Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin (born March 25, 1942) is a gospel, soul and R&B singer born in Memphis, Tennessee. On January 3, 1987 she became the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Biography

As a child, Franklin and her sisters, Carolyn and Erma, sang at her father's Detroit-area church and made her first recordings at the age 14. She signed with Columbia Records after being discovered by legendary A&R man John Hammond. In the early 1960s, Franklin had a few popular songs, most notably 'Rock-a-bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody.' However Columbia really wanted her as a jazz singer and the results never gave full rein to Franklin's talents. However her greatest and most innovative work was yet to come.

After moving to Atlantic Records in 1967, Franklin teamed up with producers Jerry Wexler and Arif Mardin, resulting in some of the most influential R&B recordings of the 1960s, including 'I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)', a much more soulful and impassioned song than most of her earlier work. By the late 1960s, Franklin had earned the nickname 'The Queen of Soul', having become an internationally famous artist and a symbol of pride for the African American community. Franklin said herself of this period, 'When I went to Atlantic, they just sat me down at the piano and the hits started coming.'

She released numerous Top Ten hits in the late 1960s and early 1970s, dabbling in gospel music, blues music, pop music, psychedelic music and rock and roll, including notable covers of songs by The Beatles ('Eleanor Rigby'), The Band ('The Weight'), Simon & Garfunkel ('Bridge Over Troubled Water'), Sam Cooke and The Drifters. Live at Fillmore West and Amazing Grace were two of her most influential full-length releases, the latter a double LP of live gospel music recorded in a Los Angeles Baptist church. Surprisingly she never made it to number one in the UK pop charts - the best result being a number four with her version of Burt Bacharach's 'I Say a Little Prayer' in 1968.

Among her most successful hit singles from this era were 'Chain of Fools', 'You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman', 'Think', 'Baby I Love You', 'The House That Jack Built', and 'Respect', which became her signature song. After the R&B category was added to the Grammy Awards in 1968, she was virtually unchallenged, winning eight successive awards for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance; she later added three more Grammies in this category in the 1980s.

In the early 1970s, her music mellowed slightly, though losing nothing of its power, and she continued the hugely successful relationship with Wexler and Mardin while beginning to take a greater role in producing her work. A partnership with Quincy Jones led to a disappointing album in 1973 You. But it still produced a standout track 'Angel', written by her sister Carolyn which became a soul classic.

She returned to working with Wexler, but her last Atlantic LP You was released in 1976. Wexler had now left Atlantic and the partnership was over. Despite working with artists of the stature of Curtis Mayfield, popularity and critical success waned during the mid to late 1970s and the 1980s, though she scored several hits, often with partners (such as Luther Vandross). Her most notable 1980s hit was the dance song Freeway of Love, which charted in 1985. Most critics dismiss her post-Atlantic material as far inferior to the legendary recordings of the mid to late sixties.

She married Ted White in 1962 and he became her manager during her years with Columbia Records. The marriage ended in 1969 and she has always refused to answer questions about it. A Time Magazine cover story in 1968 led to a lawsuit from Ted White over allegations that he had roughed her up in public. The affair made her guard her private life even more jealously and she gave no interviews for several years after that. She lives today in Detroit.

Interesting Facts

Aretha Franklin was sued for breach of contract in 1984 when she was unable to open in the Broadway musical 'Sing, Mahalia, Sing,' mainly because of her phobia of flying.

In 1986 the Michigan Legislature declared Aretha Franklin's voice to be a precious natural resource. She was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in 2001.

Discography - the Atlantic years