Listen to Aretha Franklin’s remarkable isolated vocals on ‘I Say A Little Prayer’
Widely regarded as one of the greatest soul vocalists of all time, Aretha Franklin was born to Barbara Siggers Franklin, a nurse, singer and choirmistress, and Rev CL Franklin, one of America’s most celebrated Baptist preachers, in 1942. After a childhood spent touring the nation in her father’s travelling revival show, Aretha embraced the blues and relocated to New York, where she signed with Columbia Records and quickly cemented herself as the Queen of the ’60s soul divas. Below, you can hear a solo recording of her vocals for ‘I Say A Little Prayer’.
One of the countless soul hits penned by Burt Bacharach (music) and Hal David (lyrics), ‘I Say A Little Prayer’ was written at the height of the Vietnam war for fellow soul diva Dionne Warwick, for whom Bacharach also composed ‘Walk On By’. Bacharach was apparently unsatisfied with the final recording and expected it to flop. “I never thought I made the right record on that,” he told Record Collector magazine. “I think I made the tempo a little too fast, a little bit too nervous with Dionne. I didn’t want the record to come out but got overridden. I’m glad that I got overridden.”
The track became a hit in 1967, with Aretha Franklin’s cover version following less than a year later. In the UK, it soared to the top of the charts, making ‘I Say A Little Prayer’ Franklin’s highest-charting single after her number one hit ‘I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)’. And to think Atlantic Records boss Jerry Waxler wanted to release it as a B-side.
The backing vocals you can hear in both versions of ‘I Say A Little Prayer’ were performed by the Sweet Inspirations, who performed on Warwick’s original track and, months later, found themselves recording the same song with Aretha Franklin. The soul diva had started singing an original arrangement of Dionne’s song with the vocal group during a warm-up for the Aretha Now album. On hearing the rendition, Jerry Waxler insisted that they record it. Apparently, Burt Bacharach liked Franklin’s arrangement much better than the one he made for Dionne.
You can hear Franklin and The Sweet Supersitions’ vocals for ‘Say A Little Prayer’ below.
