{"id":44359,"date":"2018-08-17T10:35:09","date_gmt":"2018-08-17T16:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=44359"},"modified":"2018-08-17T10:35:09","modified_gmt":"2018-08-17T16:35:09","slug":"how-a-jewish-producer-helped-unleash-aretha-franklins-genius","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/how-a-jewish-producer-helped-unleash-aretha-franklins-genius\/","title":{"rendered":"How a Jewish producer helped unleash Aretha Franklin\u2019s genius"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By JOSEFIN DOLSTEN<\/p>\n<p>(JTA) \u2014 Aretha Franklin, the \u201cQueen of Soul,\u201d died Thursday at the age of 76. Her death reverberated so deeply that an incredible array of people from around the world, from Presidents <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump\/status\/1030116078125568006\">Donald Trump<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BarackObama\/status\/1030129887623958538\">Barack Obama<\/a> to musicians&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PaulMcCartney\/status\/1030103284881805312\">Paul McCartney<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DianaRoss\/status\/1030100713093967873\">Diana Ross<\/a>, took to social media to pay tribute.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_44360\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/aretha.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-44360\" class=\"wp-image-44360 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/aretha-300x198.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"198\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/aretha-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/aretha-768x506.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/aretha.jpg 880w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/198;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-44360\" class=\"wp-image-44360 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/aretha-300x198.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"198\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/aretha-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/aretha-768x506.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/aretha.jpg 880w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-44360\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jerry Wexler and Aretha Franklin in a recording studio. (Photo by GAB Archive\/Redferns)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Though the legendary singer\u2019s first album was released in 1956, it took her years to achieve mainstream success. She rose to prominence in large part from the 1967 smash hit \u201cRespect,\u201d a cover of Otis Redding\u2019s song from two years earlier that achieved much greater popularity than the original.<\/p>\n<p>The man who helped her record \u201cRespect\u201d was the producer Jerry Wexler, a one-time journalist and the son of a German Jewish father and Polish Jewish mother from the Bronx, New York.<\/p>\n<p>Wexler persuaded her to leave Columbia Records in 1966, where she had been groomed as a jazz singer, and sign with Atlantic Records, where he was an executive. They would form a close artist-producer bond, and Wexler would go on to produce multiple albums of hers. It was his idea to have Franklin cover \u201cRespect.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe provided the vehicle to allow me to perform and express myself,\u201d Franklin <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/SB121910259489651297\">told The Wall Street Journal<\/a>&nbsp;following Wexler\u2019s death in 2008.<\/p>\n<p>In his autobiography,&nbsp;\u201cRhythm and the Blues,\u201d written with David Ruiz, Wexler described his vision for Franklin.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet her be comfortable. Let her play piano. Let her develop the rhythms, horn riffs, and backing vocals that will open her heart and expose her soul. Let her go, and go she did,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRespect\u201d had special resonance in the 1960s.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe call for respect went from a request to a demand,\u201d Wexler wrote. \u201cAnd then, given the civil rights and feminist fervor that was building in the 1960s, respect \u2014 especially as Aretha articulated it with such force \u2014 took on new meaning. \u2018Respect\u2019 started off as a soul song and wound up a kind of national anthem.\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"How%20a%20Jewish%20producer%20helped%20unleash%20Aretha%20Franklin%E2%80%99s%20genius\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,7137],"tags":[9533,9534,9532,8790,8795,8788],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44359"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44359"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44361,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44359\/revisions\/44361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}