A Rose Is Still A Rose
Encyclopedia
A Rose is Still a Rose is the thirty-sixth studio album by American recording artist Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...

. Released in 1998, it resulted in the singer's best critically acclaimed and best-selling album of the nineties and her first gold-certified album in twelve years.

Background

By 1997, Aretha Franklin hadn't recorded a studio album in six years following the release of 1991's ill-fated What You See Is What You Sweat. Franklin remained active providing songs on soundtracks of films such as Malcolm X
Malcolm X (film)
Malcolm X is a 1992 biographical motion picture about the Muslim-American figure Malcolm X . It was co-written, co-produced, and directed by Spike Lee. It stars Denzel Washington as the titular character. It co-stars Angela Bassett, Albert Hall, Al Freeman, Jr., and Delroy Lindo...

, Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit
Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit
Sister Act 2: Back In The Habit is a 1993 comedy film starring Whoopi Goldberg. Directed by Bill Duke, and released by Touchstone Pictures, it is the sequel to the successful 1992 film Sister Act...

and Waiting to Exhale
Waiting to Exhale (soundtrack)
Upon release, Waiting to Exhale Soundtrack received critical acclaim. Stephen Holden and Jon Pareles of the New York Times praised Babyface's ability as composer and producer, both choosing the album as one of the top 10 albums of 1995...

. Franklin also released her first greatest-hits album of her Arista
Arista Records
Arista was an American record label. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment and operated under the RCA Music Group. The label was founded in 1974 by Clive Davis, who formerly worked for CBS Records...

 tenure in 1994, which included two new singles produced by Babyface including the top 40 hit, "Willing to Forgive". In the meantime, word reached that Franklin was working with younger producers trying to reconnect with a new audience that had advanced to embrace neo soul
Neo soul
The term neo soul was originally coined by Kedar Massenburg of Motown Records in the late 1990s as a marketing category following the commercial breakthroughs of artists such as D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, and Maxwell...

 and hip hop soul
Hip hop soul
Hip hop soul is sub-genre of contemporary R&B which fuses R&B, neo soul and dance elements with hip hop. The term did not originate until the promotion for Mary J. Blige's debut album What's the 411? in 1992 when Uptown Records proclaimed her to be the "Queen of Hip Hop Soul" and generally...

 artists such as Mary J. Blige
Mary J. Blige
Mary Jane Blige is an American singer-songwriter, record producer and occasional actress. She is a recipient of nine Grammy Awards and four American Music Awards, and has recorded eight multi-platinum albums. She is the only artist with Grammy Award wins in Pop, Rap, Gospel, and R&B. Blige has...

, Erykah Badu
Erykah Badu
Erica Abi Wright , better known by her stage name Erykah Badu , is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. Her work includes elements from R&B, hip hop and jazz. She is best known for her role in the rise of the neo soul sub-genre, and for her eccentric, cerebral musical...

 and The Fugees
The Fugees
Fugees were a Haitian American hip hop group who rose to fame in the mid-1990s. Their repertoire included elements of Hip hop, soul and Caribbean music, particularly reggae. The members of the group were rapper/singer/producer Wyclef Jean, rapper/singer/producer Lauryn Hill, and rapper Pras Michel...

. When reports began emerging that Franklin's new album would include Sean "Puffy" Combs
Sean Combs
Sean John Combs , also known by his stage names Diddy and P. Diddy, is an American rapper, singer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. He has won three Grammy Awards and two MTV Video Music Awards, and his clothing line earned a Council of Fashion Designers of America award. He was originally...

, Jermaine Dupri
Jermaine Dupri
Jermaine Dupri Mauldin , known as Jermaine Dupri or JD, is an American record producer, songwriter and rapper.- Early life and career :...

 and The Fugees' Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Noelle Hill is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress.Early in her career, she established her reputation as a member of the Fugees. In 1998, she launched her solo career with the release of the commercially successful and critically acclaimed album, The Miseducation of...

, fans and critics each gave the moves mixed reviews not knowing what to expect from the collaborations since the last attempts to modernize Franklin's classic soul sound with the current scene met with mixed results – her last hit album was 1986's Aretha
Aretha (1986 album)
Aretha is an Aretha Franklin album, originally released in 1986. This is the third album with this title to be released by the artist. Other Franklin albums titled Aretha were also released in 1980 and 1961....

.

Release and reception

Prior to releasing the album's first single, Franklin made headlines for two stand-out performances at the Grammy Awards in February 1998. The first was her 1967 classic, "Respect
Respect (song)
"Respect" is a song written and originally released by Stax recording artist Otis Redding in 1965. "Respect" became a 1967 hit and signature song for R&B singer Aretha Franklin. The music in the two versions is significantly different, and through a few minor changes in the lyrics, the stories told...

", which she sang in a renewed version inspired by her role in the sequel to The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers are an American blues and soul revivalist band founded in 1978 by comedy actors Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as part of a musical sketch on Saturday Night Live...

, she later present a Grammy. Minutes later, just seconds before Luciano Pavarotti
Luciano Pavarotti
right|thumb|Luciano Pavarotti performing at the opening of the Constantine Palace in [[Strelna]], 31 May 2003. The concert was part of the celebrations for the 300th anniversary of [[St...

 was to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award, Pavarotti called in sick. Struggling to find a replacement, Franklin opted to fill in as she had sung for Pavarotti weeks earlier. Franklin later said it took thirty minutes to get prepared for the performance and the singer admitted having fright over how the performance would go. Franklin's worries were unfounded when she performed "Nessun Dorma
Nessun dorma
Nessun dorma is an aria from the final act of Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot, and is one of the best-known tenor arias in all opera. It is sung by Calaf, il principe ignoto , who falls in love at first sight with the beautiful but cold Princess Turandot...

