Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin (1942–2018) was a singer, songwriter, and pianist who defined the golden age of soul music of the 1960s. Considered one of the greatest vocalists of the twentieth century, Franklin had a formidable gospel-trained voice that she used to command a range of styles, including jazz, blues, pop, rhythm and blues (R&B), rock, and opera. Her hits include anthems of the 1960s such as “Respect” and “Think” and the searing ballads “I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)” and “(You Make Me Feel like) A Natural Woman.”
Called the “Queen of Soul,” Franklin sold more than seventy-five million records worldwide. She won eighteen Grammy Awards, including eight for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, as well as a Grammy Living Legend Award and Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1987, she became the first female artist to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Born in Memphis, Tennessee, and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Franklin began singing solos at the New Bethel Baptist Church, where her father was the pastor. In 1956, J.V.B. Records released her first album Spirituals (re-released as Songs of Faith). At age eighteen, Franklin switched from sacred to secular music and moved to New York City, where she signed with Columbia Records. In 1966, she switched to Atlantic Records and returned to her gospel-blues roots. “Respect,” her 1967 cover of Otis Redding’s composition, became an anthem of the civil rights and women’s rights movements. Amazing Grace (1972), recorded live with a choir at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, is regarded as one of the greatest gospel albums ever made. A highlight of her later career was her performance of Puccini’s aria “Nessun dorma” at the 1998 Grammy Awards, where she substituted at the last minute for Luciano Pavarotti.
Franklin sang at a memorial service for Martin Luther King, Jr., and performed “My Country, ’Tis of Thee” at President Barack Obama’s (elected to the Academy in 2018) inauguration. Franklin was a Kennedy Center Honoree (1994) and received the National Medal of Arts (1999) and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2005). In 2019, she was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation “for her indelible contribution to American music and culture for more than five decades.” Detroit honored Franklin’s legacy by renaming a portion of Madison Street as Aretha Franklin Way. In 2002, the Library of Congress added “Respect” to the National Recording Registry.