Aretha Franklin - Duets, Nederlander Theatre, New York City, 4-28-1993

By the 1990s, Aretha Franklin had fallen from her golden era (1960s and 1970s) when it came to new material, but her mighty voice was still strong. A problem was that she suffered production issues, due to trying to sound current. That wasn't nearly as much of a problem when it came to live performances. Here's a very interesting one, because it's chock-a-block with duets with other big name musicians.

This was a benefit concert done for AIDS research. It was broadcast on national TV in the US as "Duets." As such, it was professionally recorded, and the sound quality is excellent. It also means that things moved very quickly, to make the best use of every second of screen time. Typically, even before the clapping from one song had finished, someone started had started to introduce the next one. Apparently, in real time, the show lasted four hours, with big delays between songs and multiple retakes. But then things were edited down for an hour-long show.

However, I found a review of the concert at the time in the New York Times, which you can read here:

https://www.nytimes.com/1993/04/29/arts/review-pop-aretha-franklin-in-stellar-company-and-on-her-own.html

From that, it sounds like this contains all of the songs performed, or at least all of the good stuff. (There's mention of a song Franklin lip-synced to at the end, strangely enough.) According to that review, Franklin sang circles around nearly all of her star guests, and I agree.

Musically, she wisely stuck to doing her classic songs, avoiding any songs from her latest album at the time, "What You See Is What You Sweat" (which wasn't very good). She also did two Motown songs she'd never done before, "Just to See Her" and "This Old Heart of Mine."

This seems like the sort of thing that was designed for an official release, but I see no sign of that having ever happened. By the way, it's rather odd in my opinion (since I don't see a logical Aretha connection), but actor Robert De Niro introduced one of the songs. And actor Dustin Hoffman also was on stage, but whatever role he had must have been cut from this recording.

This album is 54 minutes long.

01 Chain of Fools (Aretha Franklin with Elton John, Smokey Robinson & Rod Stewart)
02 talk (Aretha Franklin & Elton John)
03 Border Song [Holy Moses] (Aretha Franklin & Elton John)
04 talk (Gloria Estefan)
05 Coming Out of the Dark (Aretha Franklin & Gloria Estefan)
06 talk (Smokey Robinson)
07 Just to See Her (Aretha Franklin & Smokey Robinson)
08 talk (Robert De Niro)
09 I Never Loved a Man [The Way I Love You] (Aretha Franklin)
10 Think (Aretha Franklin & P.M. Dawn)
11 talk (Bonnie Raitt)
12 Since You've Been Gone [Sweet Sweet Baby] (Aretha Franklin & Bonnie Raitt)
13 [You Make Me Feel Like] A Natural Woman (Aretha Franklin with Bonnie Raitt & Gloria Estefan)
14 talk (Rod Stewart)
15 This Old Heart of Mine (Aretha Franklin & Rod Stewart)
16 People Get Ready (Aretha Franklin & Rod Stewart)
17 Spirit in the Dark (Aretha Franklin & Elton John)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15289916/ArethaF_1993_DuetNederlandrTheatreNewYrkC__4-28-1993_atse.zip.html

The cover photo comes from this exact concert. Franklin is in front with her hand held up. Behind her, from left to right, is: Smokey Robinson, Gloria Estefan, Rod Stewart, and Bonnie Raitt. The font, including the colors, comes from one of her albums. I replicated that for the additional writing.