![]() The flip side, "Operation Heartbreak," from a session produced that summer by Al Kasha (just before Mersey took over) put her in the R&B top ten for a third time, yet oddly there were no further collaborations with Kasha. If anyone at the label had doubts about the logic of this move, they dismissed them when the song became her first top 40 pop hit in November 1961. The records that followed took a turn toward standards and even some really old-time stuff like "Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody," made famous in 1918 by Al Jolson (also a hit in 1956 by Jerry Lewis, which came off as a Jolson parody). But suddenly and without his approval, the label placed her with Robert Mersey, a producer and arranger with a proven pop music track record ( Andy Williams, in fact, left Cadence Records for Columbia, beginning work with Mersey on a highly successful run of hit singles and albums at almost the exact time the producer took control of Aretha's session dates). Those early singles seemed to have her running toward major stardom in a quick sprint, and it would have been interesting to see how her music might have progressed had she continued to work under Hammond's direction. "Won't Be Long," a hot, jazzy number (these first two hits featuring top-notch backing by the Ray Bryant Combo), proved she was a ball of energy, rising even higher in the top ten in early 1961 and making the pop charts too. "Today I Sing the Blues," her first single, harnessed some of that gospel gleam she possessed and made it to the top ten of the R&B charts in a seemingly effortless move. ![]() Her early recordings under Hammond's guidance were outstanding jazz and R&B-styled pieces and were fairly successful, too. ![]() Producer John Hammond, with more than 20 years' experience to that point, had already worked with literally dozens of great artists, among them Billie Holiday, another of Aretha's childhood favorites. There was a possibility of getting in on the ground floor with Berry Gordy's Tamla and Motown labels right there in her home town, but the opportunity to join the roster of the mighty Columbia Records proved irresisitible. Reverend Franklin was all for it, encouraging her to follow a career outside gospel music. With a release of "Precious Lord" gaining notoriety in gospel circles, she began to think about pursing a career in the music business along the lines of what Sam Cooke, a friend of the family, had done, jumping the gospel ship onto the tempting shores of R&B and pop music. In 1957, after a few years in the church choir, a live recording of "Never Grow Old" was released on the local J-V-B gospel label, followed by a national distribution of the record on Checker. Gospel great Clara Ward was her strongest influence as a vocalist and Ruth Brown, with her string of rhythm and blues hits in the 1950s, headed her list of favorite secular singers. Along with older sister Erma Franklin and younger sister Carolyn (both of whom would also become accomplished recording artists), she sang in the New Bethel Baptist Church where her father, Reverend C.L. She had an uncanny knack for playing the piano by ear and later said that Eddie Heywood, an accomplished jazz pianist best known for the huge 1956 hit "Canadian Sunset" with Hugo Winterhalter's orchestra, was her main influence. Her family made a couple of moves and settled in Detroit when Aretha was four. Her history begins in 1942 in Memphis, Tennessee, but it doesn't linger there long. ![]() The producers, arrangers and A&R men she worked with during those years helped develop her and lead the way to the great levels she would later achieve. Don't believe anyone who tells you her time at Columbia was meaningless or unnecessary. Aretha possessed impressive vocal range and control at an early age, but she was not a fully-formed artist in her teens if anything she was a very good gospel singer with the potential for more. Not everyone agrees with my opinion on this. Without the experience she gained during those Columbia years, performing and recording all manner of pop and blues, R&B, show tunes and ultimately the soul music she mastered so spectacularly, Aretha would not have become the superstar and, indeed, national treasure that she is. The most important period in Aretha Franklin's career as a singer was from 1960 to 1967, the years she spent with Columbia Records along with the early months of her association with Atlantic.
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