, unlike her other Atlantic albums which were all issued on CD in the early 1990’s and digitally over the last two decades. 

Eight songs from these five albums have been remastered and pressed on CD. Sweet Passion is one of the lucky ones. Two songs from the album have been reissued. Lead single “Break It To Me Gently” was even reissued both on 1992’s out of print 4-CD box set Queen Of Soul: The Atlantic Recordings, and 2021’s 4-CD ARETHA box set, which brought both “Break It To Me Gently” and “When I Think About You” into the digital age.

It’s unfair that Sweet Passion gets the strictly negative rap that it does. In part, this dismissal is due to lack of awareness and accessibility. If the album was more accessible, more people would be listening to and analyzing it, creating more conversation and perhaps in turn shifting the conversation. The album’s reviews are impossible to find (unless, like me, you know someone with a stunning archive, thank you James!). Yes, there are biting, negative reviews, but there are also glowing, positive, and optimistic ones too. 

Reflecting on the slumps of both artist and producer, Paul McCrea offered, “So what odds on Sweet Passion reinstating them in the winners circle? Pretty good me-thinks.” Mike Duffy of the Detroit Free Press went a step further and called the album, “brilliant.” Granted, he spent half his review writing “I love you” over and over again, but he made it clear that Aretha, “puts every other female voice to shame.” “Note for note, Aretha is still unbeatable,” said another review. People Magazine went a step further, declaring that “Natalie Cole’s interregnum as Queen Pretender of Soul ends roughly midway through the first side of this LP.” 

New Musical Express’s Paul Rambali wrote one of the dissenting reviews. He observed that though “Aretha never really makes a bad album,” the arrangements and song selections, save for “No One Could Ever Love You More,” didn’t hold up.  Another review identified “three real duds,” going as far as to say that on “Sunshine Will Never Be The Same,” “Aretha sings it as if it matters, but it doesn’t.” Ariel Swartley offered one of the most critical reviews, calling the album largely “uninspired” (with “When I Think About You” as the sole exception), while noting that “her voice remains a presence, but that Midas touch that transformed lyrics… has disappeared.” A dozen years later in 1989, biographer Mark Bego dealt one of the harshest blows, calling the album a “disaster” and identifying “Mumbles/I’ve Got The Music In Me” as “one of her all-time worst recordings.” 

The shame of it all is that the critics aren’t wrong (although on that last note, there is a moment about two minutes into “Mumbles/I’ve Got The Music In Me” where Aretha, with two lead vocal tracks harmonizes with herself that’s chilling in the best way possible, and a 2001 performance of “Mumbles” at ‘VH1 Divas 2001: The One and Only Aretha Franklin’ more than redeems this 1977 version). There is something great here on Sweet Passion, but something is also missing, and it might just be the passion. No reviewer, nor this writer, is going to try to diminish Aretha’s voice, especially during this era. The late 70’s were some of Aretha’s best years vocally. But this material just doesn’t stack up, especially compared to what Aretha was able to achieve with Curtis Mayfield just one year earlier (although it’s worth noting that the next year, 1978’s reunion with Mayfield on Almighty Fire was “a rare Curtis miscue,” that “lacks fire” as David Ritz put it in 2014’s Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin). Was it the producer? The material? Or both? It’s hard to say. What’s easy to say is that as a whole Sweet Passion doesn’t come close to the best of Aretha’s material.

Sweet Passion may not be well-known or remembered, but visually, everyone knows it. The album’s cover was shot by photographer David Alexander, who’s best known for shooting The Eagles’ Hotel California. It is one of the most iconic photos of Aretha, featuring her against a black background with her hair in a tight, high bun. She’s wearing a string of pearls and a black strapless dress (which isn’t visible on the album’s cover). It’s an understated glamor headshot that captures Aretha at her finest, a morsel of redemption for the muted flavor of the record it houses. 

Listen to a full vinyl rip of Sweet Passion:

The post Aretha Franklin’s ‘Sweet Passion’ Yielded Mixed Results appeared first on THE 97.

Her debut album The Bridge was just being released internationally at the time. It came out in Italy, then her native Canada. England followed a month later. The United States had to wait though, with a release date set for November 10, 2009. I don’t like to wait. So I did the rational thing, found the leak, and spent my summer engulfing myself in The Bridge. When November 10 came around, I unapologetically cut biology lab to hit F.Y.E. in Center City, Philadelphia and secured my copy. Frankly, I’ve barely used biology since then and I still listen to The Bridge often, so cutting class was clearly the right move. It’s always important to me to buy a copy of an album, and I felt that to a higher degree with Melanie. 

