Aretha Franklin

Aretha Louise Franklin (born March 25, 1942) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its "100 Greatest Singers of All Time" list,^[1] as well as the ninth greatest artist of all time. She has won 18 competitive Grammys and two honorary Grammys. She has 20 No.1 singles on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart and two No.1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100: "Respect" (1967) and "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" (1987), a duet with George Michael. Since 1961, she has scored a total of 45 Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. Between 1967 and 1982 she had 10 No.1 R&B albums—more than any other female artist. In 1987, Franklin became the first female artist to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Biography

Early life and career: 1942–1959

Aretha Louise Franklin (named for two aunts) was born in a two-room house in Memphis, Tennessee, at 406 Lucy Street.^[2] She was the third of four children born to Barbara (née Siggers) and C.L. Franklin and the fifth of six overall in between past relationships by her parents. Aretha's family moved to Buffalo when she was two years old, and then by four they had settled in Detroit. Following the move to Detroit, Franklin's parents, who had a troubled marriage, split. Due to her father's work as a Baptist minister, Franklin was primarily raised by her grandmother, Rachel. Her mother died in Buffalo when Aretha was ten. Franklin sang in church at an early age and learned how to play piano by ear.

By her late preteens, Franklin was regularly singing solo numbers in her father's New Bethel Baptist Church. C.L. (née Clarence LaVaughn) Franklin, Aretha's father, was a respected local preacher. She grew up with local and national celebrities hanging out at her father's home, including gospel greats Albertina Walker and her group The Caravans, Mahalia Jackson and Clara Ward, three women who played a pivotal role in her vocal development as a child.

Early success: 1960–1966

She released her first single for Columbia in September 1960, aged 18. It reached No. 10 on Billboard's R&B chart. Her first album was released in January 1961. The label had her record mainly jazz-influenced pop music, hoping for success with this format as the label had with Billie Holiday. Columbia founder John H. Hammond acknowledged in an interview years later that he felt Columbia did not really understand Franklin's background in gospel and failed to bring that aspect out in her secular recordings.^[3] After scoring two more Top 10 R&B hits with "Operation Heartbreak" and "Won't Be Long" in 1961, Franklin scored her first Top 40 pop hit with her rendition of "Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody". Later releases failed to find similar success, although Franklin had a near-Top 50 hit with "Runnin' Out of Fools" (1963).

After the release of a tribute album to Dinah Washington, Columbia drifted away from their early jazz dreams for Franklin and had the singer record renditions of girl group-oriented hits including "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss)", "Every Little Bit Hurts" and "Mockingbird" but every attempt to bring her success with the material failed. This did not, however, prevent her building a reputation as a multi-talented vocalist and musician. During a show in 1965, the master of ceremonies gave Franklin a tiara and declared her "the queen of soul". The title would prove to be prophetic. By 1966, struggling with recording for Columbia, Franklin decided not to sign a new contract with the label and settled on a deal with Atlantic. After she gained success at Atlantic, Columbia began releasing Franklin material from its vaults, and continues doing so.

Stardom: 1967–1972

Franklin began recording her first songs for Atlantic in early 1967. Initially sent to Muscle Shoals's legendary FAME studios where the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section was the in-house band, Franklin cut her first song – the blues ballad "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)",^[3] which finally allowed Franklin to show her gospel side. Tensions between Franklin's then-husband and then-manager Ted White and a musician led to Franklin and White hiding from public view in New York. Franklin eventually returned to the studio in New York to record the b-side, the gospel-oriented "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man". "I Never Loved a Man" soared up both the pop and R&B charts upon its release peaking at number-nine and number-one respectively.

