Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin

Aretha Louise Franklin (born March 25, 1942) is a dead American singer, songwriter and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as the The Queen of Soul, Franklin is adept at jazz, blues, R&B and gospel music. Rolling Stone magazine ranked Franklin No. 1 on its list of The Greatest Singers of All Time.

Franklin is one of the most honored artists by the Grammy Awards, with 18 competitive Grammys to date, and two honorary Grammys. She has scored a total of 20 No. 1 singles on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart, one of which also became her first No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100: "Respect" (1967). "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" (1987), a duet with George Michael, became her second No. 1 on the latter chart. Since 1961, she has scored a total of 45 "Top 40" hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. She also has the most million-selling singles of any female artist with 14. Between 1967 and 1982 she had 10 #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. Aretha Franklin was the only featured singer at the 2009 presidential inauguration for Barack Obama.

Biography

Early life and career: 1942-1960

Aretha Louise Franklin was born at a two-room house in Memphis located at 406 Lucy St. She was the third of four children born to Barbara (nèe Siggers) and C.L. Franklin and the fifth of six overall in between past relationships by her parents. Franklin's family moved to Buffalo, when Franklin was two, and then by six, 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. Franklin suffered a tragedy when 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. Franklin's father, C.L. (short for Clarence LaVaughn), was a respected and popular preacher. Franklin 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.

After Franklin's father gained fame for his recorded sermons for Checker Records and for gaining even more popularity for his work as a civil rights activist, Franklin helped his daughter sign a contract with Checker's JVB gospel record division and in 1956, at fourteen released her first album, Songs of Faith. Franklin then toured the gospel circuit and worked under the direction of James Cleveland. Franklin's gospel career was short-lived after the singer became a mother to two sons. After turning eighteen, Franklin set her sights on a secular career, which her father gave his blessing. After turning down offers from her city's fledgling Motown label and Sam Cooke's request to join his RCA label, Franklin settled on Columbia Records and moved to New York. Her first single, "Today I Sung the Blues", was released in the fall of 1960 becoming a top ten R&B hit but failed to enter the pop charts.

Early success: 1961-1966

Franklin's first album was released in January of 1961. Due to her love of Dinah Washington, Franklin's label had the singer record mainly jazz-influenced pop music hoping for success with this format as the label had had with Billie Holiday. Columbia founder John Hammond later admitted in an interview years later that he felt Columbia didn't really understand Franklin's background in gospel and failed to bring that aspect out in her secular recordings. After scoring two more top ten 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". However later releases failed to find similar success, despite Franklin having a near-top fifty hit with "Runnin' Out of Fools" in 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. Still, Franklin had already gained a reputation for being a multi-talented vocalist and musician. During a show in 1965, the master of ceremonies gave Franklin a tiara crown declaring 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 with a deal with Atlantic. After she gained success in Atlantic, Columbia would release material from Franklin's prior recordings with the label which continued until 1969.

Superstardom: 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)", which finally allowed Franklin to showed 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". "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", 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 sixties 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". "Respect" later won Franklin her first two Grammys. She eventually win eight consecutive Grammys under the Best Female R&B Vocal Performance category.

By the end of the year, Franklin not only became a superstar 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 sixties included "Think", 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 sixties, 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 gained notoriety for being one of the first black performers to headline Fillmore West 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 found 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 in the public though she was still revered.

Franklin 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, Franklin decided to end her contract with Atlantic. While performing in Las Vegas in June 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. Franklin would move back to the Detroit area in late 1982 from Los Angeles (where she had moved to in 1976) to assist with care of her father in Detroit.