Guided by the late, great Andrea Martin (who co-wrote half of Melanie’s debut and received associate producer credit on both of Melanie’s albums), Melanie bridged the gap between classic soul/R&B and today’s sonic landscape. Her voice was built for the task. Whether she was waxing poetic over a sample-laced record like the immense, sweeping “It Kills Me” or flexing her chops over an original like the Motown-esque “Monday Morning,” she captured the essence of a tapestry of soul sounds. She even went beyond, like on the acoustic “Teach Him” and the reggae “Sad Songs.”

Between projects, Melanie continued to soar. Most notably, she appeared on the single version of “Fool For You” from Cee-Lo’s acclaimed album The Lady Killer. That version was so well received that it won Melanie her first two Grammy Awards. 

I couldn’t get enough of her, and was ecstatic when the first taste of her next album arrived in early 2011. The one thing that really resonated with me was how she was describing her next album. She was calling her sophomore effort an album of “stadium soul.” Melanie already had me eating out of the palm of her hand, but now I was imagining an expansion of the soulful sounds she captured so effortlessly on her debut, magnified for the larger stage she was destined for, accompanied by bigger hooks. The title had a helluva ring to it too, and was a clever double entendre: The MF Life, which was released on March 20, 2012. I put together a ‘Top 5‘ to celebrate the 5th anniversary in 2017. Now I’m going deeper to celebrate a decade.

“Gone And Never Coming Back” was that first taste of The MF Life. Co-written and co-produced by Andrea Martin, it vacillates between quiet verses and surging choruses, something Andrea had been doing well for at least a decade and a half (see En Vogue’s “Don’t Let Go [Love]”). Though quiet on the verses, those choruses hit like a tidal wave. They encapsulate the ‘stadium soul’ sound Melanie used to describe the album. The title implies finality, and the delivery of the song perfectly reinforces that. It already represents growth from the material on her The Bridge, which didn’t delve into situations in such definitive scenarios. 

The next single, “4AM,” produced by Rico Love, couldn’t have arrived at a better time. “This muhfucka thinkin’ I’m stupid,” she sings as she vents her heartbreak over her man out cheating on her. “It’s 4am and my lover won’t answer,” she laments as she’s seen vacillating between concern and frustration in his cold, empty home, before alleging, “he’s probably somewhere with a dancer.” Once again, it has a big chorus that soars above the ruminating verses. The moody, 808’s fueled beat was complimentary to the sound that was surging to the top of the R&B and hip hop charts at the time thanks to Melanie’s former bandmate and fellow Canadian, Drake. That sound can be heard prominently throughout 2011’s Take Care. Interestingly, there’s even a hint of UK garage as the bridge reconnects into the hook.

Drake doesn’t just appear here in reference, either. He wrote “I’ve Been That Girl,” alongside longtime producer T-Minus, making it one of the few records Drake has written for other artists. With T-Minus handling production and Noah “40” Shebib handling vocal production, this song unsurprisingly sounds like it could fit perfectly alongside the more melodic side of Take Care. The hook is catchy, but reserved.

Though she didn’t score a Drake feature on The MF Life, Melanie stacked up a goldmine of first-rate features for the album, greatly contrasting her no-features debut. The album opens with the hard-hitting “This Time.” The song is poignantly declarative, opening lines “if only you knew, all the love I have inside,”  to a hook that radiates with optimism. “This time, I’m doing much better, love you like I’ve never, ever loved you before. Oh baby now this time, I’m giving my heart and soul and every drop of my love.” She also nabbed a feature from J. Cole at the optimal moment: just as he was breaking through. He bookends his verse with the killer bars, “if looks kill then Melanie you a felony,” and “know it’s deep when the girl of his dreams is the same one to wake him up.” 

She closes the record with the cool, chill “L.O.V.E.” featuring John Legend, returning the favor for Melanie’s help on the title track to his 2010 covers LP with The Roots, Wake Up! The call for unity has a retro, Philly soul essence that compliments the source of their first collaboration. She even manages to recruit the legendary Nas on the Salaam Remi-produced, boom bap-laced “Running.” 

The top collaboration on the album though, goes to her record with B.o.B., “Change The Record.” “If you don’t like how he’s playing then change the record,” she advises as she aligns men’s shortcomings to records, some with scratches, fade outs, and skips. It works a perfect metaphor over a glittering staccato piano and hard-hitting bass drum beat. 