Her second single with Atlantic would also be her biggest, most acclaimed work. "Respect",^[3] originally recorded and written by R&B singer Otis Redding, would become a bigger hit after Franklin's gospel-fueled rendition of the song. The song also started a pattern of Franklin in later songs during this period producing a call and response vocal with Franklin usually backed up by her sisters Erma and Carolyn Franklin or The Sweet Inspirations. Franklin is credited with arranging the background vocals and ad-libbing the line, "r-e-s-p-e-c-t, find out what it means to me/take care of TCB", while her sisters shouted afterwards, "sock it to me". Franklin's version peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming a 1960s anthem. Franklin had three more top ten hits in 1967 – "Baby I Love You", "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" and "Chain of Fools".^[3] "Respect" later won Franklin her first two Grammys. She eventually won eight consecutive Grammys under the Best Female R&B Vocal Performance category.^[4]

By the end of the year, Franklin not only became a star but she stood as one of the symbols of the civil rights movement partially due to her rendition of "Respect", which had a feminist-powered theme after Franklin recorded it. Franklin's other hits during the late 1960s included "Think",^[3] her rendition of Dionne Warwick's "I Say a Little Prayer", "Ain't No Way" and "The House That Jack Built" among others. By the end of the 1960s, Franklin's title as "the queen of soul" became permanent in the eyes of the media. After a few struggles in 1969, she returned with the ballad, "Call Me" in January 1970. That same year she had another hit with her gospel version of Ben E. King's "Don't Play That Song", while in 1971, Franklin was one of the first black performers to headline Fillmore West^[5] where she later released a live album. That same year she released the acclaimed Young, Gifted & Black album, which featured two top ten hits, the ballad "Daydreamin'" and the funk-oriented "Rocksteady". In 1972, she released her first gospel album in nearly two decades with Amazing Grace. The album eventually became her biggest-selling release ever, selling over two million copies and becoming the best-selling gospel album of all time.

Decline and fallout with Atlantic: 1973–1979

Aretha had another number-one R&B hit in 1973 with the Carolyn Franklin and William "Sonny" Sanders-composed "Angel", however its parent album, Hey Now Hey (The Other Side of the Sky), failed to repeat the success of Franklin's other albums. By 1974, after four years performing in Afrocentric-styled clothing, the singer glammed up her look and styled red hair releasing Let Me In Your Life. The album yielded the smash single, "Until You Come Back to Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do)". While several singles would later find success on the R&B charts, Franklin was losing favor with pop audiences as soul music was starting to be overtaken by the emerging disco genre. Atlantic Records had also by this point given priority attention to Roberta Flack, leading to relations between Franklin and the company becoming estranged as a result. Franklin turned down a number of tracks giving to her by Marvin Yancy and Chuck Jackson (though eventually they would contribute to her 1975 album, You). Several of the songs including "This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)" was later recorded by Natalie Cole. After the arrivals of Cole and Chaka Khan, Franklin's star ebbed.

She briefly returned to the top 40 in 1976 with the Curtis Mayfield production, Sparkle, which spawned the number-one R&B hit, "Giving Him Something He Can Feel". Despite this, Franklin struggled to find success with subsequent releases. After the release of 1979's La Diva, an attempt for Franklin to find a disco audience that flopped, selling less than 50,000 copies, Franklin's contract with Atlantic expired. Neither Atlantic nor Aretha had any interest in renewing it. While she was performing in Las Vegas on June 10, 1979, Franklin's father, C.L., was shot during an attempted robbery at his LaSalle Street home in Detroit. The incident left C.L. in a coma for the next five years. Aretha moved back to the Detroit area in late 1982 from Los Angeles (where she had lived since 1976) to help care for her father.

