NEW YORK — When the holidays draw near, the first songs Aretha Franklin starts playing from her yuletide collection are “This Christmas” and “Christmas Just Ain’t Christmas (Without the One You Love).”
“Those are favorites in the Franklin households,” the Queen of Soul says.
These days, she’s putting her own stamp on her holiday favorites with the first Christmas CD of her legendary career, “This Christmas.” Franklin says she would have put out one decades earlier, but the powers-that-be at her old labels weren’t interested.
Now that she’s a free agent, she teamed with Borders Group to release the CD — which features her trademark soulful approach to traditional Christmas classics — exclusively at Borders and Waldenbooks stores and Borders’ website.
Q: There are a lot of Christmas songs to choose from — how did you determine which ones you would cover?
A: I did “14 Angels,” which is something I heard as a young girl, and I’ve always remembered it, and I’ve always loved it. I did “The Lord Will Make a Way” because Christmas is the birth of Jesus and it surrounds itself with the nativity and that scene, so I thought “The Lord Will Make A Way” would be appropriate, and particularly appropriate for the times.
Times are really tough and really hard for a lot of people today.
Q: You have a very interesting, sassy take on ” ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas.”
A: (laughs) Oh, that was just for fun, it was just for fun, nothing else. Certainly not serious, just for fun. The producer, Tena Clark, just asked me was there a little something I could do. … So I thought about it, penciled a little something in, and we did that.
Q: This album is being sold exclusively through Borders. More music acts are doing these exclusive album deals these days with retailers. Why do you think this benefits the artist?
A: Artists have become very independent, and they’re doing their own thing. They’re operating from the Internet — you can go platinum out of the studio. It leaves open so many more avenues to distribute your product, and you can do it creatively and autonomously and do it the way you want it. It’s not just one facet now the way it used to be in the record industry.
Q: A movie about your life is in the works. How is that progressing?
A: I sat with the writers that came in for about three days just talking. They are just finishing a movie (about) Miles Davis, and I am waiting for a first draft. They didn’t want to write it chronologically, and I kind of want to see it chronologically. They wanted to write it in retrospect, in a very unorthodox kind of way, and I don’t know if that’s the best way to go about it.
Q: What about the album you produced?
A: That album is finished, it’s ready, and I’m looking for a deal, a label distribution deal. The name of it is “Aretha: A Woman Falling Out of Love.” Lot easier to fall in than out, but everything’s cool now.
Q: Are you in love now?
A: No, darling, I’m not in love no more, and that’s when it’s really good, when you don’t want him no more. That’s when it’s the best.
Q: Could you ever see yourself getting married again?
A: I could very well do that. I like being married. … I kind of like taking care of my sweetie, and him taking care of me.