On the solo front Melanie is much more adventurous on this outing. She doesn’t confine herself to traditional R&B sounds on this stadium soul album. She reaches into other connected genres, delivering a twisted, dark, torch song in the form of “Bones,” which credits dynamic British vocalist Paloma Faith as a co-writer. The hook is a monster in both lyric and melody. “Straight through your skin past your soul to your bones… I need your bones… gimme gimme gimme gimme your bones!” It’s engulfing, and slithers inward with a progression that recalls Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ haunting “I Put A Spell On You.” 

There’s also a gritty, sassy, high energy record that orbits in the realm of Tina Turner’s solo rock material. “Watch Me Work” is “something different, something new. Out the box, out the blue.” It’s a much more overt rock-leaning track, unlike the rock undertones that filled out The Bridge’s playful “Bang Bang.” This is music that drives and energizes, with a motivational message. It’s best listened to while strutting in some high heels a la Melanie in the video (or me on a Friday night). 

While “Gone And Never Coming Back” was the lead heartbreak record, the album’s true heartbreak standout is the gut-wrenching “Wrong Side Of A Love Song.” Like “Gone,” the verses are mellow, and crescendo as they approach full choruses that pushes Melaine to the outer limits of her range as she wails “And I don’t wanna be, without you, cause I can hardly breathe without you. This is what it feels to be the one that’s standing left behind.” She emotes every single line and refuses to back down as she mourns the heartbreak. This is soul music at its finest. 

A bonus moment serves as a cheeky reminder of a coincidental fixation R&B had with late night/early morning hours at the time. Melanie had “4am,” and T-Pain had a record called “5 O’Clock.” Naturally, T-Pain suggested that they come together, and they created “6AM.” The record merges the two worlds, with T-Pain playing Melanie’s cheating lover, arriving home two hours after she’s wondering where he is. It’s an amusing convergence of two otherwise unrelated records. They each possessed enough ambiguity that they could be connected based on their timestamps. It’s fun, lighthearted, and features an entertaining back-and-forth between the two, best summed up by the first two lines of the bridge, where T-Pain chides Melanie with “what’cho ass doing up anyway?” and she instantly shoots back “fuck that! I was sittin’ here worried ‘bout you.”

A deluxe edition of the album adds four songs, and iTunes also added their own exclusive bonus track. The best of the deluxe bonuses is “Like I Love You,” a mellow, vocally heavy reggae record which harkens back to Melanie’s roots as a reggae singer and her first formal release (under the name Syren Hall), “Somebody Come Get Me.” 

The iTunes bonus is also notable. “Gone (La-Dada-Di)” is driven by ominous keyboard chords and accentuated by flourishes from a tuba. It’s one of those records that has some stellar storytelling bursting from the lyrics. A strained relationship is shattered by tragedy, as Melanie tries to process the horror, “hoping it was all a dream.” It’s one of the most impassioned vocal performances Melanie delivers on the album. Snoop Dogg glides through to deliver a verse that ties it all together before the record fades out. 

It’s been a decade and The MF Life remains the latest full-length release from Melanie Fiona, and it still hits just as hard as it did the day she released it. Since then, Melanie released a few singles in the mid-to-late 2010’s including the searing, reggae-driven record “Bite The Bullet,” and teased a third album that was to-be-titled Awake. As she continued to tour throughout the 2010’s she performed a number of songs that have never been released including “Love Needs Love” and “I’ll Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know.” In the time since she released The MF Life, she found love and became a mom, twice. Her daughter was just born in late 2021. Suffice it to say, she’s got no shortage of important things in her MF life, but music is still on the list. Two days before The MF Life turned 10, Melanie dropped a cover of “Don’t Explain” as part of a Nina Simone reggae tribute LP. It’s her first solo recording to be released in three years. 

Listen to The MF Life:

The post Melanie Fiona’s The MF Life- Album Retrospective appeared first on THE 97.

Electrifying expanded Aretha’s sound, serving up big band arrangements and a few R&B arrangements, in hopes of expanding her reach while further solidifying her as a force to be reckoned with in jazz. That slight directional shift wasn’t a decision that everyone agreed on though, and it can’t be called a turning point because it didn’t lead to longstanding beneficial results. However, the album does mark a few noted changes in Aretha’s life, professionally and personally. 

First of all, the album marked the end of her work with John Hammond as her producer. Hammond is the person who signed her to Columbia Records. Second, it marks the first album with her first husband Ted White in the picture. The two dated and married in the time between the release of her debut and the commencement of work on Electrifying. Ted wasn’t just her husband, he also assumed the role of her manager, a position he’d remain in until they separated in 1968. 