Comeback: 1980–1989

In 1980, Franklin, among other prominent rhythm and blues and soul artists including Ray Charles and James Brown, appeared in the film The Blues Brothers. Franklin appeared as the wife of musician Matt "Guitar" Murphy, who engages in a brief war of words with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi before going into "Think". Following that performance, Clive Davis signed Franklin to his Arista Records imprint. The singles "United Together" and the George Benson-featured "Love All the Hurt Away" returned Franklin to the R&B top ten while 1982's Jump to It, featuring a contemporary R&B production style by Luther Vandross, became a comeback of sorts for Franklin on the pop music chart. The album stayed at No. 1 on the R&B Albums chart for seven weeks and crossed to No. 23 on the Billboard 200 album chart, eventually selling close to 600,000 units and becoming Aretha's first gold-certified album since the Sparkle soundtrack. The title track became Franklin's first number-one R&B hit in five years while also hitting No. 24 on the Hot 100. After the relative failure of her 1983 follow-up, Get It Right, also produced by Vandross, Franklin took some personal time off. Following the July 1984 death of her father, she entered the United Sound Studios in Detroit to record a new album for Arista in October of that year. Inspired by the recent success of fellow artist Tina Turner and Arista's emerging star Whitney Houston, Arista paired Franklin with Narada Michael Walden.

The album released in July 1985, Who's Zoomin' Who?, featured R&B, pop, dance, synthpop and rock elements and became Franklin's first platinum-certified success. The album launched several major hits including the title track and the Motown-inspired "Freeway of Love". The rock-influenced Annie Lennox duet, "Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves" also became a hit for Franklin on the pop charts though it failed to climb higher than No.66 on the R&B chart due to its more pop rock-leaning sound. Music Videos for each of the singles became prominent fixtures on MTV, BET and VH-1 among other video channels. In 1986, Franklin released her self-titled follow-up to Who's Zoomin' Who. The album sold almost a million copies, and featured the number-one hit, "I Knew You Were Waiting for Me", a duet with George Michael. In April 1987, the song became Franklin's first single since "Respect" to hit No. 1 on the Hot 100.

Other hits from the album included a cover of "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and another Motown-inspired hit, "Jimmy Lee". In 1987 she returned to her gospel roots with the album, One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, which failed to repeat the success of Amazing Grace despite a powerful rendition of "Oh Happy Day", featuring Mavis Staples, but did reach the Top 10 of Billboard's gospel chart. In 1986, she sang the theme song ("Together") for the ABC television network.

Later work: 1989–2003

In 1989, Franklin returned with her first pop album in three years with Through the Storm but despite scoring a Top 20 hit with the title track featuring Elton John and the presence of Whitney Houston in their duet single, "It Isn't, It Wasn't, It Ain't Ever Gonna Be", the album tanked, as did a follow-up, 1991's new jack swing effort, What You See Is What You Sweat. After singing Donny Hathaway's "Someday We'll All Be Free" on the Malcolm X soundtrack in 1992 and singing at then-President Bill Clinton's inauguration ceremony in 1993, Franklin returned to favor with pop audiences later in 1993 with the release of the dance single, "Deeper Love", which was featured on the soundtrack of Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit. The following year, Franklin issued her Arista hits album and with Babyface released two hit singles, "Honey" and the top 40 pop ballad "Willing to Forgive". In 1995, her song "It Hurts Like Hell" appeared on the soundtrack for the movie Waiting to Exhale. Four years passed until Franklin released another album. 1998's A Rose Is Still a Rose reintroduced Franklin to a new R&B audience and featured elements of neo soul and hip hop soul with production from Lauryn Hill, Jermaine Dupri and Sean "Puffy" Combs. The title track, written and produced by Hill, became Franklin's biggest hit in years reaching number 26 on the Hot 100 and reaching the R&B top five.

She later reprised her role as Matt "Guitar" Murphy's wife in the Blues Brothers remake, Blues Brothers 2000 singing "Respect". She struggled to record a successful follow-up, however, and it would be five more years before a new album emerged. Franklin issued her next album, So Damn Happy, in 2003. The album was a criticial and commercial failure, selling just over 100,000 copies.

Current work: 2004–present

In 2003, after 23 years with Arista, Franklin parted with the company and decided to go on the independent route, forming Aretha's Records two years later. Franklin released a duets compilation album, Jewels in the Crown: All-Star Duets with the Queen, in 2007. The album featured the Fantasia duet, "Put You Up on Game", which despite becoming a modest hit on Urban AC radio, stalled at No. 41 on the R&B charts. A year later, Franklin issued her first holiday album, This Christmas, Aretha. After initially being released as a Borders exclusive, it was later released by the DMI label.

