Aretha Franklin, “The Queen of Soul,” has died at age 76. She was the greatest woman singer of the modern music era, (fight me) she was the woman behind so much iconic music, and the clear role model for dozens of super starts from Diana Ross to Beyoncé. She has always been a part of my life. To me, and many others, she was family. So I mourn her as my Auntie.
My mother introduced me to Auntie Aretha, through her love of gospel, Jazz & R&B music. I grew up hearing her playing throughout our home on our old Zenith Record Player, a huge console that had vacuum tubes and gave such a warm, rich sound that can’t be replicated digitally. The pops & scratches from dust that collected on the stylus that to be ritualistically cleaned and albums that I learned at an early age to treat gingerly, Auntie Aretha would sing and play. My mother would go about her chores or just sit and read to me or just listen.
That rich, trademark voice that was cultivated like many black women of her era, singing gospel in church, was like her persona and exemplar of both power and finesse and she was a gifted pianist to boot. But she was also a hero to Black Americans particularly Black women and a feminist icon.
She’s been honored throughout her career including a 1987 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in which Auntie became the first female performer to be inducted. She was inducted to the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. In August 2012, Auntie was inducted into the GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame.
Others were “Divas” and many called her that, she OWNED it unashamedly as a compliment. In a business of self-styled Divas, she was THE Queen.
Auntie Franklin was born in Memphis, Tenn. in 1942, the daughter of the famous pastor and civil rights activist C. L. Franklin. When Aretha was just 2 the family left Memphis for New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, and a Motor City legend was ready to be born.
The pastor was a fiery and captivating voice at the pulpit. It was fitting that he had a young daughter with a singing voice to match. Despite the fact that she had a child when she was just 14, and then another at age 15, the record labels came calling.
Many assumed Aretha Franklin was part of the Motown story, Franklin never signed with Berry Gordy’s at the time fledgling label. In 1960, at the age of 18, she embarked on a secular career, recording for Columbia Records but only achieving modest success. Following her signing to Atlantic Records in 1967, Franklin achieved commercial acclaim and success with songs such as “Respect”, “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman”, “Spanish Harlem” and “Think”. By the end of the 1960s, she had gained the title “The Queen of Soul”. Atlantic Records saw a different path, wanting Aretha to put her gospel training to work and let it rip. The result was electrifying.
When she was dubbed “The Queen of Soul,” no one argued. Many saw her as the embodiment of black America. As Detroit Mayor Jerry Cavanagh declared “Aretha Franklin Day” in 1968, she shared the moment with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., just two months before his assassination. The year I was born.
Auntie eventually recorded a total of 112 charted singles on Billboard, including 77 Hot 100 entries, 17 top ten pop singles, 100 R&B entries and 20 number-one R&B singles, becoming the most charted female artist in the chart’s history.
Auntie also recorded acclaimed albums such as I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You, Lady Soul, Young, Gifted and Black and Amazing Grace before experiencing problems with her record company by the mid-1970s. After her father was shot in 1979, She left Atlantic and signed with Arista Records, finding success with her part in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers (my favorite number from the film is below) and with the albums Jump to It (1982) and Who’s Zoomin’ Who? (1985).
In 1998, Auntie won international acclaim for singing the opera aria “Nessun dorma”, at the Grammys of that year replacing Luciano Pavarotti. Later that same year, she scored her final Top 40 recording with “A Rose Is Still a Rose”.
Her other popular and well known hits include “Rock Steady”, “Jump to It”, “Freeway of Love”, “Who’s Zoomin’ Who”, “Chain Of Fools”, “Until You Come Back to Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do)”, “Something He Can Feel”, “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)” (with George Michael), and a remake of The Rolling Stones song “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”.
Auntie Aretha won a total of 18 Grammy Awards and is one of the best-selling musical artists of all time, having sold over 75 million records worldwide.
Auntie is listed in at least two all-time lists on Rolling Stone magazine, including the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, and the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.
(Citation Wiki)
She died peacefully at home from complications of pancreatic cancer early today
August 16, 2018.
We shall never see her like again.
Respect Auntie.
Rest in power.
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Art credit- You Tube / Wiki