Greatest love songs ever: #45 “You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman”
By Tom Quiner
Carol King is one of the greatest living songwriters. You and I could have a lively debate on which of her many love songs is the best. I vote for “You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman” for two reasons: 1. Aretha. 2. The word ‘natural.’
- Aretha Franklin recorded the song in 1967, and no one has ever surpassed it, though many have tried. Including Carol King herself!
- The use of the word ‘natural’ was ingenious. The story goes that a record producer, Jerry Wexler, came up with the phrase and encouraged lyricist, Gerry Goffin (King’s husband) to come up with the words for a song built on that theme, which he did. King added the music.
Romance thrives when couples can ‘just be themselves’ (natural) when around each other. They wither and die when one or the other feels a need to try be someone or something they’re not (unnatural).
Billy Joel said it well in his song, “I want you just the way you are” (a song which did not make my list). You make me feel like a natural woman says the same thing in a poetic way that still sounds fresh today. Couple it with Aretha Franklin’s vocals and you have more than a song, you have a life-changing experience. This is a song worthy of the “52 Greatest Love Songs Ever.”
Aretha’s version hit #8 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. I posted one of her last performances above.
Carol King sings “You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman”
Carol King recorded it four years later in a warm, lovely performance that didn’t try to compete with Aretha’s. Smart move. One of her performances is posted above. She demonstrates how a great song is open to many interpretations. Celine Dion and Mary Blige released their own interpretations of this classic.
Celine’s cover song of “You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman
Music journalist, Jenn Pelly, writing for Pitchfork, captures the essence of the contrast between Aretha and Carol King’s interpretation of the song:
King’s version does “carry the bespoke power of a woman reckoning with her history in song … Of course King’s ‘Natural Woman’ does not summon the heavens with the same earth-shattering force as the Queen of Soul’s version … But the grasping of King’s ‘you make me’s and the fluttering of her ‘feel’s are charged with the force of a person attempting to turn herself inside out. In the voice of Aretha, ‘Natural Woman’ is glory. In the voice of King, it is, like all of Tapestry, an act of pure conviction.”
Goffin’s lyrics deserve our attention, especially the second verse:
“O, when my soul was in the lost and found,
You came along to claim it.
I didn’t know just what was wrong with me
’Til your kiss helped me name it.”
The song builds to make the case that this woman’s love comes alive because of a man who loves her for exactly who she is. This is ‘natural’ love, not fake, self-serving love.
‘Natural’ means authentic
‘Natural’ is another way to say true, authentic … even Godly love, although the songwriters might not have thought of it in the same way as I do. ‘Natural love’ is creative, the source of rich family life, the life blood of civilization. The always quotable St. John Paul the Great explained it in one succinct sentence:
“As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.”
A ‘natural’ woman is open to the creative power of love: the kind of love that gifts her with sons and daughters; the kind of love that says ‘yes’ to God; the kind of love that nourishes a culture with the fruit that flows from a marriage between a woman and her man.
A ‘natural’ woman and her husband are open to the creative power of God’s love and plan their families using a science-based system, “Natural Family Planning (NFP), that complements, not competes, with God’s creative power.
A ‘natural’ woman rejects the seduction of abortion, which is not only ‘unnatural’, it is an abomination.
Gerry Goffin and Carol King would bristle at my interpretation. That’s okay. I commend them for writing a love song that, even if inadvertently, plumbs the depths of true love with the simple use of the word ‘natural.’
Wait ’til next week!
As good as this song is, do you know what’s truly amazing? It’s only #45 on my list of the “52 Greatest Love Songs Ever.” Better songs are yet to come, including next week’s gem with a melody that is so intense that it pierces the soul without a need for words. And yet when you hear its lovely, sentimental verse, well, surrender is complete. Thus the power of a love song.
Thanks for checking in to this week’s installment of the 52 Greatest Love Songs ever. We’re counting down these songs a week at a time to spread a little love. Love is the greatest antidote to abortion, so be sure to encourage your friends to subscribe to our blog.
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