" in Pavarotti's musical key. Her performance won a standing ovation.

Shortly after the Grammy performance, the title track was quietly issued to radio stations in the late winter of 1998. The title track was produced by Hill, who also provided background vocals. The song's lyrics focused on a wiser woman giving advice to a younger woman going through relationship problems and self-identity issues. With a modern soul production by Hill and a vocally rejuvenated Franklin, who began singing in her higher register again after years of singing in lower registers due to declining vocals brought on by years of chain smoking
Chain smoking
Chain smoking is the practice of lighting a new cigarette for personal consumption immediately after one that is finished, sometimes using the finished cigarette to light the next one. It is a common form of addiction.-Causes:...

, the song also was given its own video, which gained heavy rotation on BET
Bet
Bet or BET may refer to:* A wager in gambling* Basic Economics Test * Bet , the second letter in many Semitic alphabets, including Aramaic, Hebrew, Phoenician and Syriac* Brunauer-Emmett-Teller isotherm. See BET_theory...

. The video featured not only Hill but other modern female soul artists, who were admittedly influenced by Franklin including Faith Evans
Faith Evans
Faith Renée Evans is an American singer-songwriter, recording artist, record producer, actress and author. Born in Florida and raised in New Jersey, Evans relocated to Los Angeles during 1993 for a career with the music business. After working as a backing vocalist for Al B...

. The single became a success upon its release and crossed over to pop radio where the song peaked at number twenty-six on the Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

 marking the forty-fifth top 40 hit of Franklin's long career. The album was issued in March of 1998, a month following Franklin's showstopping Grammy performance.

The album brought in a successful performance too peaking at number thirty on the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...

 and number seven on the R&B chart. Though the album failed to give Franklin any more hits – the follow-up "Here We Go Again" (produced by Jermaine Dupri) only did modestly peaking at number 76 on the Hot 100 and number 24 on the R&B chart, it still sold well enough to give Franklin her first gold album in twelve years.

Track listing

  1. "A Rose Is Still a Rose
    A Rose Is Still a Rose (song)
    "A Rose Is Still a Rose" is a 1998 single written and produced by Lauryn Hill and recorded and released by singer Aretha Franklin off the album of the same name. Written by Hill for Franklin, the song is feminist-based, focused on a motherly figure giving advice to a younger woman who keeps getting...

    " (Lauryn Hill
    Lauryn Hill
    Lauryn Noelle Hill is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress.Early in her career, she established her reputation as a member of the Fugees. In 1998, she launched her solo career with the release of the commercially successful and critically acclaimed album, The Miseducation of...

    )  – 4:27
  2. "Never Leave You Again" (Sean "Puffy" Combs, Kelly Price
    Kelly Price
    Kelly Price is an American R&B and soul singer, formerly on the Def Soul label.-Life and music career:Kelly Cherelle Price was born in Queens, New York. She was first discovered by Mariah Carey in February 1992 and subsequently introduced to Sony Columbia's then CEO Tommy Mottola...

    , Corey Rooney)  – 4:36
  3. "In Case You Forgot" (Bill Dickens
    Bill Dickens
    Bill "The Buddha" Dickens is an American electric bass guitar player.Dickens has played with a huge range of artists, including Pat Metheny, George Michael, Joe Zawinul, Janet Jackson, Grover Washington, Jr., Chaka Khan, Mary J...

    , Tim Gant, Michael Gray)  – 4:49
  4. "Here We Go Again" (Troy Lee Broussard, Jermaine Dupri
    Jermaine Dupri
    Jermaine Dupri Mauldin , known as Jermaine Dupri or JD, is an American record producer, songwriter and rapper.- Early life and career :...

    , Wayne Garfield, Trey Lorenz
    Trey Lorenz
    Trey Lorenz is an African American singer and songwriter. He was born in Florence, South Carolina and is a graduate of Wilson High School.-Biography:...

    , Mauro Malavasi, David Romani)  – 3:30
  5. "Every Little Bit Hurts" (Sam Cooke
    Sam Cooke
    Samuel Cook, , better known under the stage name Sam Cooke, was an American gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music. He is commonly known as the King of Soul for his distinctive vocal abilities and...

    , Jermaine Dupri, Manuel Seal, Jr.)  – 4:07
  6. "In the Morning" (Daryl Simmons)  – 4:56
  7. "I'll Dip" (Dallas Austin
    Dallas Austin
    Dallas Austin is an American songwriter, record producer, and musician, based in Atlanta, Georgia. Some of his most notable clients include Michael Jackson, TLC, Boyz II Men, Pink, Monica, Madonna, Gwen Stefani, Stacie Orrico, Another Bad Creation, Fishbone, Sugababes, Anastacia, Namie Amuro, Kim...

    )  – 4:06
  8. "How Many Times" (Greg Charley, David Foster, John Winston)  – 4:21
  9. "Watch My Back" (Norman West)  – 4:45
  10. "Love Pang" (Mira Waters, Nancy Wilson)  – 4:20
  11. "The Woman" (Franklin)  – 7:41
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