Aretha Louise Franklin

March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018

Born in Memphis, Tennessee she began her singing career as a child at New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit and went on to record twenty No. 1 hit singles and receive 17 Grammy awards.

From Wikipedia

On March 25, 1942, Aretha Louise Franklin was born at 406 Lucy Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee, to Barbara (née Siggers) and Clarence LaVaughn “C. L.” Franklin. Her father was a Baptist minister and circuit preacher originally from Shelby, Mississippi, while her mother was an accomplished piano player and vocalist.^[6] Her parents both had children, three in total, from outside their marriage. The family relocated to Buffalo, New York, when Aretha was two. Before her fifth birthday, in 1946,^[7] C. L. Franklin permanently relocated the family to Detroit, where he took over the pastorship of the New Bethel Baptist Church. Aretha’s parents had a troubled marriage because of her father’s philandering.^[8] In 1948, the couple separated, with Barbara relocating back to Buffalo with her son, Vaughn, from a previous relationship.^[9]  Aretha’s mother died of a heart attack on March 7, 1952, before Aretha’s tenth birthday.^[12] Several women, including Aretha’s grandmother, Rachel, and Mahalia Jackson took turns helping with the children at the Franklin home.^[13] During this time, Aretha learned how to play piano by ear.^[14]

Aretha’s father’s emotionally driven sermons resulted in his being known as the man with the “million-dollar voice” and earning thousands of dollars for sermons in various churches across the country.^[15][16] His celebrity status led to his home being visited by various celebrities, among them gospel musicians Clara Ward, James Cleveland and early Caravans members Albertina Walker and Inez Andrews as well as Martin Luther King Jr., Jackie Wilson and Sam Cooke.^[17][18] Ward was not only a visitor to the home, but was romantically involved with Aretha’s father, though “she preferred to view them strictly as friends.”^[19] Ward also served as a role model to the young Aretha.^[20] Franklin attended Northern High School^[21] but later dropped out during her sophomore year.^[22]

Music career

Beginnings (1952–1960)

Just after her mother’s death, Franklin began singing solos at New Bethel, debuting with the hymn, “Jesus, Be a Fence Around Me.”^[13][23] When Franklin was 12, her father began managing her, bringing her on the road with him during his so-called “gospel caravan” tours for her to perform in various churches.^[24] He helped his daughter sign her first recording deal with J.V.B. Records. Recording equipment was installed in New Bethel Baptist Church and nine tracks were recorded, featuring Franklin on vocals and piano.^[25] In 1956, J-V-B released Franklin’s first single, “Never Grow Old”, backed with “You Grow Closer”. A second single, “Precious Lord (Part One)” backed with “Precious Lord (Part Two)” was issued in 1959. These four tracks, with the addition of “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood”, were released on side one of the 1956 album, Spirituals (J-V-B 100), which was reissued in 1962 under the same title by Battle Records (Battle 6105).^[26] In 1965, Checker Records released Songs of Faith, featuring the five tracks from the 1956 Spirituals album, with the addition of four previously unreleased recordings.

Franklin sometimes traveled with The Soul Stirrers during this time.^[27] According to music producer Quincy Jones, while Franklin was still young, Dinah Washington let him know, “Aretha was the ‘next one’”.^[28] In 1958, Franklin and her father traveled to California, where she met Sam Cooke.^[29] At the age of 16, Franklin went on tour with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and in 1968 sang at his funeral.^[30]

As a young gospel singer, Franklin spent summers on the circuit in Chicago, staying with Mavis Staples‘ family.^[31] After turning 18, Franklin confided to her father that she aspired to follow Sam Cooke in recording pop music, and moved to New York.^[18] Serving as her manager, C. L. agreed to the move and helped to produce a two-song demo that soon was brought to the attention of Columbia Records, who agreed to sign her in 1960. Franklin was signed as a “five-percent artist”.^[32] During this period, Franklin would be coached by choreographer Cholly Atkins to prepare for her pop performances. Before signing with Columbia, Sam Cooke tried to persuade Franklin’s father to have his label, RCA, sign Franklin. He had also been courted by local record label owner Berry Gordy to sign Franklin and her elder sister Erma to his Tamla label. Franklin’s father felt the label was not established enough yet. Franklin’s first Columbia single, “Today I Sing the Blues“,^[33] was issued in September 1960 and later reached the top ten of the Hot Rhythm & Blues Sellers chart.^[34]

Columbia (1961–1966)