The story goes that Aretha and Ted dated for around 6 months and were married during the second half of 1961 in Ohio. The exact date and location that they were married remains unknown. She was 19, he was 30. Those two events are significant because they explain what happened after The Electrifying Aretha Franklin was released. Different factions with varied degrees of clarity struggled to define who Aretha Franklin was, resulting in the patchwork of material that makes her Columbia material hard to confine to one musical direction or genre. That’s a story for another day. Back to album number two.

Recorded under the working title ‘The Incomparable Aretha Franklin,’ John Hammond is listed as the album’s sole producer. He disputed that credit, alleging that it was a credit in name only. He was told he could only produce her album cuts, and that their work together concluded in winter 1961. He remembered producing two cuts from the sessions: “Hard Times” and “That Lucky Old Sun.” 

Hammond’s recollection was half right. He did only produce the album cuts. However, he produced all but four of the fifteen songs recorded for the album. Columbia quietly revealed this when they released the Take A Look box set, attributing the production of those four tracks to Al Kasha in the box set’s liner notes (“Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody,” “Ac-Cent-Tu-Ate The Positive,” “Operation Heartbreak,” and “When They Ask About You”). Kasha is best known for becoming a two-time Academy Award winner for Best Original Song in 1973 and 1975. 

Hammond’s goal was to frame Aretha as the next big jazz star, so he was focused on producing formidable jazz records for her. As Mark Bego observed in The Queen Of Soul, Hammond wasn’t concerned with creating ‘Aretha the pop star.’ Aretha made a similar observation in Aretha: From These Roots, writing “Hammond saw me as a blues-jazz artist… (he didn’t seem interested in pop hits (Franklin, 87).” This was, after all, the man who discovered Billie Holiday. Holiday died in 1959, less than a year before Hammond signed Aretha to Columbia Records. John Hammond was out to create the next Billie. 

Aretha’s debut on Columbia Aretha with the Ray Bryant Combo contained her first twelve professional recordings. She was accompanied by a combo led by Ray Bryant (and, fun fact, film legend Spike Lee’s father on the bass). It made for an intimate and jazzy body of work, accentuated with flourishes of blues and pop. Hammond was certainly off to a good start considering DownBeat magazine named her New Female Vocal Star of the Year in 1961. 

Electrifying expands Aretha’s jazz profile and overall sonic profile. Hammond mixed in more sounds and styles, most notably big band. Aretha is heard in front of both an orchestra and a full horn section for the first time. The songs Hammond didn’t produce aimed to bring Aretha into the pop world, and burgeoning R&B realm as well.

None of the players from her first album reappear here except for Spike Lee’s father Bill Lee, who plays bass on four cuts. Writer/arranger John Leslie McFarland was also a returning contributor from Aretha’s debut. He’d written half of the songs on her debut, and this time around contributed four compositions. 

McFarland was the only composer to bring multiple new songs to the album’s final tracklist (“I Told You So,” ”It’s So Heartbreakin,’” “Rough Lover,” and “Just For You”). The rest of the material was all interpretations of material claimed by other artists, largely part of the Great American Songbook. For those unaware, that encompasses a host of standards that exist in the jazz and pop canon, written in the teens, thirties, and forties. The one other new record was “Nobody Like You.” It was a unique pick. It was one of her mentors in gospel, Rev. James Cleveland. 

From the album’s opening notes courtesy of a string section, the sonic profile of this record expands beyond her debut. The strings create a lush, plush landscape that yields as Aretha glides over her opening notes of “You Made Me Love You,” made popular by Judy Garland (it was the b-side to “Over The Rainbow”). She unapologetically bends the notes to fit where her impeccable ear sees fit, delivering a remarkably smooth and controlled performance; at first, that is. She gradually crescendos as the song meanders along, until she reaches her climax, cracking her voice as she surpasses the peak of her vocal register. She tackled the song a different way in 1966 when she recorded a second arrangement.

She’s unrelenting in her vocal expressiveness throughout the album, and unafraid to test the limits of her vocal range. There’s more electricity in Aretha’s performance here than on her debut, to give credence to the album’s title. She displays room to improve control as she goes for those runs and embellishments that approach the limits of her range, but she’s got the rest down pat. 

The influence of Dinah Washington shines clearly through on McFarland’s “I Told You So,” one of the highlights of the album. It swings like a brassy big band record, but it also has a jazzy undertone in the groove, with a touch of blues in the percussion and piano. Aretha enjoys some sassy gloating after her man comes crawling back to her. She was stuck crying when he left her for someone new, but she told him he’d beg her to take him back. And there he is. She kisses him off brilliantly as the song crescendos, “When you were leaving I told you then, You needn’t ever come back again, So let me tell you with a last goodbye, I told you so, I told you so.”

