Aretha Franklin may have bowed her last bow, but The Queen of Soul lives on in hearts and memories. Her music touched so many of us. With a career spanning six decades across an array of genres, and lyrics like RESPECT and You make me feel like a natural woman, the legend of soul impacted justice and social change as well as music culture. The word “legend” can’t begin to describe the immortal queen of soul. It got us thinking. What do we really know about this influential figure? Who was she?
Well, as it turns out, Aretha Franklin’s music is as prolific as the personality of the singer herself. We know some facts about the life and career of this super star but there was a lot we didn’t. That’s until we started investigating beyond Aretha Franklin’s multi-awarded discography. Want to know more about the woman, the singer, the artist and performer? We did. So here’s everything you should know about the musical doyen who has provided the soundtrack to the lives of generations. And it’s not only us mere mortals she has inspired. Tributes from pop, rock, soul and other musical icons from around the globe attribute much of their own passion to the music and inspiration of “Aretha” . So read up. Here’s a peek behind the curtain… at the legend behind the music.
When, where, and how did Aretha Franklin die?
Aretha Louise Franklin died at the age of 76 on August 16, 2018. She died at her home in Detroit after an eight-year battle with a rare form of pancreatic cancer.
What were Aretha Franklin’s most famous lyrics?
“R.E.S.P.E.C.T.”
“You make me feel like a natural woman.”
“Chain, Chain, Chain, Chain of Fools!”
What was Aretha’s first song?
Never Grow Old was Aretha’s very first single, released by JVB records in 1956.
How many albums did Aretha Franklin make?
57.
Aretha Franklin’s 10 best songs list:
Ranked by performance on the Billboard chart, here is her top 10 songs list:
#10 Bridge Over Troubled Water / Brand New Me
#9 Day Dreaming
#8 (Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You’ve Been Gone
#7 Baby I Love You
#6 Freeway of Love
#5 Until You Come Back to Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do)
#4 Chain of Fools
#3 Spanish Harlem
#2 Respect
#1 I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)
Who were Aretha Franklin’s backup singers?
The Sweet Inspirations was an R&B girl group that toured and recorded with Aretha.
Who was Aretha Franklin’s agent?
Dick Alen of talent agency William Morris Endeavour was Aretha’s agent for 40 years. Among his roster were Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and Juanes.
What is Aretha Franklin’s net worth?
At the time of her passing, Aretha was worth USD 80 million.
What awards did Aretha Franklin win?
Aretha Franklin is famous for being the first woman to become part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She also earned multiple Gold and Platinum Awards from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
In 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. presented Aretha with the Southern Christian Leadership Award
She was also the first to receive the Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for Respect. Aretha received a total of 44 Grammy nominations and 18 wins. In 1991 she was honored with the Grammy Legend Award. In 1994 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Was Aretha Franklin in any movies?
Yes. Aretha had an impressive filmography to match her discography. IMDB records 236 soundtrack credits, 23 actress credits, 205 credits as herself, 60 credits of archive footage, and 1 composer credit.
But this tally could be tricky when you realize that IMDB counts her music videos as actress credit. Aretha actually starred in only two movies, one TV series, and played only two roles:
As Inez Jackson in Where is it Written?, a 1972 episode of comedy-drama series, Room 222
And as Mrs. Murphy in 1980 comedy classic The Blues Brothers. She played the same role in the 1998 follow up, The Blues Brothers 2000.
How did Aretha Franklin become famous?
Aretha has been in the limelight since her childhood. She used to sing with her sisters Erma and Carolyn at the New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit where their father, Reverend CL Franklin, was minister. Her father rubbed shoulders musical greats and key figures of the civil rights movement. This was instrumental in Aretha’s musical development.
“I think that my dad felt that I was gifted or uniquely talented as a child, yes. He would coach me in different things. He would give me different records to listen to and to see if I could emulate them on the piano, different vocalists to listen to such as Clara Ward, Mahalia and other artists like that.”
