Sparkle

Aretha Franklin | Format: MP3 Download

Product Details

• Original Release Date: November 30, 1975
• Label: Rhino Atlantic
• Copyright: 1976 Atlantic Recording Corp.
• Genres: R&B/Soul
• ASIN: B00123G6Z2
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Cd but what happened to the Movie Versions?, February 3, 2006

By 

Dancin Boy "Dancin Boy" (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sparkle: Music From The Warner Bros. Motion Picture (Audio CD)

This Cd Cover brings back so many 70's memories. I was too young to feel the Impact of Aretha Franklin. On the other hand Irene Cara coming off of the Electric Company and Aaron Loves Angela made a large impact on me. She was black ( I thought then) and she was a teenage actress with a promising career. I wasn't able to see Sparkle in the theater when it was released due to the ratings but i was very excited to hear the soundtrack. When my mom bought it home without me asking for it i should have known something was wrong. The whole score was recorded with Aretha singing the songs. I did see the Movie and all the other background parts didn't change. These were great soul funk songs pre-disco. Jump was a New York Club hit at the time and was played by Larry Levan at the Paradise Garage. If the album had come out now there would have been 1 cd called the score of the movie and there would have been Aretha Franklin sings The Songs Of Sparkle. Aretha did an awesome job or re interpreting these songs from the movie but she also made each song her own. The Lonette Mckee and Irene Cara versions were just as beautifully sung and due to the story line as well as the directing each songs reminds you of a point in the movie when the song was sung. I do agree Precious Lord was a powerful moment in the movie and it gives me chills when i see it.
This is 70's soul as it was not Neo not Disco. Curtis Mayfield at his peak right after Superfly doing his soul thing and Aretha still trying to keep up with the times at this point with an incredible vocal.
To satisfy my need for " The Original" i hooked up my VCR to my CD Burner through a mixer and made a nice Mono mix for myself and a few of my friends who are also fans of the movie. Amazingly this movie plays most of the songs all the way through without dialogue or cutting.
I wonder what it would take to put out the alternate takes. This movie was set to be remade but nothing has happened. To hear both Arethas and actual Movie versions would be a treat for the ears. Aretha sings but so does Lonette and Irene!

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Aretha and Curtis, August 22, 2002

By 

MICHAEL ACUNA (Southern California United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sparkle: Music From The Warner Bros. Motion Picture (Audio CD)

By the time, the later 1970's, that this album was released, Aretha Franklin's artistic reputation was at a lowpoint. But in conjunction with Curtis Mayfield, who wrote the songs and produced this LP, Aretha proved once again that there is no one singing then or now that can sell a song as well as she.
In fact, is there anyone singing now who sounds like Aretha? Who has such a powerful and glorious voice? Maybe...just maybe Whitney comes closest.
Listen to how Aretha scats and improvises in and out of the melodies here...it's true artistry. And she does it all with such ease, such conviction.
"Sparkle" was a Supremes-like Cinderella success story set in the 1950's and it was very effective, I think in reproducing an era and a rags-to-riches story. But the songs. Wow. I remember upon viewing the tape...thinking that these songs were first rate and so evocative of the 1950's yet so modern. Well, it's 25 years later and I have to say the same thing...these songs are still so fresh and modern and Aretha sings the hell out of them.
Curtis Mayfield was considered a genius among those in the know. And he proves it once again here. First by writing and arranging these songs and secondly for having Aretha sing them in this beautifully produced, gloriously sung CD.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars WHAT HAPPEN TO THE SPARKLE, July 6, 2006

By 

Dwight Delarge - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sparkle: Music From The Warner Bros. Motion Picture (Audio CD)

I am not 100% sure, but at the time of the release of Sparkle, and upon its success, many whom has seen the movie screamed for
the Original Soundtrack. However it was rumored more than once
that Lonette McGee was signed to a small independent record company at the time, and they would not allow any recordings
to be released without them (record company) obtaining some monatary gains. Curtis Mayfield said no, and Wha-la, Aretha Franklin was chosen to sing on the album. Yes I know she is
the Queen of Soul, but I always thought Original Soundtrack means the Original Songs, people whom sung them, and music exactly as it sounds in the motion picture. Anything else is
an re-enactment. I like and R-E-S-P-E-C-T Aretha, but give
me Lonette on this one.