''La Diva'' is the twenty-fifth studio album by American singer Aretha Franklin, released on September 6, 1979, by Atlantic Records. The album marked the end of her 12-year tenure with Atlantic and a run of 19 original albums. The album was a commercial flop as the singer attempted to make a comeback by recording a disco-oriented project with producer

Van McCoy Van Allen Clinton McCoy (January 6, 1940 – July 6, 1979) was an American musician, record producer, arranger, songwriter, singer and orchestra conductor. He is known for his 1975 internationally successful song " The Hustle". He has approximat ...

. It was McCoy's final work as he died in June of that year; the record was released as disco was running its course. It stands as the lowest charting and poorest selling album of Franklin's entire Atlantic Records catalogue. "Ladies Only" reached number 33 on '' Billboard''s R&B singles chart while the follow-up, "Half A Love", stalled at number 65. This album was recorded at Franklin's vocal peak and features three of her own compositions, as well as a song by her eldest son Clarence Franklin. Although remembered as Franklin's failed disco LP, ''La Diva'' also includes substantial funk and R&B tracks such as

The Emotions ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

' "Reasons Why", Zulema's "Half a Love" and scorching versions of Lalome Washburn's "It's Gonna Get A Bit Better" and her own "Honey I Need Your Love."

Track listing

Side one

#"Ladies Only" (Aretha Franklin) – 5:15 #"It's Gonna Get a Bit Better" (Lalome Washburn) – 5:20 #"What If I Should Ever Need You" ( Charles H. Kipps) – 3:32 #"Honey I Need Your Love" (Aretha Franklin) – 2:45 #"I Was Made for You" (Clarence Franklin) – 4:03

Side two

#"Only Star" (Aretha Franklin) – 5:04 #"Reasons Why" (

Skip Scarborough Clarence Alexander "Skip" Scarborough (November 26, 1944 – July 3, 2003) was an American songwriter, best known for romantic ballads. Biography Scarborough was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He lived in Los Angeles most of his life. He died o ...

, Wanda Hutchinson, Wayne Vaughan) – 3:55 #"You Brought Me Back to Life" (

) – 4:24 #"Half a Love" ( Zulema Cusseaux) – 5:25 #"The Feeling" (Van McCoy) – 4:45

Personnel

Musicians * Aretha Franklin – lead and backing vocals, rhythm arrangements (4) *

– keyboards, backing vocals, rhythm arrangements (1, 3–5, 8, 10) *

Kenneth Ascher Kenneth Lee Ascher (born October 26, 1944 in Washington, D.C.) is an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger who is active in jazz, rock, classical, and musical theater genres — in live venues, recording studios, and cinema productio ...

Richard Tee Richard Edward Tee (born Richard Edward Ten Ryk; November 24, 1943 – July 21, 1993) was an American pianist, studio musician, singer and arranger, who had several hundred studio credits and played on such notable hits as "In Your Eyes", " Sl ...

, Paul Griffin – keyboards *

Ken Bichel Ken Bichel is an American actor, composer, conductor, pianist, and synthesizer musician. Musical career Bichel attended the Juilliard School where he graduated with a master's degree in piano performance in 1969. While at Juilliard he met Gersh ...

– synthesizer,

orchestra bells The glockenspiel ( or , : bells and : set) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the vibraphone. The gloc ...

* Jack Cavari,

Cornell Dupree Cornell Luther Dupree (December 19, 1942 – May 8, 2011) was an American jazz and R&B guitarist. He worked at various times with Aretha Franklin, Bill Withers, Donny Hathaway, King Curtis and Steve Gadd, appeared on David Letterman,

, Tom Hanlon – guitar * Brian Aslop,

Gordon Edwards Gordon Edwards is a Canadian scientist and nuclear consultant. Edwards was born in Canada in 1940, and graduated from the University of Toronto in 1961 with a gold medal in Mathematics and Physics and a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship. At the Unive ...

– bass guitar * Chris Parker – drums * Errol "Crusher" Bennett, George Devens – percussion * Richard Gibbs – rhythm arrangements (2) * Arthur Jenkins – rhythm arrangements (6) *

– rhythm arrangements (7) *

Gene Orloff Gene Orloff (June 14, 1921 – March 23, 2009) was an American violinist, concertmaster, arranger, contractor and session musician. Background The son of a Russian immigrant violin maker, Orloff would try and get his father's violin down from the ...

– conductor * Albert Bailey – backing vocals * Sharon Brown – backing vocals * Zulema Cusseaux – backing vocals, rhythm arrangements (9) * Diane Destry – backing vocals *

Carolyn Franklin Carolyn Ann Franklin (May 13, 1944 – April 25, 1988) was an American singer-songwriter. Besides her own musical success, Franklin was best known as the daughter of prominent Detroit preacher and civil rights activist C. L. Franklin and the youn ...

– backing vocals * Richard Harris – background vocals * Brenda Hilliard – backing vocals * Jerome Jackson – backing vocals * Pete Marshall – backing vocals * Pat Williamson – backing vocals Production *Producers – Charles Kipps and Van McCoy (Tracks 1–3, 5, 6, 8–10); Aretha Franklin (Track 4); Skip Scarborough (Track 7) *Engineers – Lee Decarlo and Alan Varner *Assistant engineers – Rick Delana, Brian Marine and John Terrell *Mastered by George Piros at

Atlantic Studios Atlantic Studios was the recording studio of Atlantic Records. Although this recording studio was located at 1841 Broadway (at the corner of 60th Street), in New York City, Atlantic Recording Studios was initially located at 234 West 56th Street fr ...

(New York, NY)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Diva Aretha Franklin albums 1979 albums Atlantic Records albums Disco albums by American artists