Another of McFarland’s originals, “It’s So Heartbreakin’” might sound familiar at first. It confounded me when I heard it for the first time, because the piano introduction is nearly identical to that of Aretha’s smash 1970 cover of “Don’t Play That Song (You Lied).” Aretha might be the pianist on the song (the credits confirm that it’s either her or another musician), so it’s fair to assume that she’s behind those notes. The way that piano part comes off, especially during the brief piano solo, seems akin to Aretha’s unique style of playing. Vocally she’s unhinged, especially when she screams “the man really turns his back on ya!” right before the song fades out. 

“It’s So Heartbreakin’” is one of the Hammond productions that leans more into the R&B realm than most of the album’s other jazzier cuts. She sings about two-timing lovers, specifically Janie, who had John enraptured but ran off Bill instead. It’s fodder that could play well with the teenage audience both musically and topically. 

It’s always amused me that two songs with seemingly contrary titles appear one after the other on the LP’s first side. “Nobody Like You” and “Exactly Like You” may appear to be contradictory, but they’re actually complimentary messages. “Nobody Like You,” is one of the Rev. James Cleveland’s few decidedly secular compositions.  Aretha looks everywhere but “can’t find nobody like you” on this bluesy ballad. It could almost pass for a gospel lyric, since the essence of the record revolves around the protagonist unable to find anyone like “you.” The idea of searching for someone and not finding anyone comparable could certainly be an allusion to God. But the lyrics “now it’s all so lonely, since you went away,” dispel that possibility because it would be unlikely for someone to sing about God abandoning them and them missing God. Complimentarily, the subject of “Exactly Like You” checks all the boxes of what the protagonist is looking for. Their waiting paid off, because they’ve found exactly what they’re looking for in this “you.” 

On her debut, Aretha reflected on finding herself a “Sweet Lover.” Here, she was looking for a “Rough Lover,” which might have been seen as risky territory without giving the song a listen. “Rough” in this case meant a gruff, tough, “sweet and gentle day and night, but mean enough to make me want to treat him right” type of man. She “don’t want no cream puff, baby,” she ad-libs near the song’s conclusion. Speaking as what would have been considered a cream puff, that one didn’t exactly age well. 

Aretha also waded into festive territory on the album. “Blue Holiday” is melancholic and jazzy, with holiday lyrics, produced by Hammond. Inversely, “Kissin’ By The Mistletoe” was recorded during the sessions but relegated to a compilation album and single, and produced by Kasha. It’s got a traditional pop holiday sound to it. They perhaps represent the best contrast between the directional differences intended for Aretha by Hammond and the brass at Columbia Records. 

Al Kasha’s pop contributions were put front and center despite representing a minor portion of the album. They were also the label’s priority. Kasha’s sessions with Aretha took place before she even returned to the studio with Hammond. The recordings with Kasha took place in July and August of 1961, while Hammond’s took place from November 1961 through January 1962. 

Two of the songs Kasha produced were well-known covers. “Ac-Cent-Tu-Ate The Positive” was a hit in 1945. Within two days of Bing Crosby’s version of the song hitting the Billboard charts (where it would peak at #2), it received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song.  

Like the album’s opening cut, “Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody” was another record associated with Judy Garland. Aretha takes it and bends and twists her delivery, respectfully blowing Judy out of the water with her incredible vocal performance. She also gave some staggering performances of it on the piano. They’re some of her earliest live performances that can be found online. The song was also The Electrifying Aretha Franklin’s lead single, though in a unique twist the b-side out-performed it on the charts, along with everything else Aretha did on Columbia Records.

That b-side was a song Kasha co-wrote called “Operation Heartbreak.” It was excluded from the album but released as “Rock-A-Bye”’s b-side. “Operation Heartbreak” managed to become Aretha’s highest charting recording on Columbia, peaking at number 6 on the R&B chart. 

One of the strongest moments they recorded didn’t even make the final cut. A cover of Ray Charles’ instrumental “Hard Times,” is a glaring omission. The instrumental recording offers one of the earliest opportunities to hear Aretha’s brilliance as a pianist. And she doesn’t let the song go by without saying something. She issues a few runs in the last 30 seconds, most notably wailing “Ray Charles said it was hard times but I feel alright!” Alright! It’s the perfect garnish on this beautiful display of Aretha’s exceptional skills at the piano. It was finally unearthed and released on 2002’s The Queen In Waiting compilation. It’s fair to assume that the label heads didn’t want a mostly instrumental jazz number on an album for an artist they were trying to move into the pop world.