In 2008, Franklin was honored as MusiCares "Person of the Year", two days prior to the 50th Annual Grammy Awards, where she was awarded her 18th career Grammy. Franklin was personally asked by then newly-elected President Barack Obama to perform at his inauguration singing "My Country 'tis of Thee". The memorable hat she wore at the ceremony was donated to the Smithsonian Institution.^[6] In 2010, Franklin received an honorary music degree from Yale University.^[7]

In 2010 and through early 2011, Franklin had told the media she had selected actress Halle Berry to play her in the featured role of the legendary singer in a biopic loosely based on Franklin's memoirs, Aretha: From These Roots. In January 2011, Berry turned down the role. Franklin said she's now setting her sights on singers Fantasia and Jennifer Hudson on getting the lucrative role.

Marking her 50th anniversary in show business, Franklin released her thirty-eighth studio album, A Woman Falling Out Of Love, on May 3, 2011, through WalMart. It is the first release off Franklin's own record label, Aretha's Records, a label she formed back in the 1990s. However, Aretha's new disc peaked at a disappointing #54 on Billboard's main album chart, dropping off after only two weeks. She co-produced some of the new tracks. The first single from the album is the ballad "How Long I've Been Waiting" which failed to chart. Ronald Isley will be featured in the album doing the Barbra Streisand standard, "The Way We Were", as he and Franklin covered the Carole King classic, "You've Got a Friend", first issued on Isley's Mr. I album.

Following her exit from the stage in November 2010 and her surgery the following month, Franklin has recently returned to the stage, rescheduling dates she was forced to cancel due to recent health problems.

In September 2011, Tony Bennett released a duet with Aretha entitled "How Do You Keep The Music Playing" off of his new album, Duets II (Tony Bennett album).

Personal life

In March 1956, three days after her 14th birthday, Franklin gave birth to her eldest child, a son she named Clarence (for her father). In January 1957 she gave birth to another son, Edward.^[8] She never identified by name the father of either child. Her grandmother, Rachel, raised the boys while Aretha pursued her singing career. Rachel lived in a guest house behind C.L. Franklin's LaSalle Street home. (The Franklin family moved from their home on Boston Street in Detroit's North End section to LaSalle Street during the late 1950s.)

Against her father's wishes Aretha began dating a family acquaintance named Ted White. In 1961 they were quickly married in Ohio by a judge. White became her personal manager as well as co-writer. Shortly afterward, she purchased a house on Sorrento Avenue in northwest Detroit, where she resided for the next decade. She and White divorced in 1969. Their son Teddy (Ted White Jr.), born in 1964, is the musical director and guitarist of her touring band.

From 1969 until 1976, she had a seven-year relationship with her road manager Ken Cunningham. (Although she and White did not divorce until late 1969, Aretha conceived her fourth child in June of that year.) In the early 1970s the couple moved from Detroit to New York City, at which time Aretha's grandmother moved into her Sorrento Avenue home. Their son Kecalf (from the initials of his parents' names: Kenneth E Cunningham Aretha Louise Franklin and pronounced "kelf")^[9] was born on March 28, 1970 at Detroit's Henry Ford Hospital.

On April 11, 1978, Aretha Franklin married actor Glynn Turman at her father's New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit. Franklin's father performed the marriage ceremony. The couple returned to their home in Encino, California. In late 1982, Franklin moved back to Detroit, and in 1985 she purchased a home in Bloomfield Hills, where she still resides. Turman and Franklin divorced in early 1984. The couple did not have children. They remained friends, and she sang the theme song for his show, A Different World, in the late 1980s.

