Respect (song)

"Respect" is a song written and originally released by Stax recording artist Otis Redding in 1965. "Respect" became a 1967 hit and signature song for R&B singer Aretha Franklin. The music in the two versions is significantly different, and through a few minor changes in the lyrics, the stories told by the songs have a different flavor. Redding's version is a plea from a desperate man who will give his woman anything she wants. He won't care if she does him wrong, as long as he gets his due respect when he comes home ("respect" being a euphemism). However, Franklin's version is a declaration from a strong, confident woman who knows that she has everything her man wants. She never does him wrong, and demands his "respect". Franklin's version adds the "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" chorus and the backup singers' refrain of "Sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me..."

Franklin's cover was a landmark for the feminist movement, and is often considered as one of the best songs of the R&B era, earning her two Grammy Awards in 1968 for "Best Rhythm & Blues Recording" and "Best Rhythm & Blues Solo Vocal Performance, Female", and was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1987. In 2002, the Library of Congress honored Franklin's version by adding it to the National Recording Registry. It is number five on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.^[1] It was also included in the list of Songs of the Century, by the Recording Industry of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. Franklin included a live recording on the album "Aretha in Paris" (1968).

Recording

Otis Redding wrote and recorded "Respect" as a blues tune in the studio while finishing his third album, Otis Blue. The album became widely successful, even outside of his largely R&B and blues fanbase. When released in the summer of 1965, the song reached the top five on Billboard's Black Singles Chart, and crossed over to pop radio's white audience, peaking at number thirty-five there. At the time, the song became Redding's second largest crossover hit (after "I've Been Loving You Too Long") and paved the way to future presence at American radio. Redding performed it at the Monterey Pop Festival^[2].

The inspiration had come when complaining after a hard tour, MGs drummer Al Jackson reportedly said to Redding, "What are you griping about? You're on the road all the time. All you can look for is a little respect when you come home."^[3].

Producer Jerry Wexler brought Redding's song to Franklin's attention. While Redding's version was popular among his core R&B audience, Wexler thought the song had potential to be a crossover hit and to demonstrate Franklin's vocal ability. "Respect" was recorded on February 14, 1967 with Aretha's sisters, Carolyn and Erma, singing backup.

Respect was extremely popular in the 1970s. During the recording process, a bridge was added to Redding's original composition. Another addition was King Curtis' tenor saxophone and the slicker production of Wexler and co-producer Arif Mardin. The resulting song was featured on Franklin's Atlantic Records debut album, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You. As the title track became a hit on both R&B and pop radio, Atlantic Records arranged for the release of this new version of "Respect" as a single.

Franklin's rendition found even greater success than the original, spending two weeks atop the Billboard Pop Singles chart, and for eight weeks on the Billboard Black Singles chart. It also became a hit internationally, reaching number ten in the United Kingdom, and helping to transform Franklin from a domestic star into an international one. Even Otis Redding himself was impressed with the performance of the song, and at the Monterey Pop Festival in the summer of the cover's release, he was quoted playfully describing "Respect" as the song "that little girl done stole from me".

Lyrics

Franklin's version of the song contains the famous lines (as printed in the lyrics included in the 1985 compilation album Atlantic Soul Classics):

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Find out what it means to me

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Take care ... TCB^[4]

The last line is often misquoted as "Take out, TCP", or something similar, and indeed most published music sheets which include the lyrics have this incorrect line in them. "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" and "T-C-B" are not present in Redding's original song.,^[5] but were included in some of his later performances with the Bar-Kays. There seems to be some confusion over who first used "T-C-B" in the song.

"TCB" is an abbreviation that was commonly used in the 1960s and 1970s, meaning Taking Care (of) Business, and it was particularly widely used in African-American culture.^[6] However, it was somewhat less well-known outside of that culture,^[7] yielding a possible explanation as to why it was not recognized by those who transcribed Franklin's words for music sheets. Nevertheless, "TCB in a flash" later became Elvis Presley's motto and signature, from his necklace to his private jet plane.

Franklin's lyrics most probably influenced hip-hop's later use of both the word "proper" and "props" in the context of proper respect. She proclaims that she's about to give him all her money, and that all she's asking is for him to give her "her propers" when he gets home.

Legacy

"Respect" has appeared in dozens of films and still receives consistent play on oldies radio stations. In the 1970s, Franklin's version of the song came to exemplify the feminist movement. Although she had numerous hits after "Respect", and several before its release, the song became Franklin's signature song and her best-known recording. I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You was ranked eighty-third in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All-Time in 2003. A year later, "Respect" was fifth in the magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All-Time. The song "Respect" is part of the The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll list.^[8]

Covers

In 1966, the John Evan Band, now Jethro Tull, made a cover version of the song originally released by Otis Redding in 1965. This is a rather rare cover of the song, but still one of the earliest. It can be found on a bootleg of a concert given by the John Evan Band in the town of Casterton, England in 1966.

