Luther Vandross accelerated Aretha’s status on the charts with Jump To It. While Luther also picked the tempo up with the album’s title track he gave her some material to kick back, drop the top, and cruise over. “If She Don’t Want Your Lovin’” is a laid back, chill cut, spearheaded by the plucking of the bass guitar, surrounded by a wall of background vocals at key moments, piano right below, and punctuated by nuanced horns and strings. It propels Aretha into the current 80’s R&B sounds by making the bass the focal point and giving the guitar it’s groove, but it highlights the piano and percussion instead, allowing it to double for an old school cut. It’s a steady groove, perfect for cruising with the top down on a breezy day.
Lyrically, Aretha cruises into the position of the mature woman with her sights set on a taken man involved with a clearly less than impressive younger woman. She suggests “why don’t you back up off that girl and give her some room? Cause I’m the whip baby” and “show you what to do with a real woman”. She even directs her dismissals directly towards the younger woman, half-rapping, “move over, get out the way, get lost… gimme some room”. During the fade out she even goes as far as to suggest that “if she don’t like that, tell her come see Sugar Ray Aretha”. Aretha was READY to fight.
Hear Aretha encourage a team-change on “If She Don’t Want Your Lovin’”:
365 Days of Aretha Franklin 