Fighting for the last time at Muscle Shoals: The disaster session that gave Aretha Franklin her first hit
It’s fair to say that the path to success walked by Aretha Franklin was one so dangerous and rocky that she almost never made it to the finish line.
With nine albums already under her belt before she even tasted a sliver of success, no one could fault the woman for her tenacity and resilience, nor for soaking up every second of the luxury that came her way, once it finally arrived at long last. They do say that good things come to those who wait, but she was clock-watching for much more time than most.
Indeed, even by the point that it looked as though fame could potentially, maybe, possibly be around the corner, it was nearly all snatched away from her, and not through anything she did remotely wrong. Instead, there was a male ego to blame. Pretty sure we have all heard that story before.
It was early 1967, and Franklin was singing at her quintessential best when she arrived in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to record at their renowned Fame Studios. Overall, the result of the session was that she committed ‘I Never Loved a Man The Way I Loved You’ to tape, ultimately changing her life without knowing it at the time.
But there were a hell of a lot of obstacles that threatened to derail the whole long-awaited moment of glory. The biggest one was her then-husband and manager, Ted White. For one reason or another, he got into an argument with the trumpet player present at the session, Ken Laxton, and then got into a physical fight with the studio owner.
It wasn’t exactly the mark of a great manager, nor a husband, that he would let his own anger and issues potentially mar the start of Franklin’s career, especially after she had waited all this time for it to begin. To be fair, that same weight could be applied to their marriage as a whole, and she was definitely far better off without him.
Thankfully, despite all the whirlwind of drama that came along with the session, Franklin’s producer, Jerry Wexler, knew he had too great a talent on his hands to let the actions of her husband override it. So, he persisted in getting the recording released – and luckily, he succeeded, as the song became her first top ten hit.
Franklin largely never looked back after that, but almost as though she had a premonition of it bringing on bad karma, she never once returned to Muscle Shoals ever again. The studio was seemingly cursed, but she liked the musicians that came with it well enough, so they flew to New York to finish the recordings for her albums at her insistence. Thank God they agreed.
It was perhaps this that made Franklin so forthright and a force to be reckoned with later down the line, as she realised that the second she put her foot down, success finally came in her direction. Nothing – not a change of label, nine failed albums, or the hotheadedness of terrible husbands – could ever stop her now.
