Aretha is the thirty-first studio album by American singer Aretha Franklin, originally released on October 27, 1986 by Arista Records. It is the third album with the Aretha title to be released by Franklin, following her 1961 album and 1980 album.
As with Franklin's previous album, Who's Zoomin' Who?, Aretha was produced mainly by Narada Michael Walden and includes her duet with George Michael, "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)", which became Franklin's first #1 Pop single since "Respect" in 1967, and would also be her last. The album also yielded three other hit singles: "Jimmy Lee", "Rock-A-Lott" and a hard rock cover of The Rolling Stones' classic, "Jumpin' Jack Flash". All music videos were extremely popular on MTV, BET and other video outlets.
Franklin's vocal from "Rock-A-Lott" was sampled extensively in the 49ers' 1990 hit "Touch Me", while her version of "Jumpin' Jack Flash" was the title song for the comedy film of the same name starring Whoopi Goldberg. All four of the singles were shot as music videos that received extensive play.
The album cover was Andy Warhol's final work before his death in early 1987.
The album was remastered and re-released as an "Expanded Edition" in December 2014 by Funky Town Grooves, with bonus tracks and a second CD of material.