Aretha Franklin

Songwriter: Jean Claude Lucchetti Herbert Kretzmer Claude-Michel Schönberg Alain Boublil

Producer: David Conley

[Intro]
I had a dream

[Verse]
I had a dream of days gone by
When hopes were high
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
And then I dreamed that God would be forgiving
That I was young and I was unafraid
And dreams were made and used and tasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung, nothing was wasted

[Bridge]
Then the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your dreams apart
As they turn your dreams
To shame, shame, shame, shame

He walked the summer
He walked the summer by my side
He filled my days with endless wonder
He took my childhood in his stride
Oh, but he was gone when autumn came
Oh yes he was

[Outro]
And still I dream
I stand right here and dream he'll come to me
ANd then we will, then we will
Then we will live this life together
But there are dreams that cannot
That cannot, that cannot be
And there, there are storms that we cannot weather
I had a dream, had a dream
Listen, world, I had a dream
That life would be so different, so different
Whatever happened to it? Oh, the dream, yeah
So different from what it seems to be
Life will not kill the dream
That I dream, uh uh, no no, no no
So different from what it seems to be
Life must not kill the dream
That we dream, oh, oh, oh no

Aretha Franklin is both a 20th and 21st century musical and cultural icon known simply by her first Aretha. She is the reigning and undisputed “Queen Of Soul” with a legacy that spans five decades. A native of Detroit, Michigan, Aretha began her career singing gospel at her father, minister C. L. Franklin’s church as a child. In 1960, at the age of 18, Aretha embarked on a secular career, recording for Columbia Records with modest success.

After moving to Atlantic Records in 1967, she released a steady string of US top ten hits through 1973 including “Spanish Harlem”, “Chain Of Fools”, “Baby I Love You”, “Since You’ve Been Gone”, “Daydreaming”, “The House That Jack Built”, “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman", ”Think“ and her first chart-topper “Respect” – a song that also won Aretha her first of 18 Grammys. During this time, several of her songs were also successful overseas.

By the mid-70s, Aretha’s commercial success waned and she left Atlantic for Clive Davis' Arista Records in 1980. Her 1982 song “Jump to It,” returned her to the top 40 for the first time in six years. 1985’s Who’s Zoomin' Who? got her back into the top 10 twice with its title track and “Freeway Of Love”. Four more songs reached the top 40 through 1986.

more tracks from the album

Greatest Hits 1980-1994

From the albums

What You See Is What You Sweat (1991)
Greatest Hits 1980-1994 (1994)

Aretha Franklin popular songs

I Dreamed A DreamAretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin

Greatest Hits 1980-1994