CoronaVinyl Day 326 (F): Who's Zoomin' Who? by Aretha Franklin

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is "F," and I'm going with Aretha Franklin's thirteenth studio album, 1985's Who's Zoomin' Who?

I'm not going to tell you much about Aretha Franklin because if you're not familiar with her or her music, then you have failed as a human being.  She was the first female artist inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, she topped Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time, and she was #9 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.  And she was in Blues Brothers!

Who's Zoomin' Who? was a decided shift for the Queen of Soul to a more contemporary sound, and just like Tina Turner's Private Dancer album a year before, it was very much a comeback album for her, connecting her with a new generation of listeners.  From 1974 to 1984, she had only three Top 40 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, and the highest-charting was 1974's "I'm in Love," which went to #19.

The album went to #13 on the Billboard album chart, making it her highest-charting album in 13 years.  It was also her only platinum studio album in the U.S.  She scored four Top 25 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 from the album:  "Freeway of Love" went to #3 (and topped the Billboard R&B singles chart for five weeks), the title track reached #7, "Sisters are Doin' It for Themselves" went to #18," and "Another Night" went to #22.  "Freeway of Love" also earned Franklin the Grammy for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.

As part of her effort to modernize her sound, Franklin had some help from some great musicians.  Clarence Clemons -- the "Big Man" from the E Street Band -- played the sax on "Freeway of Love."  The Eurythmics dueted with Franklin on "Sisters are Doin' It for Themselves," which also featured Benmont Tench (on organ) and Mike Campbell (on lead guitar) from Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.  "Push" was a duet with J. Geils Band lead singer Peter Wolf and also featured a guitar solo from Carlos Santana.  And last, but not least, "Integrity" featured Dizzy Gillespie on trumpet.  Also, veteran session bassist Randy Jackson (now of American Idol fame) played bass on six songs, and Louis Johnson of the funk band Brothers Johnson played bass on two songs.

Franklin died in 2018 at the age of 76.  A biopic called Respect, starring Jennifer Hudson as Franklin, was just recently released.  I haven't had a chance to see it yet, but I'm sure it's great, as Franklin's life was definitely worthy of a Hollywood send-up.  She had her first child less than two months before she turned 13 (!) and her second when she was 15 (!) (and she would have two more, one just before she turned 21 and another when she was 28), and this was all while she was beginning and/or in the middle of her music career.  R-E-S-P-E-C-T, indeed.

The Spotify version of the album is the expanded edition, which includes 17 additional tracks, all of which are remixes or alternative versions of songs on the album.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Freeway of Love"
As a child of the '80s, this is the song that I most associated with Franklin when I was a kid, and it's a rollicking synth-pop soul song that announced to the world that the Queen of Soul was back.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Ain't Nobody Ever Loved You"
This song has a nice Caribbean vibe to complement Franklin's fantastic voice.