Aretha Franklin is #1 on the Billboard Hot Gospel Songs Chart

The late soul music icon Aretha Franklin hits #1 on Billboard's Hot Gospel Songs with "Never Gonna Break My Faith" featuring the Boys Choir of Harlem. What this means is that the Grammy Award-winning song has secured Franklin's legacy with no. 1 hits in every decade since the 1960s.

The song was released with a new music video on June 19 (above) with images showing protests from the Civil Rights era to today as masses hit the streets during a global pandemic in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in response to the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

"My Lord, won't you help them to understand when someone takes the life of an innocent man well they've never really won, cuz all they've really done is set the soul free - where it's supposed to be," she sings.

Co-written by award-winning singer/songwriter Bryan Adams, the Grammy Award winning song was originally released as a duet with Mary J. Blige for the 2006 film Bobby. Over a decade later, the song's lyrics are as urgent and poignant as ever. Click here to listen. See lyrics below.

Clive Davis, Sony Music's Chief Creative Officer and longtime friend/producer of Ms. Franklin states, "The world is very different now. Change is everywhere and each of us, hopefully, is doing the best he or she can to move forward and make change as positive as possible. Music can play a major role here and Aretha's performance is chilling. When you read the song's lyric, and its relevance to what is happening today, it will shake every fiber in your body. Everyone should hear this record. It deserves to be an anthem."

"When I wrote this song, I was channeling Aretha, never thinking that she'd ever actually sing the song," says Adams. "The thought was to write a hymn, something that would try and articulate the feeling of faith, and that even though you might have lost something, there would always be an inner light to guide you. When the song was demo'd, I told the producers that Aretha would be the one to sing this - and sing it she did. This solo version has been sitting on my computer for years, and when I heard Clive was making a film on Aretha's life, I sent this version to him. The world hasn't heard her full performance and it really needed to be heard. I'm so glad it's being released, the world needs this right now."

 

 

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