The five greatest live vocal performances of Aretha Franklin
Y’know, life is short. Life is hard. Life is unfair. There aren’t a whole lot of upsides to that, but one of the few silver linings you’ll find is that you never need a good reason to sit back and throw on some Aretha Franklin. The reason is all in the action. Her back catalogue stands against the very best of any genre, and in particular, her range of sheer emotion is second to none. All available with that superlative voice.
If you’re sad, ‘Ain’t No Way’ can make you weep, along with a host of others. Happy? ‘Say A Little Prayer’ improves even the best day. Angry? From ‘Think’ to ‘Respect’ and everything in between, that woman can rage with the best of them. Aretha hits in every flavour, and not only could she turn that on in the studio, but every time she stepped on stage, she did the same.
Which is only fair. Aretha began performing live when she was 12 years old, managed by her father and hitting the road with him in his “gospel caravan” touring local churches. She cut her teeth as a featured act, a backing singer, and even an instrumentalist. Little known fact: she was also a phenomenal piano player for that reason.
Don’t just take my word for it, though. Many people sought to capture how phenomenal she was live on record, and while it’s not a patch on being there, it’s still mind-boggling to watch today. These five performances from her six decades in the spotlight show just how unmatchable she was on stage, so go on, treat yourself.
Aretha Franklin’s best live performances:
‘Do Right Woman, Do Right Man’ – Merv Griffin Show
We begin with Aretha, the pop star. At 25, she was a 13-year veteran of showbusiness. Aretha appears here on the Merv Griffin show playing what was, quite shockingly, a B-side. This is the kind of performance that Franklin could just shrug off like it was nothing at all. She captures the poise, grace, and power of what would come to be considered one of her defining songs.
As a side note, it’d take a hell of a talent to match the work being put in by her backing singers here. The way they time the “…womaaaan” in the chorus sends chills. However, Aretha was a hell of a talent as a teenager and had become one of the premier performers of her generation by this time, so she still gets all the plaudits here.
‘Respect’ – Fillmore West
The background radiation of Aretha: Live at Fillmore West, one of one of the best live albums ever made, is to answer a cynical question, caked in record company bullshit. Could Aretha cut it in the hard-rocking ‘70s? This shotgun blast of a record puts the question back on itself. Could those poodle-haired chucklefucks and their double-necked guitars cut it against The Queen of Soul herself?
Over some superlative Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel covers, along with a version of her signature tune ‘Respect’ that could power the national grid, Aretha and her murderer’s row of a band emphatically state her case. As if that wasn’t enough, there’s also a cameo from a game Ray Charles on a rollicking ‘Spirit in the Dark’. With one live set, Franklin sets a bar so high that few of any generation could see, let alone clear.
‘God Bless The Child’ – Omnibus
She may be the Queen of Soul, but as the previous entry showed, Franklin had the range to take on any genre and win (and I do mean any; watch this space). She got her start in gospel, matured to utterly conquer soul, showed he could hang with any rocker worth their salt and with this sensational TV performance, takes on the blues and wins handily.
Decked out in a gorgeous flapper dress complete with a feathered headpiece in tribute to Bessie Smith, this one-two punch of the standards ‘Trouble in Mind’ and ‘God Bless The Child’ shows her connection understanding of any genre thrown at her. We also see this during the between-song interview, talking about how the blues was “as if Gospel walked out of church one day and came face-to-face with the realities and problems of daily life”.
‘Nessun Dorma’ – Radio City Music Hall
When I say the girl had range, we meant it. It’s not just that she could absolutely crush a version of one of the most technically difficult arias in the classical canon. It’s that she could do so with barely any prep time in the most pressurised situation imaginable. Picture the scene. It’s the 1998 Grammys and the headline performance is going to be Nessun Dorma, performed by Luciano Pavarotti himself.
Half an hour before his slot, the man himself calls from his hotel room. “I can’t make it. I’m not well. I’ll sing next year.” Which is gracious of him, I guess. What do you do? The answer is that you give honour to the woman who sang the aria in tribute to the great man two nights earlier. With barely half an hour of prep time, she goes out and saves the whole show with a version of Nessun Dorma that may not be entirely opera. It may not be entirely soul, but it’s entirely Aretha.
‘Natural Woman’ – Kennedy Center
I’ll level with you. As a professional, I watched a lot of Aretha’s live videos to find the right list. The one that I didn’t revisit is also the first one that made the list. The truth is, I’ve never made it through this video without crying, and if you can, then you’re made of sterner stuff than me. In 2015, Carole King was awarded a Kennedy Center Honor, and to pay tribute, the 73-year-old Queen of Soul sang a song that was a defining hit for both ‘(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman’.
The power, the passion, the fur coat coming off to a standing ovation. These give us the kind of emotions that only pop music at its best can stir within us. As you can see from the repeated cuts to Carole King, the genius songwriter who watches her song get whisked away from her again with unabashed pride, we’re not the only ones feeling this way. Utter, utter magic.
