“I Almost Threw It Out”: How Aretha Franklin’s 3,000-Mile Debate With Carole King Led to One of Soul Music’s Defining Recordings

The story of “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” has been told many ways — but the version that continues to astonish historians is not simply about who wrote it, or when it was released, but about the moment Aretha Franklin nearly walked away from the demo entirely.

It’s one of those “almost lost to history” moments that reminds us how fragile greatness can be at the moment before it’s born.

A Chance Request — and a Cross-Country Delivery

In 1967, Atlantic Records producer Jerry Wexler approached Carole King and Gerry Goffin with a straightforward request for Aretha Franklin’s next sessions:
“I want a song about a natural woman.”

King and Goffin delivered the song within 24 hours.

From Los Angeles — nearly 3,000 miles away from the New York studio where Aretha was working — King sent a demo. It was soft, simple, and closer in sound to the version King herself would later record on Tapestry.

Aretha’s First Reaction? She Nearly Tossed It.

Aretha Franklin listened — and wasn’t impressed.

The demo, as originally conceived, felt too slight for what she believed she needed vocally. She felt the arrangement didn’t align with her musical identity — one rooted in gospel, piano-based calling, and emotional intensity.

Her famous comment from that moment has lived in music lore:

“I almost threw it out.”

It was not a disagreement about quality — it was a disagreement about intention.

Aretha heard possibilities that were not present on the tape.

Re-Imagining the Song — The Birth of Eight Essential Minutes

With her band and Wexler, she reshaped the song:

• slower, more deliberate tempo

• deeper gospel chords

• an emotional build that matched her vocal gravity

What emerged wasn’t a pop tune — it was an anthem.

Those eight minutes in the studio — from the rearrangement to the final recording — are often referred to by historians as among “the most essential eight minutes” in soul history.

In the End — Genius Won

Carole King would later say the finished version was a masterpiece.

And decades later, her admiration remained unwavering. The song — which she and Goffin wrote in a single day — became one of Aretha’s signature recordings and one of the most recognizable works in American music.

It is a reminder of something crucial:

History doesn’t just belong to the songwriters.
History belongs to the interpreter who knows exactly how to lift the words higher than the page.

Aretha Franklin heard a seed — and turned it into a cultural landmark.

All because she didn’t throw it out.