Ken Tucker
speaker
453 appearances
27 recordings
1 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard 17 Sep
Ken Tucker’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 15 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 3.
Appearances
For me, Sparkle's High Point is Mayfield's five minute production of Hooked on Your Love.
It begins as a smooth, medium tempo tune, with Aretha's vocal gliding atop a glittering string section, and backup vocals by the Kitty Haywood singers.
Then, deeper into it, Franklin gives a demonstration of the song's title, How Being Hooked, Addicted to Love, Becomes an Intense Craving.
Aretha's gospel-rooted, passionate shouting turns out to be the perfect way to convey this ecstatic obsession.
Aretha gives another fantastic performance on the album's first single, a moody, sexy number called Something He Can Feel.
The song went to number one on the R and B chart, but stalled at twenty eight on the Billboard Pop Chart.
The album itself barely cracked the top twenty, and only briefly at that.
This is what I mean about Sparkle being such an underrated achievement for both Franklin and Mayfield.
As I said earlier, Sparkle wasn't a smash in 1976, but it developed an intense cult following that has reverberations.
I don't think it's a coincidence, for instance, that Dream Girls, a far bigger success in nineteen eighty one, bears a striking resemblance to Sparkle.
Sparkle was remade in twenty twelve starring Jordan Sparks and Whitney Houston, and was a modest hit.
But the collaboration between Aretha Franklin and Curtis Mayfield transcends the movie.
It stands on its own as a rich, risk taking collection that deserves a reevaluation in twentieth century pop music history.
I'm Jesse Thorne.
This week on Bullseye, I'll talk with the creators of the beloved game show Taskmaster.
We will also talk about how in the United Kingdom, there is another show called Bullseye.
Did you know that?
There used to be a show in the UK that had a thick drunk man on it and nothing else.
That's on Bullseye.
Find us in the NPR app at MaximumFun.org or wherever you get your podcasts.
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