Franklin's sisters Erma and Carolyn are both deceased, as is her brother Cecil. As of 2011, her half-brother Vaughn (born 1934) is alive as is her half-sister, Carl Ellan Kelley (née Jennings; born 1940). Kelley is C.L. Franklin's daughter by Mildred Jennings, a then 13-year-old congregant of New Salem Baptist Church of Memphis, Tennessee, where C.L. was pastor in the late 1930s and early 1940s.^[10] Franlin's sons, Ted White Jr. ("Teddy") and Kecalf Cunningham, are active in the music business. White has been a guitarist in Aretha's backup band since the late 1980s, while Cunningham works as a Christian hip-hop rapper and producer.

Aretha Franklin is a registered Democrat.^[11]

In September 2010, her son Edward was attacked and severely beaten by three people while at a gas station on Plymouth Road, near Evergreen, in northwest Detroit.^[12]

Franklin's long friendship with Cissy Houston during Houston's time with The Sweet Inspirations led to Franklin becoming Whitney Houston's godmother. Cissy Houston sang the operatic soprano whoop in the background of Franklin's "Ain't No Way".

On January 1, 2012, Franklin announced that she and William Wilkerson were engaged.^[13] Franklin revealed that they were planning to exchange nuptials at a ceremony on a private yacht in Miami, Florida this summer.^[14]

2010 surgery and rumors of cancer

In 2010, Franklin suffered a pain in her side which she said, "was so hard it almost brought me to my knees." After continuing a concert tour, the pain recurred, and she subsequently underwent surgery for an undisclosed ailment. At this time, rumors surfaced that she was suffering from pancreatic cancer. In discussing the events in 2011, she has said that this was not the case and that her doctor told her, "the surgery that you just had is going to add 15 to 20 more years to your life."^[15]

Connection to the Civil Rights Movement

Franklin’s music and civil rights involvement cannot be separated for it was through music, which Franklin was able to reach out to so many and empower those who had felt so long oppressed.

Aretha Franklin first became connected with the civil rights movement through her father, Reverend C.L. Franklin. Rev. Franklin was an influential preacher who traveled the country as well as recorded a weekly sermon for the radio station, WLAC, which reached sixty-five percent of the African-American population. It was these same tours that Aretha would begin her singing career.^[16] Rev. Franklin would also introduce Aretha to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. starting a life long friendship between the two.

It was Franklin's soulful sound, which would become the driving anthem of the civil rights movement or as poet Nikki Giovanni put it “the voice of the civil rights movement, the voice of the black America”.^[17]

Through Franklin’s album ‘I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You’, hit ‘Respect’ rose to the top. Her strong voice asking for something as simple as respect reflects the cries of the civil rights movement. Her lyrics mirror that of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s ‘I Have A Dream’ speech. Most notably the lines “Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children”.^[18] While the civil rights movement was already in motion before Franklin became a prominent figure she had now lent it a soundtrack.

Franklin did not have to do much to help propel the civil rights movement. “Her own sense of pride and her dignified stance, she represented the new black woman of the late 1960s”.^[9] Franklin’s own sound and present were enough to reflect the ideas of the movement and were what caused her to become a notable figure in the cause.

Franklin was not actively heading demonstrations or participating in sit-ins, but she was able to do her part and use her talent to help the movement. She would numerous times perform at rallies with the King, lending her voice and fame to pull in crowds.