In January 1961, Columbia issued Franklin’s first secular album, Aretha: With The Ray Bryant Combo. The album featured her first single to chart the Billboard Hot 100, “Won’t Be Long“, which also peaked at number 7 on the R&B chart.^[35] Mostly produced by Clyde Otis, Franklin’s Columbia recordings saw her performing in diverse genres such as standards, vocal jazz, blues, doo-wop and rhythm and blues. Before the year was out, Franklin scored her first top 40 single with her rendition of the standard, “Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody“, which also included the R&B hit, “Operation Heartbreak“, on its b-side. “Rock-a-Bye” became her first international hit, reaching the top 40 in Australia and Canada. By the end of 1961, Franklin was named as a “new-star female vocalist” in DownBeat magazine.^[36] In 1962, Columbia issued two more albums, The Electrifying Aretha Franklin and The Tender, the Moving, the Swinging Aretha Franklin,^[37][38] the latter of which reached No. 69 on the Billboard chart.^[39]

In the 1960s during a performance at the Regal Theater, a WVON radio personality announced Franklin should be crowned, “the Queen of Soul”.^[31][40] By 1964, Franklin began recording more pop music, reaching the top ten on the R&B chart with the ballad “Runnin’ Out of Fools” in early 1965. She had two R&B charted singles in 1965 and 1966 with the songs “One Step Ahead” and “Cry Like a Baby”, while also reaching the Easy Listening charts with the ballads “You Made Me Love You” and “(No, No) I’m Losing You”. By the mid-1960s, Franklin was netting $100,000 from countless performances in nightclubs and theaters.^[41] Also during that period, she appeared on rock and roll shows such as Hollywood A Go-Go and Shindig!. However, she struggled with commercial success while at Columbia. Label executive John H. Hammond later said he felt Columbia did not understand Franklin’s early gospel background and failed to bring that aspect out further during her period there.^[33]

Atlantic (1967–1979)

In November 1966, after six years with Columbia, Franklin chose not to renew her contract with the company and signed to Atlantic Records.^[42][43] In January 1967, she traveled to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to record at FAME Studios and recorded the song, “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)“, backed by the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. Franklin only spent one day recording at FAME, as an altercation broke out between manager and husband Ted White, studio owner Rick Hall, and a horn player, and sessions were abandoned.^[33][44] The song was released the following month and reached number one on the R&B chart, while also peaking at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100, giving Franklin her first top-ten pop single. The song’s b-side, “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man“, reached the R&B top 40, peaking at number 37. In April, Atlantic issued her frenetic version of Otis Redding‘s “Respect“, which reached number one on both the R&B and pop charts. “Respect” became her signature song and was later hailed as a civil rights and feminist anthem.^[33][45]

Franklin’s debut Atlantic album, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You, also became commercially successful, later going gold. Franklin scored two more top-ten singles in 1967, including “Baby I Love You” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman“. Her rapport with producer Jerry Wexler helped in the creation of the majority of Franklin’s peak recordings with Atlantic. In 1968, she issued the top-selling albums Lady Soul and Aretha Now, which included some of Franklin’s most popular hit singles, including “Chain of Fools“, “Ain’t No Way“, “Think” and “I Say a Little Prayer“. That February, Franklin earned the first two of her Grammys, including the debut category for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.^[46] On February 16, Franklin was honored with a day named for her and was greeted by longtime friend Martin Luther King Jr. who gave her the SCLC Drum Beat Award for Musicians two months before his death.^[47][48][49] Franklin toured outside the US for the first time in May, including an appearance at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam where she played to a near hysterical audience who covered the stage with flower petals.^[50] She appeared on the cover of Time magazine in June.^[51]

Franklin’s success expanded during the early 1970s, during which she recorded top-ten singles such as “Spanish Harlem“, “Rock Steady” and “Day Dreaming” as well as the acclaimed albums Spirit in the Dark, Young, Gifted and Black, and her gospel album, Amazing Grace, which sold more than two million copies. In 1971, Franklin became the first R&B performer to headline Fillmore West, later that year releasing the live album Aretha Live at Fillmore West.^[52] Franklin’s career began to experience problems while recording the album, Hey Now Hey, which featured production from Quincy Jones. Franklin continued having R&B success with songs such as “Until You Come Back to Me” and “I’m in Love“. After Jerry Wexler left Atlantic for Warner Bros. Records in 1976, Franklin worked on the soundtrack to the film Sparkle with Curtis Mayfield. The album yielded Franklin’s final top 40 hit of the decade, “Something He Can Feel“, which also peaked at number one on the R&B chart.