When she was 14, Aretha began her career with a live album called Songs of Faith, released by Checker Records. It was recorded by J-V-B Records at New Bethel Baptist Church.
In 1961, Aretha signed with Columbia Records and recorded her first secular album, Aretha:
With The Ray Bryant Combo. Her notable records during this period include: Won’t Be Long, Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody, One Step Ahead and Operation Heartbreak.
Aretha moved to Atlantic Records in 1961. Her hits under this label include: Chain of Fools, Think (where she belts out “freedom”), Rock Steady, Son of a Preacher Man, A Change is Gonna Come and I Say A Little Prayer. It was also at Atlantic that she scored her first RIAA Gold Awards
for the critically-acclaimed single and album of the same name, I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You).
Aretha kept rising. The 1960s saw her become one of music history’s brightest stars. On February 1967, she became the very first winner the Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, beating her contemporary Nina Simone. On May 1968, she toured abroad for the first time. On June of the same year, she appeared on the cover of Time Magazine.
In March 1971, Aretha performed a rousing rendition of Simon and Garfunkel’s Like a Bridge Over Troubled Water at the Fillmore East.
Detroit Mayor Jerome Cavanagh declared February 16, 1968 Aretha Franklin Day. On June 8, 2017, Detroit renamed a city street after her. Aretha Franklin Way.
She would go on to win more awards and acclaim throughout her career that lasted until her death in 2018.
What was Aretha Franklin’s vocal range?
What genres did Aretha Franklin sing?
Aretha merged her gospel roots with standards, vocal jazz, blues, doo-wop, pop, soul, and R&B.
How many number one hits did Aretha Franklin have?
Two of Aretha Franklin’s songs reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Charts. Respect peaked at #1 on June 3, 1967 and stayed #1 there for two weeks. It spent a total of 12 weeks on chart. Aretha’s duet with George Michael, I Knew You Were Waiting (for Me), peaked at #1 on April 18, 1987 where it stayed for two weeks. It spent a total of 17 weeks on chart.
What were Aretha Franklin’s best duets?
In 1987 Aretha Franklin and George Michael won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo, with I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me).
In 2012, Aretha also released a compilation album called Jewels in the Crown: All-Star Duets with the Queen that featured Mick Jagger, Bryan Adams, and Carole King.
Where did Aretha Franklin grow up?
Aretha Louise Franklin was born in Memphis, Tennessee on the 25th of March, 1942 and grew up in the 7400 block of La Salle Boulevard in Detroit. Nat King Cole, Mahalia Jackson, Art Tatum and Sam Cooke would regularly visit the Franklin house.
Aretha’s sister, Erma Franklin fondly recalls their childhood.
“We would drag her out of bed and she would go down there and play for the stars and they, you know, considered her a star once they heard her,”
This Detroit neighbourhood was also home to some of the biggest stars in music. Motown legend Smokey Robinson grew up with Aretha, and knew her since she was 5.
Was Aretha Franklin religious?
Yes. She was the daughter of a preacher and gospel singer. Her family was firmly rooted in the African-American Baptist community. She was raised in church and would sing in front of the congregation.
Her first album, Songs of Faith was recorded live at New Bethel Baptist Church. In 1987, she came out with the album, One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism.
In 1972, she recorded a gospel album, Amazing Grace, live at Los Angeles’ New Temple Baptist Missionary Church.
Did Aretha Franklin have any nicknames?
Ree
Aretha was affectionately called “Ree” by those close to her. Whitney Houston called her “Aunt Ree-Ree.”
The Queen of Soul
The title, The Queen of Soul was a moniker given to Aretha in 1976 by influential music promoter and soul and blues concert producer, Pervis Spann. He did it quite ceremoniously by placing a crown on Aretha’s head after her performance at the Regal Theatre in Chicago.
Was Aretha Franklin close with her family?
The short answer is yes. Aretha’s parents, her father a Baptist preacher Reverend CL Franklin and her mother gospel singer Barbara Siggers, were together from 1936 to 1948. Barbara left when Aretha was 6 and died of a heart attack in 1952 when she was 34 and before Aretha turned 10.