Awards and achievements

• On June 28, 1968 she became the second African-American woman to appear on the cover of TIME magazine.^[19]
• On August 1, 1968, she sang the National Anthem at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, IL.
• In 1985, then-Gov. James Blanchard of Michigan declared her voice “a natural resource” during a ceremony that marked her 25 years in show business.
• Aretha Franklin is one of three musicians, along with Madonna & Marvin Gaye, to have singles peak at each of the top 10 positions on the US Billboard Hot 100.
• On January 20, 1987, she became the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.^[20]
• On March 29, 1987, Franklin sang "America the Beautiful" at WrestleMania III.
• In 1987, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Musicology degree from the University of Detroit.
• In September 1999, she was awarded The National Medal of Arts by President Clinton.
• In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked her No. 9 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.^[21]
• In 2005, she was awarded The Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush.
• In 2005, she became the second woman (Madonna being the first, a founding member) to be inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame.
• In 2005, Franklin was inducted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.
• On February 6, 2006, she performed, along with Aaron Neville, "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XL.
• On May 13, 2006, she was presented with an honorary Doctor of Music degree by the Berklee College of Music.
• On April 1, 2007 Aretha sang "America the Beautiful" at WrestleMania 23.
• On May 14, 2007, she was presented with an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
• In 2007, Aretha Franklin's recording of "Respect" was voted a Legendary Michigan Song.
• Is an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority
• On February 8, 2008, Franklin was honored as MusiCares "Person of the Year".
• On February 14, 2008, Franklin was given the Vanguard award at the NAACP Image awards.
• On May 4, 2008, Franklin was given the Key to the City of Memphis at the 2008 "Memphis in May International Music Festival" by Mayor Dr. Willie Herenton during her performance onstage.
• On September 13, 2008, Franklin was ranked No .19 on the Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists list by Billboard.^[22]
• November 2008, Franklin was named by Rolling Stone as the No. 1 all-time best singer of the rock era, according to the magazine's survey of 179 musicians, producers, Rolling Stone editors, and other music industry insiders.^[23]
• On January 20, 2009, Franklin performed "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" during the inauguration ceremony of Barack Obama. The distinctive hat she wore during that performance is displayed at the Smithsonian.^[6]
• On May 23, 2010, Franklin received an Honorary Doctorate in Music from Yale University.^[24]

On June 1, 2010, Aretha Franklin's recording of "Chain Of Fools" was voted a Legendary Michigan Song.^[25]

• On February 13, 2011, the Grammy Awards paid tribute to Franklin with a medley of her classics by fellow singers Christina Aguilera, Florence Welch, Jennifer Hudson, Martina McBride and Yolanda Adams^[26]
• On October 16, 2011, Franklin sang "Precious Lord (Take My Hand)" for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s memorial dedication ceremony in Washington, D.C. Again, she met with President Obama.

Grammy Awards

Franklin has won 18^[27] performance Grammy Awards,^[28] and two honorary Grammys: the Grammy Legend Award (1991) and the Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award (1994).^[29]

She holds the record for most Best Female R&B Vocal Performance awards, with eleven to her name (including eight consecutive awards from 1968 to 1975 – the first eight awarded in that category).

Discography

Top 10 US Hot 100 singles

Source:^[30]

All no. 1 hits in US R&B 100 singles

Source:^[30]

Filmography

Movies / Concerts / Documentaries

• The Blues Brothers (1980)
• Motown 40: The Music Is Forever (1998) (ABC-TV documentary)
• Blues Brothers 2000 (1998)
• DIVAS LIVE (1998)
• Immaculate Funk (2000) (documentary)
• Rhythm, Love and Soul (2002)
• Tom Dowd & the Language of Music (2003) (documentary)
• Singing in the Shadow: The Children of Rock Royalty (2003) (documentary)
• From The Heart / The Four Tops 50th Anniversary and Celebration (2004)
• Atlantic Records: The House that Ahmet Built (2007) (documentary)

Television

• The Tonight Show / Johnny Carson
• The Mike Douglas Show
• In 1972, she had a role in the TV show Room 222
• Solid Gold (numerous appearances with the last in 1982 performing "Jump To It")
• Kelly & Company (Marilyn Turner and John Kelly, Detroit)
• Dayna (Dayna Eubanks, fomer Detroit newscaster)
• Rolonda Show (Rolonda Watts)
• The Oprah Winfrey Show (numerous appearances including Oprah's 40th birthday, with Patti LaBelle and Gladys Knight)
• Live with Regis and Kelly (numerous appearances)
• The View

References

External links

• Aretha Franklin at Legacy Recordings
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Aretha Franklin at the Internet Movie Database
• Aretha Franklin at NPR Music
• Aretha Franklin collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Aretha Franklin collected news and commentary at The Guardian
• Works by or about Aretha Franklin in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Aretha Franklin at Answers.com
• Aretha Franklin discography at Discogs