The Arista era (1980–2007)

In 1980, after leaving Atlantic Records,^[54] Franklin signed with Clive Davis‘s Arista Records and that same year gave a command performanceat London’s Royal Albert Hall in front of Queen Elizabeth. Franklin also had an acclaimed guest role as a waitress in the 1980 comedy musical The Blues Brothers.^[55][56] Franklin’s first Arista album, Aretha (1980), featured the No. 3 R&B hit “United Together” and her Grammy-nominated cover of Redding’s “I Can’t Turn You Loose“. The follow-up, 1981’s Love All the Hurt Away, included her famed duet of the title track with George Benson, while the album also included her Grammy-winning cover of Sam & Dave‘s “Hold On, I’m Comin’“. Franklin achieved a gold record—for the first time in seven years—with the 1982 album Jump to It. The album’s title track was her first top-40 single on the pop charts in six years.^[57]The following year, she released “Get It Right“, produced by Luther Vandross.^[58] In 1985, inspired by a desire to have a “younger sound” in her music, Who’s Zoomin’ Who? became her first Arista album to be certified platinum. The album sold well over a million copies thanks to the hits “Freeway of Love“, the title track, and “Another Night”.^[59] The next year’s Aretha album nearly matched this success with the hit singles “Jumpin’ Jack Flash“, “Jimmy Lee” and “I Knew You Were Waiting for Me“, her international number-one duet with George Michael. During that period, Franklin provided vocals to the theme songs of the TV shows A Different World and Together.^[60] In 1987, she issued her third gospel album, One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, which was recorded at her late father’s New Bethel church, followed by Through the Storm in 1989. Franklin’s 1991 album, What You See is What You Sweat, flopped on the charts. She returned to the charts in 1993 with the dance song “A Deeper Love” and returned to the top 40 with the song “Willing to Forgive” in 1994.^[61]

In 1998, Franklin returned to the top 40 with the Lauryn Hill-produced song “A Rose Is Still a Rose“, later issuing the album of the same name, which went gold. That same year, Franklin earned international acclaim for her performance of “Nessun dorma” at the Grammy Awards, filling in at the last minute for Luciano Pavarotti, who had cancelled after the show had already begun.^[62][63] Her final Arista album, So Damn Happy, was released in 2003 and featured the Grammy-winning song “Wonderful”. In 2004, Franklin announced that she was leaving Arista after more than 20 years with the label.^[64] To complete her Arista obligations, Franklin issued the duets compilation album Jewels in the Crown: All-Star Duets with the Queen in 2007.^[65] The following year, she issued the holiday album This Christmas, Aretha, on DMI Records.^[66]

Later years (2008–2018)

Franklin performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” with Aaron Neville and Dr. John for Super Bowl XL, held in her hometown of Detroit in February 2006. She later made international headlines for performing “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” at President Barack Obama‘s inaugural ceremony with her church hat becoming a popular topic online. In 2010, Franklin accepted an honorary degree from Yale University.^[67] In 2011, under her own label, Aretha’s Records, she issued the album Aretha: A Woman Falling Out of Love.

In 2014, Franklin was signed under RCA Records, controller of the Arista catalog and a sister label to Columbia via Sony Music Entertainment, and was working with Clive Davis. An album was planned with producers Babyface and Danger Mouse.^[68] On September 29, 2014, Franklin performed to a standing ovation, with Cissy Houston as backup, a compilation of Adele‘s “Rolling in the Deep” and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” on the Late Show with David Letterman.^[69] Franklin’s cover of “Rolling in the Deep” was featured among nine other songs in her first RCA release, Aretha Franklin Sings the Great Diva Classics, released in October 2014.^[70] In doing so, she became the first woman to have 100 songs on Billboard′s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart with the success of her cover of Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep”, which debuted at number 47 on the chart.^[71]

In December 2015, Franklin gave an acclaimed performance of “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” at the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors during the section for honoree Carole King, who co-wrote the song.^{[72][73][74][75]} During the bridge of the song, Franklin dropped her fur coat to the stage, for which the audience rewarded her with a mid-performance standing ovation.^[76][77] She returned to Detroit’s Ford Field on Thanksgiving Day 2016 to once again perform the national anthem before the game between the Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions. Seated behind the piano, wearing a black fur coat and Lions stocking cap, Franklin gave a rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” that lasted more than four minutes and featured a host of improvisations.^[78] Franklin released the album A Brand New Me in November 2017 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, which uses archived recordings from Franklin. It peaked at number 5 on the Billboard Top Classical Albums chart before her death and rose to number 2 after her death.^[79]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aretha_Franklin