In 1980, the blockbuster film The Blues Brothers featured cameos from a bevy of musical titans, including James Brown, Ray Charles, Cab Calloway and John Lee Hooker, but it was a five-minute show-stealing scene starring Aretha Franklin that proved both memorable and pivotal. Franklin by then was more than a quarter century into her illustrious and influential career, but the tide was turning for the established Queen of Soul with her late Seventies albums 1977's Sweet Passion , 1978's Almighty Fire and 1979's La Diva failing to reach the commercial success of some of her previous output.
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