Download Instrumental    If you singers out there haven’t been performing any Aretha Franklin songs, then you’ll have to put at least one in your repertoire now. And this is the one to do. I quickly put together an arrangement and I think these backup tracks will serve you well – once you take out the lead flute, of course.

Aretha passed away last week from pancreatic cancer on the same date Elvis died.  There’s a certain irony to that, I think.  Two giants of the music industry departing this life on the same calendar day gives one pause to consider the cosmic implications of it all.  I’ve never been one to believe much in coincidence.  But that’s just me.

Aretha’s church background is very evident in this piece.  The first few piano licks definitely have that “gospel” feeling, and the original recording sounds like an old piano being played in a 1st Baptist church somewhere (has there ever been a Last Baptist Church?).  It was written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin at the request of Franklin’s producer.  The arrangement was simple, using only bass, drums, piano and strings.  Oh, and a haunting French horn slips in and out of the music like a mischevious ghost – beautiful.  Aretha’s sisters – Erma and Carolyn – sing the backups.   But it was her voice – oh, that voice – that carried the song to #2 on the charts and #1 in everyone’s memory.

Thank you, Aretha, for everything that you gave –  and everything that we’ll keep in our hearts forever.