Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise LaTundra Franklin (born
March 25,
1942) is an
American gospel,
soul and
R&B singer born in
Memphis,
Tennessee, but raised in
Detroit,
Michigan. She has been dubbed for years "
The Queen Of Soul" and many also call her "Lady Soul". She is renowned for her soul and R&B recordings but is also adept at
jazz,
rock,
blues,
pop,
gospel, and even
opera. She is generally regarded as one of the best
vocalists ever by such industry publications/media outlets as
Rolling Stone and
VH1, due to her ability to inject whatever she may be singing about with gut wrenching soul (hence the title) and sheer conviction.
[VH1 Unveils List of Greatest Female Rock 'n' Rollers.] She is the second most honored female popular singer in Grammy history after
Alison Krauss. Ms. Franklin has won eighteen competitive
Grammys (including an unprecedented eleven for
Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, eight of them consecutive) and the state of
Michigan has declared her voice to be a natural wonder.
Franklin has had two number one hit songs on the
Billboard Hot 100,
"Respect" in the 1960s, and her 1980s duet with
George Michael, "
I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" and many of her singles have hit Top 20, Top 10, and Top 5 positions. Franklin is infamously known for her alleged demanding behaviour and has been branded as
The Ultimate Diva.
Franklin was born in Memphis. The family lived in
Buffalo, New York for a short time before moving to
Detroit, Michigan when she was seven. Aretha's mother, Barbara (a gospel singer), left the family when Aretha was only six years old, and later died.
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. One of their two brothers, Cecil, became a minister like their father, but was also Aretha's manager for a time. Their other brother, Vaughn, became a career Air Force pilot.
Aretha 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." Though Columbia really wanted her as a jazz singer, the results never gave full rein to Franklin's talents. Her greatest and most innovative work was yet to come.
Franklin had her first two sons around this time. Clarence, Jr. was born when she was 15 and Edward "Eddie" was born when she was 16. She dropped out of high school soon after the birth of her second son. Her grandmother took in her sons to help Aretha move on in her career.
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
Black 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. Her band for the former included musicians
King Curtis,
Bernard Purdie and
Billy Preston; the latter was 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", a cover of an
Otis Redding single which became her signature song. After the
Best Female R&B Vocal Performance category was added to the
Grammy Awards in 1968, she won successively the first eight ever awarded trophies in the category (from 1968-1975) and added three more to her collection in the 1980s.
Franklin married Ted White in 1962 and he became her manager during her years with Columbia Records. They had one son, Theodore "Teddy" White, Jr. (b. 1969). 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 and she gave no interviews for several years after that.
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
Hey Now Hey (The Other Side of the Sky). 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 their last collaboration, the Atlantic LP
You was released in 1975.
Franklin released several LPs after
You including
Sparkle in 1976 which yielded a #1 R&B single, "(Giving Him) Something He Can Feel",
Sweet Passion,
Almighty Fire (also produced by Curtis Mayfield) and
La Diva, her last Atlantic LP.
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.
Franklin stepped in at the last minute to sing the standard
aria Nessun Dorma (from
Puccini's
Turandot) at the
1998 Grammy telecast when
Luciano Pavarotti took ill.[
1]Also, she won her 18th Grammy for her song "
Wonderful" in 2004.(That number including her lifetime achievement grammy).
She lives today in Detroit when not on tour. Because of her hometown roots, she joined
Aaron Neville and
Dr. John in performing
the national anthem prior to
Super Bowl XL on
February 5,
2006, along with a 150-voice choir to conclude a pre-game tribute to nine-time championship game host city
New Orleans, recovering and rebuilding after the plight of
Hurricane Katrina.
* Aretha Franklin was sued for breach of contract in 1984 when she was unable to star in the
Broadway musical
Sing, Mahalia, Sing, (based on the life of gospel legend
Mahalia Jackson) mainly because of her
fear of flying.
* She was inducted into the
Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in 2001.
* In 1969 Aretha was arrested for disturbing the peace in Detroit.