While Aretha drew from Ray on “Hard Times,” Ray returned the favor with “That Lucky Old Sun.” He heard Aretha’s melancholic version of the standard and was inspired to record his own grand, orchestral version, with an expansive chous behind him. Aretha’s version is intimate, accentuated by a smaller string section which sweetens the warmth of the bass and chords of the electric guitar. It wouldn’t be the first time she inspired one of her peers to take on a song, either. On her next album, released in the second half of 1962, Aretha covered “Try A Little Tenderness.” Her version would inspire Otis Redding to deliver the definitive version four years later in 1966. 

That next album, The Tender, The Moving, The Swinging Aretha Franklin, marked a clear directional shift in Aretha’s music, moving further away from jazz and more into pop. What Electrifying represents, is the last clear-cut attempt at framing Aretha Franklin as the next big jazz star. Hammond never worked with Aretha again, though he praised the work Jerry Wexler did with her when she moved to Atlantic. Aretha left most of the album behind her in her Columbia days, though she did mention enjoying a number of the cuts on the album. She did mix “Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody” into her live set a few times in later years, notably as part of an oldies medley she performed a number of times in the 1980’s. 

Listen to The Electrifying Aretha Franklin:

The post The Electrifying Aretha Franklin: Aretha’s Sophomore Album appeared first on THE 97.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk0uLfweiXI 

“The Music’s No Good Without You” would have been an adventurous choice for a lead single in the United States. The vocal dials up the auto-tune even higher than “Believe” in an era where auto-tune was still used primarily to correct pitch, not as a transformative vocal effect. Coupled with the trance-inspired beat, it makes for an intriguing way to kick off a body of work and engrosses the listener. Instead, the U.S. version of Living Proof (released on February 26, 2022) was led by the radio-ready, vocally organic dance-pop record “Song For The Lonely,” which also became the opening cut on the U.S. version of the album. It’s a song that Cher still cherishes despite it’s minimal impact. In 2018, she said “Song For The Lonely,” “might be my best song I’ve ever done,” echoing a sentiment she expressed to Billboard Magazine on the eve of Living Proof’s U.S. release in early 2002. 

I still have a vivid memory of the cold February day in 2002 when I secured my copy of Living Proof. It was one of the first 100 cds I owned (I’ve been cataloging them since 2002, because there are a lot). The album was prominently displayed at the entrance to Sam Goody as a New Release and that cover drew me in, especially after having enjoyed Believe so much. After getting home from my town’s Sam Goody, I sat in the family room at my parents house and studied the glossy liner notes with photos of Cher scattered throughout. The wigs. Oh the wigs. Her platinum blonde hair is nearly white on the album’s cover, accentuating her pale skin and causing her to resemble one of the elves from Lord of the Rings. It’s an album cover with depth and character, giving the impression that she’s embodying a gothic snow queen. She had me mesmerized at just 11 years old. 

Living Proof struck all the right chords for me. As a budding closeted gay pre-teen, I’d already begun gravitating towards the divas of pop and R&B. In turn that also meant that I was being exposed to some pretty significant dance music, largely via the integral dance remixes that typically accompanied 90’s and 2000’s singles. But Living Proof was my first full-blown dance album (Believe is dance, but not as intense as this). By juxtaposing anthemic hooks with a range of dance music styles Living Proof helped push this budding gay deeper into the world of dance music.

Back then, I had no idea that Living Proof had already been circulating around the world since November 2001 with a different sequencing, tracklist, and lead single. It was enthralling to discover and then acquire a copy of the Japan version of the album. Japan’s edition includes the song removed from the U.S. version, “You Take It All” as well as Japan’s exclusive bonus track, “The Look.” It’s a unique experience to consume the album with different sequencing and two different tracks, as well as marinating on their exclusion from the U.S. version, which led to a different listening experience than overseas fans (or those who knew where to get the import in the US). 

Living Proof wasn’t the first Cher album to experience a stifled release and restructured tracklist. More than six months passed between 1995’s It’s A Man’s World November release in Europe and late June release in the U.S. Not only did that album’s tracklist cut 3 tracks and re-sequence the rest when it arrived in the U.S., it also remixed recordings in hopes of giving them stronger appeal in the American market. For all the work that went into restructuring Living Proof for the U.S. market, it failed to replicate the success of Believe. However, the album is an underrated masterwork of dance anthems amongst Cher’s extensive, genre-diverse discography. 

