Aretha Franklin ~ Until You Come Back To Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do) 1974 Soul Purrfection Version

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I have such wonderful memories of turning on the FM radio in the morning and there she was, Aretha singing this song and waking me up in the best way possible. She put the sunshine in my mornings when I was in grade 7 near the end of November and the walk to parochial school was like walking on a cloud. I loved it right from the piano opening that Aretha played I was going to love it and I still do.

Stevie Wonder had composed and recorded "Until You Come Back To Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do)" in 1967. He had just released the stellar "Innervisions" in 1973 just before almost getting killed in a well documented incident where a logging truck lost its load into the vehicle Stevie was in while on his way to another tour date.

Aretha wanted to work with Stevie, so he played "Until You Come Back To Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do)" for her and she recorded her version on September 7, 1973. It was the only song she recorded that day in the Atlantic's Manhattan studio. Aretha herself played the melancholy piano on the intro and she was supported by the best in the business, Hugh McCracken on guitar, Donny Hathaway on electric piano, Richard Tee on organ, Chuck Rainey on bass, Bernard Purdie on drums and Ken Bichel on synthesizer.

Background vocals were provided by Ann Clark, Pat Smith and Margaret Branch giving the song a gospel taste. Arif Mardin sharpened the mix by adding strings, horns and a flute solo. The song topped the R&B chart for one week and clinched the deal to re-sign Aretha to Atlantic Records.

Daydreaming is my absolute favorite Aretha song and this one is second. When I hear her sing these I get still get goosebumps. This one was a perfect choice for remix, a little off beat but endearing, she sounds soooo like a woman in love in both. I always thought she should have covered Wild Cherry's "Play That Funky Music". Who knows, maybe one day I will learn how to AI a performance of her doing that. If they can create Val Kilmer's voice with AI for film dialog that means experimenting with creating new performances from vocalists cannot be far away. That blows my mind.