The original diva, Aretha Franklin, will tackle music from other divas on her next album, Clive Davis told Billboard.biz on Thursday.

“[We’re going] to do an album of great diva signature songs and hear that voice, that incredible national treasure voice of all time” sing classic songs, he said while giving interviews about Saturday’s Pre-Grammy Gala and Grammy Salute to Industry Icon honoring Antonio “L.A.” Reid at the Beverly Hilton.

Franklin announced last March that she and Davis, Sony Music’s chief creative officer, were reuniting to work together again, but hadn’t revealed the nature of the project. The two legends first worked together in the ‘80s, when Davis helmed Arista Records, on such hit albums as 1982’s “Jump To It” and 1985’s “Who’s Zoomin’ Who.”

On the new project, which Davis said the pair will start working on “in the next month or two,” Franklin will cover songs made famous by the other great female artists of the last several decades.

Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds and Danger Mouse, who recently worked with Norah Jones, will co-produce the album with Davis; it will be released on RCA.

“Whether it’s Billie Holiday or Dinah Washington, whether it’s Whitney Houston, whether it’s Alicia Keys, whether it’s Adele, whether it’s Ella Fitzgerald, we’re going to find the great, great diva songs and put an original arrangement on them and just hear the Queen of Soul go forth,” said Davis, who was honored at Billboard's Power 100 event in Los Angeles Thursday night, said.

She may not have quite the number of years of experience as Franklin, but Jennifer Hudson is also on Davis’s radar. He tells Billboard that he is determined to make her a superstar on her third album.

“I came here from a meeting with Ne-Yo,” he said. “I encourage the great songwriters to know she really is a triple threat. I don’t just want urban adult songs. We want signature hit songs for Jennifer.”

http://www.billboard.com/...nger-mouse

Interesting.

^ I agree. Plus before Whitney, Aretha was known for her interpretation of other folks' songs. You never heard "I Say a Little Prayer", "Respect", "Eleanor Rigby", "Spanish Harlem" and "Money Won't Change You" the same way when Aretha touched it. I'm actually excited she's working with Danger Mouse!

I find this to be disappointing. I was hoping for somethin' more along the lines of her "So Damn Happy" CD from 2003; somethin' current, somethin' funky and fresh and above all, daring and unpredictable. I'm sooo intensely SICK of people doin' all these "cover" and "tribute" albums. They're as generic as the droves of Holiday albums that are oversaturating the market. I wish her well tho, but not feelin' it.

whitechocolatebrotha said:

I find this to be disappointing. I was hoping for somethin' more along the lines of her "So Damn Happy" CD from 2003; somethin' current, somethin' funky and fresh and above all, daring and unpredictable. I'm sooo intensely SICK of people doin' all these "cover" and "tribute" albums. They're as generic as the droves of Holiday albums that are oversaturating the market. I wish her well tho, but not feelin' it.

I feel the same way.I don't mind an album with a couple of cover songs,but a whole album of cover songs? That's just lazy to me.I was hoping to hear an album of newly written songs by Babyface and Aretha.

SoulAlive said:

whitechocolatebrotha said:

I find this to be disappointing. I was hoping for somethin' more along the lines of her "So Damn Happy" CD from 2003; somethin' current, somethin' funky and fresh and above all, daring and unpredictable. I'm sooo intensely SICK of people doin' all these "cover" and "tribute" albums. They're as generic as the droves of Holiday albums that are oversaturating the market. I wish her well tho, but not feelin' it.

I feel the same way.I don't mind an album with a couple of cover songs,but a whole album of cover songs? That's just lazy to me.I was hoping to hear an album of newly written songs by Babyface and Aretha.

Me too, buddy. I'm not much of a Babyface fan either way, but had she gotten with Jimmy & Terry, I'm sure she would kicked some Queen booty! Feel me? Hope you're well and always good 2 hear from u, ma brotha! Hugz!

I heard there a few new songs too, not just all covers, because that financially wouldn't be attractive to a songwriter, who would get nothing from all covers.

SoulAlive said:

whitechocolatebrotha said:

I find this to be disappointing. I was hoping for somethin' more along the lines of her "So Damn Happy" CD from 2003; somethin' current, somethin' funky and fresh and above all, daring and unpredictable. I'm sooo intensely SICK of people doin' all these "cover" and "tribute" albums. They're as generic as the droves of Holiday albums that are oversaturating the market. I wish her well tho, but not feelin' it.

I feel the same way.I don't mind an album with a couple of cover songs,but a whole album of cover songs? That's just lazy to me.I was hoping to hear an album of newly written songs by Babyface and Aretha.

It could be a mixture of new songs and old songs like Chaka's Funk This. It's a good possibility. Besides Aretha herself mentioned she was doing an album of covers of artists like Ella Fitzgerald and, I believe, Dinah Washington.

Clive is going to make her Rod 2.0 meanwhile he's determined to hone J. Hud into the next Whitney and it won't happen in this lifetime.

ABeautifulOne said:

Clive is going to make her Rod 2.0 meanwhile he's determined to hone J. Hud into the next Whitney and it won't happen in this lifetime.

If he gives her some Micheal Masser-type songs and trains her to make her voice more Pop-friendly, I can definately see it happening. It's just a shame that it took Nippy's death to make him realize he needed to pay more attention to Jen.

Does anyone have a track they would like to see the Queen cover on this album? Right now I would vote for "I Can't Stand The Rain" - sparse, mostly just her and one of her fabulous keyboard arrangements. She could take a great song it to a whole new place.

We should all be praying for Jennifer, right now. If the whole world dedicates each stroke of our keyboards as prayer from now until forever that might be enough spirit to save her from him.

I'd like to see ReRe tackle Anita's "Body & Soul"....I think she could pull it off....

Jennifer's future CD projects do need to pick up speed. They added dance tracks to the last CD or some kind of Dance-remix but it still was missing something...Diane Warren needs to give her a Great Pop-Power Ballad. Throw in something by David Foster...Ne-Yo & Khandi can also deliver the goods for her...

I'd like to see something CRAZY like a Duet with Jennifer and Justine Timberlake doing a remake of Dolly & Kenny's "islands in the Stream".....I know people will think it's CRAZY but you find the RIGHT producer that can slow the song down, add heavier bass along with Justine's Tenor Vocals and Jenn's voice and I think you gotta hit.....That song is SCREAMING to be remade...

I thought "I Can't Stand the Rain" could've been given a great cover by Aretha and I still hope that happens. I thought of that while listening to Tina's version.