Aretha

Aretha is the album by legendary soul diva Aretha Franklin, originally released in 1986, on Arista Records. This is the third album with this title to be released by the artist. The album, again produced mainly by Narada Michael Walden, included Aretha's first #1 Pop single since Respect in 1967 with the vibrant I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me), a duet with George Michael. Aretha also yielded three other hit singles: Jimmy Lee, Rock-A-Lott and a hard rock cover of the Rolling Stones' classic, Jumpin' Jack Flash. All music videos were extremely popular on MTV, BET and other video outlets. Following on from Aretha's first-ever Platinum record, Who's Zoomin' Who?, Aretha was quickly certified Gold after only several weeks. Before going out of print, the album had sold approximately 900, 000 copies in the United States alone. Franklin's vocal from Rock-A-Lott was sampled extensively in the 49ers' 1990 hit Touch Me, while her version of Jumpin' Jack Flash was the title song for the film comedy starring Whoopi Goldberg. All four of the singles were shot as music videos that received extensive play. The album is noteworthy for the striking cover, which was Andy Warhol's final work before his death in early 1987.