Aretha Franklin – "Think" (1968)

I ain’t no doctor with degrees

But it don’t take too much high IQ

To see what you’re doing to me

Aretha Franklin re-recorded her 1968 hit, “Think,” for the 1980 movie, The Blues Brothers.

Click here to watch the scene from the movie that features Franklin lip-synching to her new version of “Think.”  

Aretha Franklin in The Blues Brothers

That scene is pretty bad.  But so is the whole movie, of course.  

I’d say about one per cent of The Blues Brothers is funny.  The rest of it is a waste of time.

*     *     *     *     *

Aretha Franklin met Ted White in 1961, when she was 19 and he was 30.  The two were married by a justice of the peace a few weeks later.

White – a small-time wheeler-dealer who one Motown producer called as “a pimp” – was Franklin’s manager until the couple separated.  He is credited with co-writing several songs recorded by Aretha, including today’s featured song – which is now a member of the class of 2023 of the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” HIT SINGLES HALL OF FAME.

Aretha with hubby Ted White

Aretha’s sister Carolyn thought that Aretha wrote “Think” without any help from her then-husband.  She believed that the song’s lyrics were intended to send a message to Ted White.

If that’s the case, it apparently went in one of Ted’s ears and out the other one.  The couple were divorced the year after “Think” was released. 

*     *     *     *     *

Click here to hear the original studio recording of “Think,” which made it all the way to #7 on the Billboard “Hot 100” in 1968.

Click here to buy the song from Amazon.