Though Cher released an album between Believe and Living Proof, 2000’s not.com.mercial was an internet-exclusive release composed of folk-rock songs written and recorded in 1994. Her label rejected the songs in 1994 because they were seen as, you guessed it, “not commercial,” so Cher held onto them and dropped the set in 2000. That made Living Proof Cher’s first commercial effort after skyrocketing back to the top of charts and winning her first Grammy Award ever (yes, Cher didn’t win her first Grammy until 1999,) with “Believe.” She continued to lean into the electronic and dance motifs that helped make Believe a smash success. 

After the positive returns for her vocal effects use on “Believe” (the only song on that album to implement such effects), Cher liberally uses them throughout Living Proof. Her voice is so smooth that even when there’s no vocal effect it sounds like there might something helping her along (there’s not). That’s part of the magic of Cher.

Hinging on the success of Believe, which focused on and found its footing with dance tracks, Living Proof dives even deeper into the world of dance. Believe deviated from dance at times, but Living Proof does not. The album almost bore the same name, and had a working title of ‘S.O.B. (Son Of Believe).’ Both the final title and the working title’s acronym are perfect fits for Cher and her personality, as well as one of the album’s recurring themes: resilience. The album drew its title from a line in “A Different Kind Of Love Song”: “I am part of you, we have living proof, there is some kind of light that flows through everything.” 

Not only does Living Proof zero in on its musical focus, it also shifts lyrical focus. The album centers around themes of love, loss, reflection, resilience, and unity. There’s such a heavy focus on love that the word appears in five separate song titles. They range in subject from songs about spreading love in the non-romantic sense (“A Different Kind Of Love Song,” “Love One Another”), the power of love (“Love So High,” “Real Love”) to the challenges of existing in love after loss (“Love Is A Lonely Place Without You”). And those are just the songs with the word in the title.

“Song For The Lonely” (“[This Is] A Song For The Lonely” on international pressings) takes things a step further and merges all the album’s themes together in one record. It was written about persevering through loneliness, in any form. “Can you hear this prayer, someone’s there for you,” Cher pleads as she attempts to quell the slightest bit of loneliness in even just one person.  The song took on another life and became something of an anthemic cry of resilience because it was released in the immediate post-9/11 world. “This is a song for the lonely… for the broken-hearted, battle-scarred… when your dreams won’t come true.” Even two decades later, it’s hard to separate the song from that singular event, for which Cher dedicated the music video. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmL-d5SGgeg 

On both sequencings of the album, “A Different Kind Of Love Song” immediately follows. The driving, warm dance-pop beat fuels Cher’s computer-distorted vocals as she attempts to unify by reminding the world that “I am part of you, these are universal truths.” While other records narrow their focus to one person, this love song is “dedicated to everyone.” It’s a feel-good, dance-floor ready record that even hysterically found its way onto Will & Grace during Cher’s second cameo on the show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jActugPSGls 

Love and unity also rule “Love One Another,” another driving dance-pop record that would be, by any other artist, unbearably schmaltzy. Cher makes it work, even delivering the line “try to understand, open up your heart, a fist is just a hand, it can come apart,” with such conviction it sounds powerful and revelatory. She doesn’t say anything earth-shattering, but she expands on the commonalities from “A Different Kind Of Love Song,” and calls for unity, forgiveness, and spreading love and kindness. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM4cUP_jMic 

She creates other overwhelmingly warm declarations of love while narrowing her focus to a romantic partner. “Love So High” begins with an acoustic introduction that boils over into another thumping beat, and recollections of a love that reached heights allowing her to touch the sky. “Body To Body, Heart To Heart,” pounds with a touch of Latin influence and disco strings as Cher illustrates a scene of two lovers intertwined, “I don’t know where I end, not sure where you start,” she concedes after declaring  “I could drown in your eyes, die in your arms” during the song’s anthemic chorus.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd0AOkr9SYk 

She finds her best groove on the record with the ecstatic and more electronic “Real Love.” It’s light on the percussion during the verses, letting declarative synths do the heavy lifting. Record scratches abruptly silence the music, allowing the full instrumental to surge in at the inception of the anthemic hook. It even briefly phases in a piano during the second half of the chorus. It delivers just four notes that deliciously resemble that iconic piece of “The Glow Of Love” re-used on Janet Jackson’s “All For You” in 2001 and Aretha Franklin’s “Here We Go Again” in 1998. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WawVoX9yxys 

Preceding the songs about loss is “Rain Rain,” a dance-pop record that illustrates the emotional storm that brews when Cher is apart from her lover. “The sun is strong when you’re near, but when you’re gone it disappears,” Cher laments as she wishes he would return because only he can stop her tears, which pour like rain. The same goes for the yearning she projects on “The Music’s No Good Without You.” He was “the center of attention, the eye of the storm” who’s absence makes her “agonize till (he) come(s) back and (they) dance that close again.” 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjCQN2eyNgk 

