Song of the Day 6/19: Aretha Franklin, “Never Gonna Break My Faith”

This song, originally performed with Mary J. Blige, won Aretha Franklin the last of her 18 Grammy Awards in 2006. To celebrate Juneteenth this year, Sony released a version of Aretha singing the whole song solo, with a bit of backup by the Boys Choir of Harlem. The song was co-written by Bryan Adams — yes, the guy who did “Summer of 69” — who said, “This solo version has been sitting on my computer for years, and when I heard Clive [Davis]was making a film on Aretha’s life, I sent this version to him. The world hasn’t heard her full performance and it really needed to be heard. I’m so glad it’s being released, the world needs this right now.”