Think

Aretha Franklin's "Think" had the same kind of raucous energy and liberated women's subtext as her previous gold single, "Respect," though the women's lib movement was still years away. The driving number was recorded in April 1968 at Atlantic Records' New York recording studio. Producer Jerry Wexler used members of the Muscle Shoals rhythm section (Roger Hawkins, Spooner Oldham, Jimmy Johnson, Tommy Cogbill) as he'd done on Franklin's previous million-selling singles. Co-written by Franklin and her husband/manager Ted White and issued during the first weeks of May 1968, the million-selling "Think" stayed at number one R&B for three weeks, going to number seven pop in the summer of 1968. On the flipside was a swinging cover of the Sam Cooke classic "You Send Me," which broke the R&B Top 30 and mid-charted pop. Those tracks as well as the gold singles "See Saw" and "I Say a Little Prayer," her cover of the Dionne Warwick hit, and also "I Can't See Myself Leaving You" were included on her gold number one R&B (for 17 weeks) album Aretha Now. "Think" resurfaced when Franklin performed the song in the Dan Ackroyd/John Belushi movie The Blues Brothers.