Singer Stevie Wonder has been recalling his last visit to see the singer Aretha Franklin who died, aged 76, on Thursday in Detroit, while Smokey Robinson and Elton John have individually remembered her immense talent.
"She wasn’t able to speak back, but her family felt that she could hear me, " Wonder declared on Friday, on the CBS programme, This Morning as he recalled his final visit.
"I told her to say hello to my sister that I lost this year as well," the singer said, fighting back the tears as he recalled the passing of Renee Hardaway in May.
"She did incredible music, incredible singer, " he told CBS, eulogising his friend, popularily known as the Queen of Soul. "She touched every genre. Every singer was influenced in some way by the way she sang. They will forever be influenced by her because of her voice, her emotion, her sincerity is unforgettable."
"I remember hearing her singing at the Reverend Franklin’s church when I was little — maybe I was 4 or 5 years old — because my mother would always listen to the church services on Sunday," Wonder recalled.
"And so the voices I remember most in my life would be Dr. King, her voice, and her father, Reverend Franklin."
"She was just consistently a great human being and she always — even with whatever turmoil that may have been happening in her life — she did not put that on anybody else. She believed most of all that she was doing God’s work," he said.
"She brought joy to a lot of lives and her voice and the essence of her will stay with all of us."
Smokey Robinson meanwhile has also paid tribute on CBS. Franklin and Robinson grew up together in a Detroit neighborhood that also gave us Diana Ross, the Temptations and the Four Tops.
"I talked to Aretha maybe five weeks ago or so and her plan was, she was gonna retire from doing performances, but she was always going to record," Robinson told CBS This Morning. "She said, ‘Smoke, I’m just not going to do any more dates, but I’m always going to record.'"
"It was always wonderful to do anything with Aretha. Aretha was, like I said, my ace. We were really, really close, and to do anything with her was a joy."
Franklin’s final public performance was at Elton John’s AIDS Foundation benefit in New York last November at whic she performed nine songs. Elton John introduced her as "The greatest singer of all time."
"The loss of Aretha Franklin is a blow for everybody who loves real music: music from the heart, the soul and the Church," declared Elton on hearing of her passing. "Her voice was unique, her piano playing underrated – she was one of my favourite pianists. I was fortunate enough to spend time with her and witness her last performance. She was obviously unwell, and I wasn’t sure she could perform. But Aretha did and she raised the roof. She sang and played magnificently, and we all wept."
