When John Landis was asked how he got Aretha Franklin to appear in his 1980 film
The Blues Brothers, he replied: "I asked her." The point being that the Queen of Soul had fallen out of favor and was looking for work (many other music legends - Ray Charles, Tina Turner and Roy Orbison among them - were also at career nadirs). Her fortunes were revived by her 1985 album
Who's Zoomin' Who, which contained two US Top 10 hits: the
title track and "
Freeway of Love." It took this duet with George Michael, however, to return her to the top of the chart, where she had not been for 20 years (with "
Respect").
Michael was coming off a string of hits with his group Wham!, but had not yet released his first solo album,
Faith, which came out later in 1987.