Comeback: 1980-1989

In 1980, Franklin among other prominent rhythm and blues and soul artists including Ray Charles and James Brown appeared on the film, The Blues Brothers. Franklin gained notice for her portrayal of the concerned wife of musician Matt "Guitar" Murphy and engaged 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 #1 on the R&B Albums chart for seven weeks and crossed to #23 on the Billboard 200 album chart, selling over 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 #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, Aretha 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 #66 on the R&B chart due to its more pop rock-leaning sound. 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 close to a million copies and featured the number-one hit, "I Knew You Were Waiting for Me", a duet with George Michael. The song became Franklin's first single since "Respect" nearly 20 years back to hit number-one on the Hot 100. Other hits from the album included a cover of "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and another Motown-inspired hit, "Jimmy Lee". A year later, Franklin 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 albums chart.

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 poorly-arranged and produced new jack swing effort, What You See Is What You Sweat. After gaining notoriety for 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". 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. That same year, with less than 30 minutes to prepare, Franklin stepped in for the late Luciano Pavarotti to sing "Nessun Dorma" at the 1998 Grammy Awards. (Pavarotti, who was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award that night, was too sick to attend.) She gave a soulful and highly improvised performance in the aria's original key, while firmly stamping out the year with a captivating performance during VH1's "Divas Live" telecast. Franklin later reprised her role as Matt "Guitar" Murphy's wife in the Blues Brothers remake, Blues Brothers 2000 singing "Respect". Franklin 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. Despite sales failure, the album spawned the Grammy-winning song, "Wonderful" in the Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance category.

Current work: 2004-present

In 2003, after 23 years with Arista, Franklin parted with the company and decided to go on the independent route. Her own label, Aretha Records, formed in 2005 but no albums have been issued from the label. 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 hit on Urban AC radio, stalled at number 41 on the R&B charts. A year later, Franklin issued her first holiday album, This Christmas, Aretha. After initially being released as as Borders exclusive, it was later released by the DMI label. In 2006 Aretha announced the upcoming release of her next album, A Woman Falling Out of Love on her label. However, release dates for the album have been scheduled and delayed numerous times. Franklin said she recorded duets for the album with gospel singer Karen Clark Sheard as well as pop-rock superstar Richard Marx and country artist Faith Hill. 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". Franklin gained notoriety for the hat she wore at the ceremony, which was later donated to the Smithsonian Institute for $2 million. In 2010, Franklin received an honorary music degree from Yale University.

Personal life

Franklin's sons Clarence and Edward were born when she was 13 and 16 years old, respectively. She has never identified the father of either child. Aretha's grandmother, Rachel, raised Aretha's sons while she 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, Aretha purchased a house on Sorrento Avenue in northwest Detroit, where she resided for the next decade. Their son, Ted White Jr., was born in 1964. Aretha and Ted divorced in 1969. Teddy is her musical director and guitarist of her touring band. From 1969 until 1976, Franklin had a seven-year relationship with her road manager Ken Cunningham. 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") was born on March 28, 1970.

In 1978, Aretha married actor Glynn Turman at her father's New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit. C. L. Franklin performed the marriage ceremony. The couple returned to their home in Encino, California. In late 1982 Franklin moved back to Detroit where she currently resides. Turman and Franklin divorced in early 1984. The couple didn't have children during their short-term marriage. They remained friends and she sang the theme song for his show A Different World in the late 1980s. While White is 11 years older than Franklin, Cunningham and Turman are both several years her junior.

Franklin's two youngest sons, Ted White Jr. and Kecalf Cunningham, are active in the music business. Teddy has been a guitarist in Aretha's back up band since the late 1980s while Kecalf has been working in the industry as a Christian hip-hop rapper and producer.

Aretha's parents are both deceased, as are her siblings Erma, Cecil, and Carolyn. Her only surviving siblings are brother Vaughn (Barbara Franklin's son - born on December 24, 1934 - from a relationship before her marriage to C. L.), who resides in Mobile, Alabama and still travels with Aretha on tour, and sister Carl Ellan Kelley (née Jennings; born in 1940), C.L. Franklin's daughter by Mildred Jennings, a congregant of New Salem Baptist Church of Memphis, Tennessee, where C.L. was pastor in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

Aretha is a member of the Democratic Party.

