Day Dreaming (Aretha Franklin song)
| "Day Dreaming" | |
|---|---|
| Song | |
| B-side | "I've Been Loving You Too Long" |
"Day Dreaming" is a soul single by American singer Aretha Franklin. Released from her album Young, Gifted and Black, it spent two weeks at the top of the Hot Soul Singles chart in April 1972 and peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 11 on the Easy Listening singles chart.[1] Billboard ranked it as the No. 61 song for 1972.[2]
Donny Hathaway plays electric piano on the single. Hubert Laws plays the flute on the single. The single version omits the jazzy daydreaming like music, heard in the beginning and the ending of the song, where even the vocals sounded too psychedelic for most radio airplay. It had been rumoured the song is about Temptations' singer Dennis Edwards, which Aretha confirmed in 1999 on The Oprah Winfrey Show.[3] It would be her twelfth number-one soul single while at Atlantic Records and sold more than one million copies.
Cover versions
The song has been covered by Mary J. Blige, Will Downing, Penny Ford, Michel'le, Corinne Bailey Rae, Tamia, Tweet and Japanese singer Ua. Rapper T.I.'s "Let's Get Away" sampled the song on 2003's Trap Muzik, which was his final single from the album. Rapper Cam'Ron interpolated and covered the song in his single "Daydreaming" from Come Home with Me.
On August 1, 2006, American singer Natalie Cole released her version of "Day Dreaming" as a single from her 12th studio album Leavin'.[4] A video accompanying the sing was directed by Doug Biro, and features Cole singing with her band in front of a white background.[5] The cover earned Cole a nomination at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, but she lost to Mary J. Blige for her 2005 single "Be Without You".[6] Cole said she "added a little bit of a hip-hop feel" to her interpretation of the song.[7] Cole performed "Day Dreaming" at the BET special An Evening of Stars: Tribute to Aretha Franklin along with an arrangement of Franklin's 1970 single "Call Me".[8]
References
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 215.
- ^ Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1972
- ^ "Aretha Franklin talking about Dennis Edwards".
- ^ "Day Dreaming". Verve Records. Archived from the original on December 4, 2013.
- ^ "Day Dreaming". Amazon.com. December 19, 2006. Archived from the original on November 21, 2016.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ "Complete list of Grammy nominees". San Francisco Chronicle. Hearst Corporation. December 8, 2006. p. 3. Archived from the original on February 2, 2013.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ "A New Direction for Natalie Cole". WBUR-FM. Boston University. December 12, 2012. Archived from the original on November 21, 2016.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ Horvitz, Louis J. (Director) (January 27, 2007). An Evening of Stars: Tribute to Aretha Franklin (TV special). United States: Black Entertainment Television (BET).
