The 1976 movie Sparkle follows the troubles and triumphs of a trio of singers — based loosely on The Supremes — trying to make it in the soul-music world of the 1960s. Sparkle was the film debut of Irene Cara, who'd become a big star four years later in the movie Fame. The movie was only a modest success, and what now seems most impressive about Sparkle are Curtis Mayfield's songs, as sung by Aretha Franklin.
"Look into Your Heart" is a dreamy ballad powered by Franklin's passionate singing. In every song here, she is holding nothing back. She's pouring as much of herself into these Mayfield compositions as she did in the staggeringly great series of hit singles she made for Atlantic Records in the late '60s. Mayfield was, of course, familiar with the ways of Hollywood movie-music, as the man who gave us the theme from the 1970s Blaxploitation film classic Shaft.
For me, Sparkle's high point is Mayfield's five-minute production of "Hooked on Your Love." It begins as a smooth medium-tempo tune, with Franklin's vocal gliding atop a glittering string section and backup vocals by the Kitty Haywood singers.
Then, deeper into it, Franklin gives a demonstration of the song's title — how being hooked, addicted, to love becomes an intense craving. Franklin's gospel-rooted, passionate shouting turns out to be the perfect way to convey this ecstatic obsession.
She gives another fantastic performance on the album's first single, a moody, sexy number called "Something He Can Feel." The song went to No. 1 on the R&B chart, but stalled at 28 on the Billboard pop chart. The album itself barely cracked the Top 20, and only briefly at that. This is what I mean about Sparkle being such an underrated achievement for both Franklin and Mayfield.
The collaboration between Franklin and Mayfield transcends the movie. It stands on its own as a rich, risk-taking collection that deserves a reevaluation in 20th-century pop music history.
Sparkle wasn't a smash in 1976, but it developed an intense cult following that has reverberations. I don't think it's a coincidence, for instance, that Dreamgirls, a far bigger success in 1981, bears a striking resemblance to Sparkle.
Sparkle was remade in 2012, starring Jordin Sparks and Whitney Houston, and was a modest hit. But the collaboration between Franklin and Mayfield transcends the movie. It stands on its own as a rich, risk-taking collection that deserves a reevaluation in 20th-century pop music history.
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