Young, Gifted and Black (1972)

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 Billboard's 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".

In 2003, the television network VH1 named Young, Gifted and Black the 76th greatest album of all time. In 2020, the album was ranked number 388 by Rolling Stone in its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

In 2018, Rolling Stone writer Rob Sheffield praised Franklin's cover of "The Long and Winding Road" from the album as "the greatest of all Beatle covers — the one that improves most on the original and defines everything the song is about".

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