Aretha Franklin still gets 'Respect' from music lovers after nearly 30 years

Jet, Oct 7, 1996 by Clarence Waldron

New singer Montell Jordan, whose big hit is the party tune This Is How We Do It, and a Brazilian group, Christiane Callil and The Girls From Ipanema, performed for Ms. Franklin at a recent private black tie gala she hosted to kick off the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

"I love that," she says of Jordan's hit. It's a great party record."

She plays all kinds of music at home, she reveals. "I play a lot of classical music. I still play a lot of funk. I love Brandy's new song, Sittin' Up In My Room. I like that a lot. I like a number of things on the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack, particularly the one that I did," she laughs. And the one that Patti did and the one that Whitney and CeCe did. I really love those. I think they were beautifully written and beautifully constructed musically. I love R. Kelly, Mary J. Blige; there are a lot of artists that I like today."

Asked to sum up the secret of her long, celebrated career, the down-to-earth soul queen says, "I think my love for music, great fans and companies like Johnson Publishing that let people know what I am doing, my appearances and projects."