Aretha (1986 album)
Aretha is the thirty-first studio album by American singer Aretha Franklin, originally released on October 27, 1986 by Arista Records. It is the third album with the "Aretha" title to be released by Franklin, following her and 1980 album. Background. As with Franklin's previous album, "Who's Zoomin' Who?", "Aretha" was produced mainly by Narada Michael Walden and includes her duet with George Michael, "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)", which became Franklin's first #1 Pop single since "Respect" in 1967, and would also be her last. The album also yielded three other  hit singles: "Jimmy Lee", "Rock-A-Lott" and a hard rock cover of The Rolling Stones' classic, "Jumpin' Jack Flash". All music videos were extremely popular on MTV, BET and other video outlets. Franklin's vocal from "Rock-A-Lott" was sampled extensively in the 49ers' 1990 hit "Touch Me", while her version of "Jumpin' Jack Flash" was the title song for the comedy film of the same name starring Whoopi Goldberg. All four of the singles were shot as music videos that received extensive play. The album cover was Andy Warhol's final work before his death in early  1987. The album was remastered and re-released as an "Expanded Edition" in December 2014 by Funky Town Grooves, with bonus tracks and a second CD of material. Commercial performance. Following Franklin's first-ever Platinum record, "Who's Zoomin' Who?", "Aretha" was certified Gold by the RIAA, after only several weeks on the market, with no additional certification added. This marked Franklin's seventh Gold album.