Aretha Franklin singing Jimmy Webb's "Mixed Up Girl"

[Mark Desjardines]

"During the summer of 1971, on a long forgotten music variety television program, Aretha Franklin sat down at the piano and performed a stunning cover of a current pop record, "Mixed Up Guy," sung by Joey Scarbury, who had performed the song on "American Bandstand," changing the title to "Mixed Up Girl." After reading the current new bio of Aretha, by David Ritz, "Respect" I can now better understand why the lyrics to that song may have appealed to her. She did record a live, rather rushed version of the song during her three night gig at the Fillmore West, "Don't Fight The Feeling: The Complete Fillmore West Sessions," CD boxset Rhino released some years back. I would be thrilled to see the footage of her more deeper interpretation of this remarkable song from that television appearance. Wow, what a history this Jimmy Webb song has. Thelma Houston, Nancy Wilson and Dusty Springfield all recorded this song, and every version of this song is a winner. Even Jimmy Webb recorded his own version on a 1977 album. Maybe someone on this site may remember the name of the program Aretha sang this song and hopefully somewhere a tape exists.

http://youtu.be/6hfCHhz2_rM