Between August 1972 and May 1981, late night television was a little more rockin'. Producer Burt Sugarman's The Midnight Special followed Johnny Carson's Tonight Show on Friday evenings, welcoming viewers with Johnny Rivers' rousing rendition of the traditional tune (a Top 20 hit for Rivers in 1965). Over the course of 450 episodes, The Midnight Special presented a staggering array of music's top talent on network television with most songs performed live for the majority of its run. The
The eighties aren't traditionally remembered as a halcyon period for classic soul. R&B eventually took on new meaning as it splintered into hip-hop, rap and urban genres that were as integral to their day as street-corner doo-wop and soul were to their own. Big Break Records, a Cherry Red imprint, has long been committed to rediscovering perhaps-neglected works by some of the biggest names in soul and R&B, and a particularly fascinating series of recent reissues has turned its
Aretha Franklin is serious about her royalty. Billed on her newly-activated Twitter account as "the undisputed Queen of Soul" (take that, Tina Turner!), Franklin doesn't take her title lightly. But for a brief period, the artist's credentials as reigning Queen of Pop were just as unimpeachable. When Aretha joined Arista Records in 1980, it was after five disappointing albums at Atlantic, none of which have ever seen the light of day on compact disc. On those LPs, producers as diverse as
On March 25, 2012, Aretha Franklin will turn 70 years old. That hardly means she's ready to slow down, however. 2011 found the Queen of Soul looking trim and sounding vibrant as she returned to the concert stage and released a new studio album. Surely her landmark birthday will be celebrated with countless airings of her 1960s golden hits like "Respect," "Natural Woman" and "Chain of Fools." But Legacy Recordings and Arista Records are seeing to it that a latter-day hitmaking period for the
The music industry is littered with careers that crashed after a second chance at the spotlight. This could have easily befallen even a legend like Aretha Franklin; the Queen of Soul had in fact risen on a second chance at Atlantic after a largely unsuccessful career with Columbia, but by the late 1970s, Aretha's attempts to fall in with the trends of rhythm and blues were frequently derided, and ultimately she would sever her ties with the label. Against all odds - not counting the fact that