Young, Gifted and Black is the eighteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Aretha Franklin, released in early 1972, by Atlantic Records. The album reached #2 on Billboards R&B albums survey and peaked at #11 on the main album chart. It was quickly certified Gold by the RIAA. Its title was cut from "To Be Young, Gifted and Black", recorded and released by Nina Simone in 1969.
Franklin won a 1972 Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.
In 2003, the television network VH1 named it the 76th greatest album of all time. In 2020, it was ranked number 388 by Rolling Stone in their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Songs
Young, Gifted and Black contains original songs written and performed by Franklin, such as "Day Dreaming" and "Rock Steady". It also features cover versions of songs by other artists, including "To Be Young, Gifted and Black" by Nina Simone, as well as "I've Been Loving You Too Long" by Otis Redding, "The Long and Winding Road" by the Beatles, and "Border Song (Holy Moses)" by Elton John.
Critical reception
Jason Birchmeier of AllMusic wrote that "Young, Gifted and Black certainly ranks highly among [Franklin's] studio efforts, with many arguing that it may be her greatest. [...] If you really want to go song by song, you'd be hard-pressed to find any throwaways here — this is quite honestly an album that merits play from beginning to end".
Track listing
Personnel
- Aretha Franklin – lead vocals (all tracks), acoustic piano (1–4, 6, 8–12), celesta (5), Fender Rhodes electric piano (7)
- Hugh McCracken – guitar (1, 6)
- Cornell Dupree – guitar (2–5, 7–12)
- Don Arnone – acoustic guitar (2)
- Donny Hathaway – Hammond organ (1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9), Fender Rhodes electric piano (2)
- Billy Preston – Hammond organ (4, 10, 12)
- Eric Gale – bass guitar (1, 6)
- Chuck Rainey – bass guitar (2–5, 7, 9–12)
- Robert Popwell – bass guitar (8), percussion (3)
- Al Jackson Jr. – drums (1, 6)
- Bernard Purdie – drums (2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 11)
- Ray Lucas – drums (4, 10, 12)
- Dr. John – percussion (3)
- The Memphis Horns – horns (3, 8)
- Neal Rosengarden – trumpet (9), vibraphone (5)
- Hubert Laws – flute (2, 7, 11)
- Pat Smith – backing vocals (2, 3, 5, 7–9, 11)
- Carolyn Franklin – backing vocals (2, 3, 5, 8–10)
- Erma Franklin – backing vocals (2, 3, 5, 8–10)
- Margaret Branch – backing vocals (2, 3, 5, 7–11)
- Ann S. Clark – backing vocals (2, 3, 5, 7–9, 11)
- The Sweet Inspirations – backing vocals (1, 4, 6, 12)
- Ronald Bright – backing vocals (12)
- J. R. Bailey – backing vocals (12)
- Sammy Turner – backing vocals (12)
Production
Day Dreaming, Rock Steady, All The Kings Horses, I've Been Loving You Too Long, First Snow In Kokomo were recorded at Criteria Studios in Miami, Florida.
Recording Engineers: Ron Albert and Howard Albert, and Chuck Kirkpatrick.
Produced by Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd and Arif Mardin
Chart positions
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
! Chart (1972)
! Peak<br>position
|-
|-
|}
Singles
{| class="wikitable"
! Year
! Title
! <small>US Pop</small>
! <small>US R&B</small>
|-
| 1970
| "Border Song (Holy Moses)"
| align="center"|37
| align="center"|5
|-
| 1971
| "Rock Steady"
| align="center"|9
| align="center"|2
|-
| 1972
| "All the King's Horses"
| align="center"|26
| align="center"|7
|-
| 1972
| "Day Dreaming"
| align="center"|5
| align="center"|1
|-
| 1972
| "Oh Me Oh My (I'm a Fool for You Baby)"
| align="center"|73
| align="center"|9
|}