Assistant engineer Gene Paul

What I remember about it was Aretha, Wexler and Arif, to use the pun, they were all in heaven. Aretha had gained her position in the music business where she was confirmed and she really knew what the hell she was doing. After all those r&b hits on Atlantic, it was so different than Columbia, so the glow was overwhelming. So to have her doing grassroots, her basic upbringing to come to life was without a doubt a shining moment. I hadn’t worked that much with Aretha at that time. Afterwards I did many albums with her. And she was an absolute delight, obviously, to work with. There’s a story I can tell you about her that was tickling my bones…but with this it was just an overwhelming sunshine wonderful moment in time. Because the love and not worrying about a hit and just worrying about going where she wanted to go and being there was such a ray of sunlight from her. Just to see her that way and to see Arif absolutely glow with it. It’s very rare that you see the higher-ups glow this way without greed and everything that comes along with it (laughs). I saw Wexler looking at her like she was really in her place. There were no thoughts at all of making a hit record. Which is perhaps the most delightful moment in making a record is not being involved in having to make a record and just make beautiful music. That part of it will never go away.