Despite being overshadowed, Redding's version is still considered a soul classic, and highly regarded by fans of Stax-Volt and southern soul recordings. The Vagrants, a Long Island, New York blue-eyed soul group recorded a version of Respect in 1967, which became a minor hit in the Eastern United States. Another regional band that had a hit with the song was the Michigan-based rock band The Rationals, whose 1966 release of the song received airplay on Detroit radio stations and predated the release of Aretha Franklin's version by a year. The Rotary Connection also have a version of the song, recorded in 1969 for Chess Records.

Ike and Tina Turner released it on their 1971 double live album What You Hear Is What You Get (Live at Carnegie Hall).^[9]

Janis Joplin also recorded the song. Joplin's version is similar to Redding's, although it was a September 1968 studio improvisation, and goes up only to 1st chorus, after which Janis stops, saying: "Another, another". This recording is released only on the unofficial album "Rarer Pearls", which contains various other Joplin studio and live cuts.^[10][11]

Cass Elliot and Sammy Davis, Jr. performed it as a medley with I Dig Rock and Roll Music, Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud, What'd I Say and another Franklin's tune, Think. They sang it on variety show The Hollywood Palace, in 1969.^[12][13]

Dexys Midnight Runners frequently included the song in their live set, and have issued at least two different live recordings of the song. A house music cover was released by singer Adeva in 1989, and reached #17 in the UK singles chart. The song was covered by the Basque fusion-rock band Negu Gorriak, translated as "Errespetua" (respect in euskara) for their 1996 cover album Salam, agur. After the band's split, singer Fermin Muguruza continued to perform his version of the song in some of his solo projects' concerts, and it appeared as the final track on his live album Kontrabanda - Barcelona, Apolo 2004-I-21.

The phrase "what you want, baby I got it" was interpolated on Joss Stone's song "Headturner", from her 2007 album Introducing Joss Stone and Kool Moe Dee's song "No Respect," from his 1987 album How Ya Like Me Now. The song was featured on the game Karaoke Revolution Volume 3.

In 2011, Marilina Connor Questa, an Argentinian Band included a Rock Version of the song, in their debut album, "Somos por Partes".

The Chipettes covered this song for the Alvin and the Chipmunks episode "Cinderella? Cinderella!"

Ashley sang the song where Will treating her like a kid on the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air season 4 episode "Stop Will! in the name of Love" aired in 1994.

Actress Jessica Biel sang the song during the season 1 episode Say Good-bye of the hit series 7th Heaven.

On the fourth season of Martin, Martin sang the song at the DMV on the 1996 episode "DMV Blues".

Cybill Shepherd covered the song in 1999 on the album Songs from the Cybill Show, which accompanied her sitcom Cybill. ^[14]

Kelly Clarkson performed this song on American Idol Season 1 in the semi-finals and it was the song that got her voted through to the Top 10.

Cosima de Vito performed this song on Australian Idol Season 1 on the Top 5 RnB Soul night.

Vonzell Solomon performed this song on American Idol Season 4 in the semi-finals and was voted through to the Top 12.

Emily Williams sang this song on Australian Idol Season 3 on the Top 11 60's night.

Amber Riley also sang the song in the pilot episode of the Fox series Glee.^[15]

Jennifer Hudson performed the song at the 53rd Grammy Awards.

Use in television and other media

The Aretha Franklin version was used on British television for the launch advert of the Peugeot 106 in late 1991.^[16]

The song was also used on the Academy Award-winning film The ChubbChubbs!.

The Aretha Franklin version also appears in the "Music Television" episode of the Tiny toons animated series, produced by the legendary Steven Spielberg. Babs Bunny lip-synchs the lyrics, while people in the room she's in lip-synchs the backing vocals.

Franklin's version was used in 1980's comedy, Airplane!, when Maureen McGovern is singing to a sick jive dude.

The Aretha Franklin version also appears in the 1990's film, Forrest Gump, when Forrest and Bubba mets Lt. Dan in Vietnam

Redding's version was used in NBC's spy-comedy, Chuck in season 3 episode 5: Chuck Versus First Class.

Aretha Franklin's version was used in a television advertisement by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 2000, featuring several successful former refugees, such as Madeleine Albright and Alek Wek, dancing to the song.^[17]

Chart history

Aretha Franklin version

Personnel

• Written by Otis Redding.

Otis Redding version

• Produced by Steve Cropper
• Instrumentation by Steve Cropper (guitar), Isaac Hayes (keyboards), Al Jackson, Jr. (drums), Andrew Love (sax), Gene Miller (trumpet), Floyd Newman (sax).
• Background vocals by William Bell and Earl Sims.

Aretha Franklin version

• Produced by Jerry Wexler and Arif Mardin.
• Engineering by Tom Dowd.
• Instrumentation by Cornell Dupree (guitar), Willie Bridges (sax), Charles Chalmers (sax), Gene Chrisman (drums) (Roger Hawkins is generally credited as being the drummer on this track), Tommy Cogbill (bass), Dewey Oldham (keyboards), and Curtis Ousley (sax).
• Background vocals by Carolyn Franklin and Erma Franklin.

Aretha Franklin version

References

Bibliography

• The Very Best of Otis Redding. Rhino/Atlantic Recording Corporation, 1992. Los Angeles, CA.
• I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You. Atlantic Recording Corporation, 1967. New York, NY.