As we reported yesterday, “Queen of Soul,” Aretha Franklin passed away at the age of 76. While her legacy will be remembered with a career spanning seven decades, Franklin is also the woman behind what many consider to be one of the most iconic cameo performances in cinematic history.
With a rousing rendition of her 1968’s hit “Think” off of her Aretha Now album, her cameo as Mrs. Murphy in The Blues Brothers kicks the lively adventure of the titular characters into high gear after she wails her heart out in an early diner scene.
In her honor, The Cedar Lee Theatre is presenting a retro revisit of The Blues Brothers on Wednesday, August 22 at 7 p.m.
Tickets for the film will only be $6 and are available on the Cleveland Cinemas website or at the door. The Cedar Lee is located at 2163 Lee Rd. in Cleveland Heights.
This article appears in Aug 15-21, 2018.
Her career was in a rut by the late 1970s due to some pretty uneven albums surrounding the excellent 1976 “Music from the Warner Bros. Picture ‘Sparkle'”, which was written and produced by Curtis Mayfield. Appearing in “The Blues Brothers” – coupled with a record label change – brought renewed energy (and better material/arrangements) and a larger audience throughout the 1980s.