CL Franklin raised Aretha and her siblings Carl Ellan Kelley, Carolyn Franklin, Erma Franklin, Cecil Franklin, and Vaughn Franklin in their now historic Detroit family home.
It is often repeated that Barbara abandoned her family. But Aretha herself disputes this. In her autobiography, Aretha: From These Roots, the singer said, “In no way, shape, form or fashion did our mother desert us. She was extremely responsible, loving and caring.”
Aretha’s legacy eclipses the careers of both her older sister Carolyn and younger sister Erma. In fact there was a little bit of sibling rivalry between them. Erma recalls,
“I would be on Epic, which was a different brand than Columbia. They were part of the same company but I’d have my own producers and an identity separate from Aretha. I thought she would be thrilled. She wasn’t. She threw a fit. She told Daddy that she didn’t want me on Epic, that it would hurt her career and that people would be confused by too many singing Franklin sisters.”
Was Aretha Franklin married? Did Aretha Franklin have children?
Aretha had four children. At just 12 years old, Aretha gave birth to her first child, Clarence Franklin. 2 years later, she gave birth to Edward Franklin, named after his father Edward Jordan.
She married Ted White in 1961 when she was 19. Their son is named Teddy White Jr. Domestic abuse ended their marriage in 1969.
In 1970, Aretha and her road manager Ken E. Cunningham had a child they named Kecal–a combination of the couple’s initials. He’s the youngest of Franklin’s children.
In 1978, she married actor Glynn Turman, her second husband. They divorced in 1984.
In 2012, she and longtime friend, businessman Willie Wilkerson, announced their engagement. The couple called it off and Aretha didn’t remarry.
Was Aretha Franklin gay?
No. Aretha championed LGBTQ rights, despite not belonging to this community herself. She also performed at the Elton John AIDS Gala. And in 2011, she sang at the same-sex wedding of Bill White and Bryan Eure.
How much weight did Aretha Franklin lose?
85 pounds (approx. 38.5 kg).
She underwent an undisclosed surgery in 2010.
Here are pictures of Aretha Franklin before and after surgery (2009 and 2017).
How tall was Aretha Franklin?
165 cm.
Did Aretha Franklin have a missing tooth?
Yes. Many viewers of who tuned in to Aretha’s performance of the National Anthem in Detroit on Thanksgiving Day 2013 noticed she was missing an incisor. But who gets distracted by a missing tooth when a living national treasure is giving honor to America?
What was Aretha Franklin’s most famous fashion statement?
The regal Queen of Soul wore clothes that matched her majesty. She favored the sleek silhouette of full-length gowns that she often matched with a statement fur coat. Sequins and shiny accents are also a favorite of Aretha’s. Here she is at the Grammy Awards red carpet, with an example of her iconic fashion.
Her most powerful fashion statement, however, is not an item of clothing but what she does with it. Aretha was known to drop her exquisite fur coats onstage. Nothing can contain the power of the Queen. Watch her break free at the 3:40 mark in this video of her performing Natural Woman at the Kennedy Center Honors 2015.
See her do it again at the Black Entertainment Television (BET) Honors 2014.
0What was Aretha Franklin’s most famous hairstyle?
Aretha’s voluminous hair was a picture of pride and beauty. She sported a range of different styles throughout the years. But when you think of the Queen of Soul, you’re likely visualising her with her iconic fringe, pixie, and beehive:
She also turned heads with her flipped curly bob.
She was also known to embrace her natural curls.
What modern day artists are like Aretha Franklin?
Nobody comes close to the Queen of Soul and her songs list. But music lives on and evolves with the times. Here are some artists of today that keep the flames of gospel and soul alive.
1#1 Leela James
#2 Eryn Allen Kane
#3 Rafael Saadiq
#4 Mary J. Blige
#5 Fantasia
#6 Meg Mac
#7 Mayfield
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