On “Love Is A Lonely Place Without You,” she explores the void that exists in love when the other person is gone, while stumbling . “Though I’m moving on, I’m still holding on,” she concedes in the bridge, while she finds herself orbiting “Believe”’s sonic territory on the chorus. It’s a place that many have found themselves as they attempt to keep going after enduring the loss of a love. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su4lOGcJvwM 

The pair of songs that are unique to their respective versions of the album cover similar ground, and coincidentally, both land at track eleven. Both detail loss in their own right. On the international version, “You Take It All,” makes the lights in the disco go dark. A single spotlight remains on a despondent Cher, with minimal vocal effects applied as the ambient garage beat phases in and out. She cryptically laments inevitable loss “like the sea takes the land from under (her) feet.” The U.S. track, “When You Walk Away,” is another dance-pop record with a big hook (penned by the tremendous Diane Warren) that falls in line with the other radio-ready cuts. A resilient Cher frames a dissolving relationship not as a loss, but rather as her remaining, and the other party walking away. She’s firm and confident in her position and there will be no tears, begging, or even dying as a result of this disengagement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CAqvkaUHUI 

Resilience converges with loss on the third international single, “Alive Again.” Cher contemplates a life where she could solve all the relationship problems that have led her to “a bridge I need to burn before I leave.” She sounds like a phoenix, preparing to burst into flame and implode into ash, completely aware that she’ll rise again stronger than before. The biggest crime of this album is that “Alive Again” didn’t receive the full remix and video treatment it and its anthemic chorus deserved. It did half-receive a music video, which was stitched together using footage from a commercial shoot that features Cher in numerous wigs, while only actually singing the song in the red wig. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK8CD27L6FA 

While the album’s sequencing varies between the two versions, one song remains in the same place: Both close with a pulsing cover of Bruce Roberts’ “When The Money’s Gone.” It ends the album on a high note. After spanning the album’s themes, the song second-guesses and asks the question, “will you love me baby, when the money’s gone?” 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbNA4nPInBI 

It’s hard to resist the bossa nova tango of the Japan-exclusive bonus track, “The Look.” It musically has no place on this album, but it’s a razor-sharp description of those intoxicating moments of instant attraction. “It’s the look that’s got me hooked, I can’t take my eyes off you” a mesmerized Cher explains. Plus the record has a catchy hook and an always-essential key change at the optimal moment, plus a seemingly random electric guitar solo a-la Carlos Santana. She probably could have gotten this on a Santana album if she had recruited him to participate. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIyrgt8lVGw 

For a period of time, the international version of Living Proof appeared on Spotify in the United States, making the alternate sequencing and removed song “You Take It All” available digitally in the U.S. for the first time. It’s since been removed, but of course the song is easily discoverable on YouTube. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42zoBP2tHwI 

In the lead-up to Living Proof’s release, someone gaffed and accidentally pressed a 5-track album sampler with Cher’s demos of five of the album’s songs. For a deeper dive, they’re absolutely worth a listen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv15DKlafvs 

Living Proof was also reinforced with an artillery of dance mixes to keep dance floors grooving to Cher all night long. “Song For The Lonely,” “The Music’s No Good Without You,” “A Different Kind Of Love Song,” “Love One Another,” and “When The Money’s Gone” all received the remix treatment, plunging Cher even deeper into the dance world. With the exception of “The Music’s No Good Without You,” all of the remixes from Living Proof rose to number one on Billboard’s dance chart in the U.S. Their availability today ranges from digital to vinyl-only. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4TFnL4vB9o 

Twenty years later, this thirty-something gay man revels in Living Proof. With a greater cognizance of what Cher’s singing about on these songs of love and loss, her intense vocals resonate through the depths of my soul. These days, I find myself spending more time with the international version, with the album’s original sequencing. It’s a no-skips record for me, and continues to be, regardless of which version I’m spinning. Though the album failed to replicate the success of Believe, it upstages Believe in it’s lasting quality and consistent sonic profile. 

Stream Cher’s Living Proof

Sources:

https://retropopmagazine.com/cher-exclusive-interview/ 

https://www.today.com/popculture/cher-reveals-2-her-favorite-songs-she-wishes-were-bigger-t203776 

https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/cher-offers-living-proof-77247/ 

https://books.google.com/books?id=9Q8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA100#v=onepage&q&f=false

The post Cher’s ‘Living Proof’ Turns 20 – Retrospective appeared first on THE 97.