MUSIC

tour with him in Mexico, and I did local stu with him here in Chicago. The last album that he did, Mighty Earthquake and Hurricane, I’m singing background on it.

I spent like 22 to 24 years singing with Aretha Franklin. Diane Madison and I used to sing with a gentleman named Billy Always. He had sung with Aretha for years and had known her all of his life. He called me and asked if me and Diane wanted to work with him singing background for Aretha. I said yes immediately. So I called Diane and told her. I didn’t even ask Diane—I told Diane we were going to be singing background for Aretha. [Laughs.]

She was a great employer. She always flew us out first class. When Diane and I first got the job, Billy had a talk with us. He told us she would sing and bring chills through our bodies, but we had to focus. There’s one tune she would sing regularly, “It Hurts Like Hell,” and at the end of the song I’d be in tears. I couldn’t help myself.

One thing about Aretha, her ear would change. She would use three di erent groups. She had the Chicago group, which I was a part of. Then she would have the Detroit group with her cousin Brenda Corbett. Then she would use the New York singers, which were some of Luther Vandross’s singers, like Fonzi Thornton. So she would switch up, depending on her ear. Everytime I would get that call, I’d say I was being invited back into the Queen’s court. She and I bonded over old movies. She loved the classics and so do I, so we started sharing movies. Whenever I hear an Aretha Franklin song, I always pause and remember.

I have toured with Angela Bofill, Vesta Wil- liams, Miki Howard, and Phil Perry. Since the pandemic, it’s been more studio work than live work. Nanette Frank, Diane Madison, and I just did Mississippi Heat’s last CD and Billy Branch’s last CD.

I can sing lead, but I’ve always gravitated to background singing. That is my joy. It’s a di erent discipline. A lot of really great solo singers can’t do background singing. You can’t do background singing like you do lead singing. You have to be part of the ensemble. You have to be able to blend in.

I just love interacting with other singers and singing harmony. I just love it.

Nanette Frank

Music chose me. My father was a great guitarist. All of my siblings sang. There were nine of us, so we had little groups within the family. [Laughs.] I didn’t do much singing in grammar school, because I was really really shy. Painfully shy.

I started out doing radio and television commercials. Jingles. The first commercial I did was a Green Giant commercial. I started getting hired by some of the biggest ad agencies in the world, not just the city. I had the longest-running jingle, “Always Coca-Cola,” in the history of the company. I had a Crest commercial that was very big for me. I did the Donnie’s Super Curl commercial, a really big product back when everybody was wearing Jheri curls. I did the voice-overs for three other commercials for that company.

The background singing happened because one of the girls said, “Nanette can sing.” At P.S.

Studios we worked with producer Tom Tom Washington. We sang with so many people. That’s how I got the Miki Howard gig. We toured with her. I’m on several of her recordings. She knew I was a lead singer and said I just can’t stay in the background. She’s credited with exposing me to a larger audience. I worked with Angela Bofill. I arranged several records for her, back in the day. I worked with Vesta [Williams], and I also did some Martha Wash stu here too.

I did a lot of blues recordings. Big Twist & the Mellow Fellows. We did the background on their record “Just One Woman.” That was me and Robin Robinson. I did the Blues Shock album for Billy Branch with Diane Madison and Mae Koen. We did several recordings with Mississippi Heat.

I’ve toured with Miki Howard, Stanley Clark, Herbie Hancock, Alex Bugnon, the Jazz Crusaders, and Jon Lucien. When I met Diane Madison and Mae Koen, we were in a group called Panama. We all had that thing, but somehow Diane, Mae, and I had that thing that sounded like one. So we went on to work with Angela Bofill, Billy Branch, and others. Our section is called Nadima. The first two letters of our names.

A lot of great singers came out of Israel Torres’s group Panama: Ellen Samuels, Shay Jones, Shawn Christopher, Suzanne Palmer, and Joanie Pallatto. Darryl Jones, who plays bass with the Rolling Stones, was in Panama. What’s cool about it is we were able to bond for life. We’re still friends. We still talk and do things with each other. Shawn and I did, about two years ago, background for Linda Cli ord.