Remembering Aretha Franklin, the undisputed Queen of Soul
If there ever was a singer who deserves to be called legendary, it's Aretha Franklin. The undisputed Queen of Soul will not only be remembered as a singer, but as a voice for the voiceless.
Franklin died Thursday morning at her home in Detroit at age 76. The cause was advanced pancreatic cancer.
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Franklin got her start singing in the gospel choir of her father's church in Detroit. That's where she recorded her first album of gospel songs in 1956, when she was just 14 years old.
"She never forgot. She never forgot her God. She never forgot the church," Franklin's longtime music director H.B. Barnum told q. "No matter where we went, she'd find a church to go to."
Her career took off in 1967 when she recorded a series of sessions in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and released hits including Chain of Fools and You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman. She went on to win 18 Grammys, and became the first black woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
With appearances in The Blues Brothers films, and the '80s comeback hit Freeway of Love, she introduced new generations to the power of soul music. "Her music is such a gift," Juno award-winning R&B singer Jully Black told q. "It's like getting goosebumps. I call them truth bumps because you can't make that up."
Franklin's signature song was Respect, originally written by Otis Redding. Her reinvention of Redding's song inspired countless people and became recognized as an anthem for the civil rights and women's movements.
"It had so many layers of meaning," author Craig Hansen Werner said about the song in a q interview. "Otis Redding wrote it and he was in the studio when Aretha recorded it, and the first thing he said was, 'This little girl took my song.' He knew right away, that was there. It spoke to African-American power and pride. It spoke to women, it spoke specifically to black women, and it spoke deeply to Vietnam veterans. Whoever you were, the song had the power to transform the way you thought about yourself, the world, life, the importance of music."
"If any one voice can capture a movement or an era, she was it," Werner continued. "She was a profound presence, a great person, and a great musician. It's just impossible to overstate how important she was."
Listen to more from Craig Hansen Werner, H.B. Barnum, Rob Bowman and Jully Black on Aretha Franklin's life and legacy near the top of this page.
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