* Aretha frequently invites fellow soul singer
Chaka Khan, reportedly one of her favorites, to sing at her birthday parties.
* Sang "America the Beautiful" at
WrestleMania III.
* She was married to veteran
character actor Glynn Turman from 1978 to 1984.
* In 2006 Aretha Franklin's Grammy total rose to eighteen with a best traditional R&B vocal award for "A House Is Not a Home," a track from the
Luther Vandross tribute "So Amazing."
* Aretha Franklin calls
Fantasia Barrino "my child."
* Teairra Mari's grandmother sang backup for her.
* On
January 3,
1987 she became the first woman to be inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
* In September, 1999 she was awarded The
National Medal of Arts by
President Clinton* In 2005, she was awarded The
Presidential Medal of Freedom by
President Bush* In 2005 she became the second woman to be inducted into the
UK Music Hall of Fame.
Grammy Awards
Aretha Franklin has won eighteen Grammy Awards in total during her 45 year career, and currently holds the record for most Best Female R&B Vocal Performance wins with 11 to her name (including eight consecutive awards from 1968-1975-the first 8 ever awarded in that category).
| Aretha Franklin's Grammy Award Wins |
| Year | Category | Genre | Title |
| 1968 | Best Rhythm And Blues Recording | R&B | Respect |
| 1968 | Best Female R&B Vocal Performance | R&B | Respect |
| 1969 | Best Female R&B Vocal Performance | R&B | Chain Of Fools |
| 1970 | Best Female R&B Vocal Performance | R&B | Share Your Love With Me |
| 1971 | Best Female R&B Vocal Performance | R&B | Don't Play That Song |
| 1972 | Best Female R&B Vocal Performance | R&B | Bridge Over Troubled Water |
| 1973 | Best Female R&B Vocal Performance | R&B | Young, Gifted and Black |
| 1973 | Best Soul Gospel Performance | Gospel | Amazing Grace |
| 1974 | Best Female R&B Vocal Performance | R&B | Master Of Eyes |
| 1975 | Best Female R&B Vocal Performance | R&B | Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing |
| 1982 | Best Female R&B Vocal Performance | R&B | Hold On I'm Comin' |
| 1986 | Best Female R&B Vocal Performance | R&B | Freeway Of Love |
| 1988 | Best Female R&B Vocal Performance | R&B | Aretha |
| 1988 | Best R&B Vocal By Duo Or Group | R&B | I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)
With George Michael |
| 1991 | Legend Award | General | -- |
| 2004 | Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance | R&B | Wonderful |
| 2006 | Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance | R&B | A House Is Not A Home |
For a detailed account of Aretha Franklin releases, see the Aretha Franklin discography.Notable albums:*1967
I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)*1967
Aretha Arrives *1968
Lady Soul *1968
Aretha Now *1970
This Girl's In Love With You *1971
Young, Gifted and Black*1972
Amazing Grace*1973
Hey Now Hey (The Other Side of the Sky)*1974
With Everything I Feel in Me*1974
Let Me in Your Life*1975
You*1976
Sparkle *1978
Almighty Fire*1982
Jump to It*1983
Get It Right'
*1985
Who's Zoomin' Who?*1998
A Rose Is Still A RoseTop 10 US Hot 100 singles:The Blues Brothers (1980)
Blues Brothers 2000 (1998)
Immaculate Funk (2000) (documentary)
Tom Dowd & the Language of Music (2003) (documentary)
Singing in the Shadow: The Children of Rock Royalty (2003) (documentary)
*
List of best-selling music artists*
List of number-one hits (United States)*
List of artists who reached number one on the Hot 100 (U.S.)*
List of number-one dance hits (United States)*
List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance chart
*
Official site*
Aretha Franklin Online Fansite
*
*
Aretha Franklin at Memorable Music Hall of Fame*
Aretha Franklin at Soulmusic.com*
Aretha Franklin at
Swingin' 60's Chicks*
BBC article on Aretha Franklin
