Aretha Franklin Refused to Sing This Mariah Carey Song in Full Because It’s So Racy
Aretha Franklin is one of the few artists who could perform Mariah Carey songs and do them justice. The Queen of Soul covered some of Carey’s tunes but one was too risque for her to sing it in full. Carey revealed how she reacted to this development. She also dissed the way Franklin was perceived as a musician.
Aretha Franklin covered some Mariah Carey songs — and then some!
In addition to being the Queen of Soul, Franklin was also the Queen of Cover Songs. She recorded tracks by The Beatles, Adele, The Rolling Stones, Gloria Gaynor, The Supremes, and Sinéad O’Connor. According to Rolling Stone, she actually released her version of “Let It Be” before The Beatles did! Even Franklin’s most famous track, “Respect,” was a rendition of an earlier tune by Otis Redding.
In her 2020 book The Meaning of Mariah Carey, the “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” singer discussed Franklin’s appreciation of her music. “She did sing some of my songs, like ‘Hero’ for Jesse Jackson’s birthday and ‘Touch My Body’ on tour, where she ad-libbed all the frisky bits.”
Franklin wasn’t totally comfortable with the original “Touch My Body.” “She said, ‘Tell Mariah I’m a churchgoing woman, and I can’t sing that stuff, now’ and the audience sang along with the hook,” she wrote. “It was incredible.” While “Touch My Body” is sexual, it’s far from the most obscene song ever. Franklin declining to sing “Touch My Body” in full says a lot about her sensibilities at that stage in her life.
Aretha Franklin taught the ‘Obsessed’ singer so much through music
Carey revealed that Franklin has been a seminal influence on her music. “Aretha Franklin is my high bar and North Star, a masterful musician and mind-bogglingly gifted singer who wouldn’t let one genre confine or define her,” she said. Carey has hopped from genre to genre, making hip-hop, pop, R&B, dance music, gospel ballads, and even Christmas songs.
“I listened to and learned from all of her,” Carey wrote. “When she was in her late teens she moved from singing gospel to jazz — or rather, she added jazz to her repertoire, because she never moved from gospel. (One of my favorite albums of hers is still gospel: One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism). And when she sang standards, there was nothing at all standard about her delivery. She brought a soulfulness to everything that was all her own.”
Mariah Carey felt Aretha Franklin is underrated as a musician
Carey feels that Franklin never received her dues as an arranger or as a piano player. In the “Obsessed” singer’s mind, that’s due to sexism. Carey also felt Franklin is underrated as a musician because fans focused so much on her vocals.
In 2020, Rolling Stone released its updated list of the 500 greatest songs ever. The magazine ranked Franklin’s “Respect” as the best song of all time. Hopefully, Franklin’s layered talents are receiving more recognition.
Franklin and Carey clearly respected each other even if Franklin didn’t like some of Carey’s raunchy lyrics.
