Aretha Franklin

American singer, songwriter, and pianist

Photo by: Atlantic Records (Life time: Published before 1978 without a copyright notice) · Public Domain · Wikimedia Commons

Born:March 25, 1942

Died:August 16, 2018

Age at death:76

Manner of death:Natural Causes

Cause of death:Pancreatic Cancer

Zodiac Sign:Aries

Children:4

Born in:Memphis, United States

Residence:Memphis, United States

Buried in:United States

Languages:English

Record Producer Composer Soul Musician Songwriter Singer Pianist Activist

Signature

Links

Wikipedia Official Website IMDb Facebook X (Twitter)Instagram YouTube

Famous For

Movies & TV

The Blues BrothersBlues Brothers 2000American MastersAmazing GraceClive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives

Songs & Albums

The Blues Brothers(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural WomanThinkI Never Loved a Man the Way I Love YouI Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)

Awards

Pulitzer Prize Special Citations and Awards (2019)honorary doctor of Harvard University (2014)Gospel Music Hall of Fame (2012)honorary doctor of Yale University (2010)Grammy Hall of Fame (2008)

Aretha Franklin

American singer, songwriter, and pianist

Biography

Aretha Louise Franklin ( ə-REE-thə; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer-songwriter and pianist. Regarded as the "Queen of Soul", she was twice named by Rolling Stone magazine as the greatest singer of all time. As a child, Franklin was noticed for her gospel singing at New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, where her father, C. L. Franklin, was a minister. At the age of 18 she was signed as a recording artist for Columbia Records. While her career did not immediately flourish, Franklin found acclaim and commercial success after signing with Atlantic Records in 1966. There she recorded significant hit albums such as I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You, Lady Soul and Aretha Now in the late 1960s and Young, Gifted and Black, Amazing Grace and Sparkle in the 1970s, before experiencing problems with the record company. Franklin left Atlantic in 1979 and signed with Arista Records, where her career was revived with the hit albums Jump to It, Who's Zoomin' Who?, Aretha and A Rose Is Still a Rose. Franklin is one of the best-selling music artists, with more than 75 million records sold worldwide. She had 112 singles on the US Billboard charts, including 73 Hot 100 entries, 17 top-ten pop singles, 96 R&B entries and 20 number-one R&B singles. Although her rendition of "Respect" has been referred to as her signature song, Franklin is known for other hit singles such as "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman", "Chain of Fools", "Think", "I Say a Little Prayer", "Rock Steady", "Day Dreaming", "Freeway of Love" and "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" (a duet with George Michael). She also made a featured appearance in the 1980 musical-comedy film The Blues Brothers. Franklin received numerous honors throughout her career. She won 18 Grammy Awards out of 44 nominations, including the first eight awards given for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance (1968–1975), as well as a Grammy Living Legend Award and Lifetime Achievement Award. She was also awarded the National Medal of Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1987, she became the first female artist to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Her other inductions include the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005, the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2012, and posthumously the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2020 and the Volunteer State Music Hall of Fame in 2026. In 2019, the Pulitzer Prize jury awarded her a posthumous special citation "for her indelible contribution to American music and culture for more than five decades".

This biography uses content from the Wikipedia article “Aretha Franklin”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License.

Quotes

“R-E-S-P-E-C-T Find out what it means to me R-E-S-P-E-C-T Take care … TCB Sock it to me, Sock it to me, Sock it to me.”

— Lines added among her 1967 alterations to the 1965 song "Respect", originally written by Otis Redding

“Speak your name And I'll feel a thrill. You said I do, And I said I will. I tell you that I'll stay true, And give you just a little time. Wait on me baby, I want you to be all mine. I just get so blue. Since you've been gone, baby (why'd you do it? why'd you have to do it?)”

— "(Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You've Been Gone", written with Teddy White, from Lady Soul (1968)

“Step n' move your hips With a feelin' from side to side Sit yourself down in your car And take a ride. And while you're movin' Rock steady Rock steady baby. Let's call this song exactly what it is (What it is -what it is - what it is)”

— "Rock Steady", from Young (1972)

Quotes sourced from the Wikiquote article "Aretha Franklin", available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License.

Photos

Publicity photo of Aretha Franklin from Billboard, 17 February 1968. The uploaded photo is a better quality copy of the image shown in the ad. There are no copyright markings as can be seen at the full view link. Atlantic Records did not mark this special ad section with copyright mark(s); the Billboard copyright covers editorial content only-not advertisements, which would need to have their own copyrights for protection. see page 14 Special section for mark. The ad is not covered by any copyrights for Billboard. US Copyright Office page 3-magazines are collective works (PDF) "A notice for the collective work will not serve as the notice for advertisements inserted on behalf of persons other than the copyright owner of the collective work. These advertisements should each bear a separate notice in the name of the copyright owner of the advertisement."

Aretha Franklin sings "My Country 'Tis Of Thee'" at the U.S. Capitol during the 56th presidential inauguration in Washington, D.C., Jan. 20, 2009.

Cropped image of larger trade ad for Aretha Franklin's single "Baby I Love You". To better adapt it to her respective Wikipedia article, this extracted image was was cropped and cleaned in a graphics editing program. The original can be viewed at a link provided from the Commons file.

Trade ad for Aretha Franklin's single "Baby I Love You". To better adapt it to his respective Wikipedia article, the ad was cropped and cleaned in a graphics editing program. The original can be viewed at the source below.

Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin heads to a reception at the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner at the Washington Hilton in Washington, April 30, 2016.

perigraffiti.blogspot.com/ ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grafit_(art) Jardins Frederica Montseny: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpsuOycnIP0

Wall painting 'Bootsy Collins and Aretha Franklin', Gulden Wagengas, Nijmegen, the Netherlands

Aretha Franklin (1942 -2018) by Marco Zeno (2010); Jardins du Montreux Palace, 2 Avenue Claude-Nobs, Montreux, Canton of Vaud, Switzerland.

Close up of some interesting graffiti next to one of the standard Helvetica signs at the Franklin Avenue-Fulton Street rapid transit station along the BMT Franklin Avenue Line in the Bedford–Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York City. As the Queen of Soul was dying under hospice care in August 2018, somebody decided to honor her by unofficially renaming the station. Needless to say, I wasn't sure anyone would've seen this graffiti in the previous photograph, so I took another.

Some very interesting graffiti next to one of the standard Helvetica signs at the Franklin Avenue-Fulton Street rapid transit station along the BMT Franklin Avenue Line in the Bedford–Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York City. As the Queen of Soul was dying under hospice care in August 2018, somebody decided to honor her by unofficially renaming the station. Other similar acts of noble vandalism were carried out throughout various locations within the New York City Subway system during the period surrounding her death.