Aretha Franklin brought at least three songs to the recording sessions for 1969’s misnomer LP Soul ‘69 (the album was less soul and more big-band jazz). The first was The Miracles’ hit “Tracks of My Tears,” written by her childhood friend Smokey Robinson. It was a no-brainer, and was recorded in April 1968. The other two she brought when the sessions picked back up in September 1968 were more left-field. One was “Gentle On My Mind,” a country tune written by John Hartford that Glenn Campbell made a moderate hit in 1968. The second was “Elusive Butterfly,” a 1966 folk record with pop sensibilities written and performed by Bob Lind, who spoke with me via email about Aretha’s version of his song. “Elusive Butterfly” became a top 5 hit for Lind, and was covered by more than a dozen other artists including Aretha (and coincidentally Glenn Campbell) in the years following its release and success, with dozens more covering it in the years that followed.
Aretha’s producer Jerry Wexler was not exactly keen on cutting those two songs. He recalled being taken aback by Aretha’s insistence on recording both when recounting the sessions to Mark Bego in Bego’s Aretha biography ‘The Queen of Soul.’ Ultimately, as he told Bego, “Her taste could sometimes be very mainstream. That’s part of her genius too. When it went off a bit, it went off in its own way.” It was far from the only time the two didn’t see eye-to-eye on song selection, but in the end, they always came to song agreement.
“Elusive Butterfly” personifies love as the majestic titular insect, not just as something beyond reach, but also as a rarity. The protagonist is attempting to calm a third party that might be awoken by and observing this figurative chase. At the time of the recording, Aretha’s butterfly of love was certainly something elusive. Her tumultuous marriage to Ted White had crumbled, and was in the process of being legally severed. She didn’t meet her next serious suitor Ken Cunningham, who was the father of her fourth child, Kecalf, until around spring of 1969. Around this time she was involved with The Temptations’ Dennis Edwards, a relationship which inspired “Day Dreaming” and “All The King’s Horses,” although both have attested to the volatility to their relationship. It’s not hard to imagine Aretha at a crossroads romantically. Aretha and love were far from copasetic in this moment in time.
The song’s exact meaning has been debated over the years, and that debate will only continue. “I leave it to others to decide what the song says,” Lind told one interviewer in 2016. He wrote it in one night, including an additional three verses that didn’t make the final cut. On the writing process, he said, “I used to take a lot of uppers, smoke a lot of dope, and drink just enough so I wouldn’t go to sleep, and then I would stay up all night. There’s a line between sleep and wakefulness and always my best songs were written in that period of time.” He said that it put him in a “dreamlike” state which sparked his creativity and informed his songwriting.
Lind’s original version is a steady paced, guitar-driven folk record. Overlaid strings throughout most of the record glide like a butterfly. Watch him perform it in 1966:
Recorded on September 26, 1968, the arrangement Arif Mardin and Aretha developed for “Butterfly” may have drawn some influence from earlier versions released by Cher and Carmen McRae, as well as a 1968 performance by Diahann Carroll. Those two recorded versions, especially McRae’s, contain elements that seem to relate most to the jazzy groove Aretha finds for hers. None of them have Aretha’s big band instrumentation or background arrangement though.
Aretha’s version opens like a soul record, with the Fender Rhodes and brass/woodwinds punching in. Latin percussion and a soul-stirring background vocal arrangement courtesy of Evelyn Greene and Wyline Ivy augment the song into a jazzier arena. She’s backed up by a legendary pack of musicians across Soul ‘69. On “Elusive Butterfly,” Ron Carter is on the bass, Joe Zawinul is on the Fender Rhodes, and King Curtis and Fathead Newman are on the tenor saxophone.
Hearing Aretha sing this song, she sounds resilient in spite of her recent love woes. Knowing that she wanted to sing it and considering her state at the time, she sounds like she’s wounded but not waving the white flag on love. On the contrary, she’s trudging ahead. It serves as a perfect bookend to an LP full of songs that largely focus on both love and heartbreak.
I spoke with Bob Lind via email to get a sense of where he stood on Aretha’s cover of his hit. Before sharing his thoughts he wanted to make it clear that Aretha “deserves every golden accolade the music world has bestowed on her,” and he was honored when she covered his song. With that said, he feels that “Butterfly” (and “Gentle”) force her out of her strong suit and leave her “on dry ground.” Lind always thought that the label imposed both cuts on her to broaden her appeal. He was surprised when I told him that the opposite was the case.
He further explained that his aversion to Aretha’s version is something of a unique situation. “I don’t like it when artists copy me,” he told me. He prefers when they find something in the song that wasn’t there, “so this Aretha thing is an exception.” He never fails to include her name in the list of artists who have covered the song. “An Aretha cut is a colossal feather in any writer’s cap,” but he doesn’t feel that it sits easy in her style.
“I wish she had recorded one or two of my other songs,” he added. “”Born for This,” “Maybe It’s the Rain” and “I Turn to You” would have been stunning by her.” As has been well-documented, he told me that his favorite cover of “Elusive Butterfly” was done by Petula Clark in 1966. “She slows it down and only does one verse. But she sings it like she means it and it suits her to a T. The arrangement and her whole approach is surprising without being jarring.”
Watch Petula Clark perform her version in 1967:
It’s rewarding to hear Bob Lind’s thoughts on Aretha’s arrangement, and it’s a beautiful moment in music history and criticism. We respectfully disagree on where we stand on Aretha’s version, but his opinion is so important, because this is his song. There also doesn’t seem to be any documentation of his thoughts on Aretha’s version of the song until now, so it was a thrill to get a chance to talk to him about it. Bob continues to perform live, largely in Florida these days. His website has his upcoming dates and more.
There are no documented instances of Aretha performing “Elusive Butterfly” live, but they could be out there somewhere. More than 80 artists have covered the song since Bob Lind first released it in 1966, from Cher to Dolly Parton to Stanley Turrentine to The Four Tops.
Stream Aretha’s “Elusive Butterfly” and purchase Soul ‘69.
365 Days of Aretha Franklin 