In September 2010, Franklin's second eldest son Edward Franklin was attacked by three people while at a gas station on Joy Road in northwest Detroit. A month prior, Franklin had to cancel her dates with Condoleeza Rice on their joint tour after breaking two ribs in a fall. In November, Franklin's doctor ordered the ailing singer to not perform until May 2011 after she reportedly spent a week in Detroit's Sinai-Grace Hospital for a 'serious illness' which was later revealed to be pancreatic cancer.

Awards and achievements

Aretha Franklin wipes a tear after being honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom on November 9, 2005, at the White House. Seated with her are fellow recipients Robert Conquest, left, and Alan Greenspan

• On June 28, 1968 she became the second African-American woman to appear on the cover of Time magazine
• 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 achieve 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.
• 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 1994 she became the recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor.
• 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.
• 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, Inc.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• On December 4, 2009, Aretha Franklin performed in EMPAC at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to celebrate RPI's President Shirley Ann Jackson's 10th year of being tenured.
• On May 23, 2010, Franklin received an Honorary Doctorate in Music from Yale University.

Grammy Awards

Franklin has won eighteen (18) Grammy Awards in total during her nearly half-century long career (she first charted in 1961) and 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).

Aretha Franklin's 18 Grammy Award Wins
#	Year	Category	Genre	Title
1	1968	Best Rhythm & Blues Recording	R&B	Respect
2	1968	Best Female R&B Vocal Performance	R&B	Respect
3	1969	Best Female R&B Vocal Performance	R&B	Chain Of Fools
4	1970	Best Female R&B Vocal Performance	R&B	Share Your Love With Me
5	1971	Best Female R&B Vocal Performance	R&B	Don't Play That Song For Me
6	1972	Best Female R&B Vocal Performance	R&B	Bridge Over Troubled Water
7	1973	Best Female R&B Vocal Performance	R&B	Young, Gifted and Black (album)
8	1973	Best Soul Gospel Performance	Gospel	Amazing Grace (album)
9	1974	Best Female R&B Vocal Performance	R&B	Master Of Eyes
10	1975	Best Female R&B Vocal Performance	R&B	Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing
11	1982	Best Female R&B Vocal Performance	R&B	Hold On...I'm Comin' (album track)
12	1986	Best Female R&B Vocal Performance	R&B	Freeway Of Love
13	1988	Best Female R&B Vocal Performance	R&B	Aretha (album)
14	1988	Best R&B Performance - Duo Or Group with Vocals	R&B	I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me) (with George Michael)
15	1989	Best Soul Gospel Performance - Female	Gospel	One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism (album)
*	1991	Living Legend Award	Special
*	1994	Lifetime Achievement Award	Special
16	2004	Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance	R&B	Wonderful
17	2006	Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance	R&B	A House Is Not A Home
18	2008	Best Gospel-Soul Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group	Gospel	Never Gonna Break My Faith (with Mary J. Blige)

*According to NARAS Rules: 'Special' Grammy Awards (such as Lifetime Achievement) are not counted in a performer's tally.

Discography

Further information: Aretha Franklin discography

Top 10 US Hot 100 singles

Year	Title	Peak
1967	"I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)"	9
1967	"Respect"	1
1967	"Baby I Love You"	4
1967	"(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman"	8
1967	"Chain of Fools"	2
1968	"(Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You've Been Gone"	5
1968	"Think"	7
1968	"The House That Jack Built"	6
1968	"I Say a Little Prayer"	10
1971	"Bridge Over Troubled Water" / "Brand New Me"	6
1971	"Spanish Harlem"	2
1971	"Rock Steady"	9
1972	"Day Dreaming"	5
1973	"Until You Come Back to Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do)"	3
1985	"Freeway of Love"	3
1985	"Who's Zoomin' Who"	7
1987	"I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" (with George Michael)	1

Source:

Filmography

Movies

• 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

• 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

External links

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• Aretha Franklin at Legacy Recordings
• Aretha Franklin at IMDb