New solo version of Aretha song about race, faith released

A never-before-heard solo version of the late Aretha Franklin’s riveting and powerful collaboration with Mary J. Blige about faith and race, 2006’s “Never Gonna Break My Faith,” has arrived on Juneteenth. Sony’s RCA Records, RCA Inspiration and Legacy Recordings released the song Friday, aligning with the holiday celebrating the day in 1865 that enslaved black people in Texas learned they had been freed from bondage — two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation.