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| Aretha Franklin |
Today, The Grandma is still at home reading, watching TV and listening to music. She has chosen Aretha Franklin's greatest hits to pay homage to the Queen of Soul, who died on a day like today two years ago.
Aretha Louise Franklin (March 25, 1942-August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter, actress, pianist, and civil rights activist.
Franklin began her career as a child singing gospel at New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, where her father C. L. Franklin was a minister.
At the age of 18, she embarked on a secular-music career as a recording artist for Columbia Records. While Franklin's career did not immediately flourish, she found acclaim and commercial success after signing with Atlantic Records in 1966.
Hit songs such as I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You), Respect, (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman, Chain of Fools, Think, and I Say a Little Prayer propelled her past her musical peers. By the end of the 1960s, Aretha Franklin had come to be known as the Queen of Soul.
Franklin continued to record acclaimed albums such as I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You (1967), Lady Soul (1968), Spirit in the Dark (1970), Young, Gifted and Black (1972), Amazing Grace (1972), and Sparkle (1976) before experiencing problems with her record company.
Franklin left Atlantic
in 1979 and signed with Arista Records. She appeared in the 1980 film
The Blues Brothers before releasing the successful albums Jump to It
(1982), Who's Zoomin' Who? (1985), and Aretha (1986) on the Arista
label.
More information: Aretha Franklin
In 1998, Franklin returned to the Top 40 with the Lauryn Hill-produced song A Rose Is Still a Rose; later, she released an album of the same name which was certified gold. That same year, Franklin earned international acclaim for her performance of Nessun dorma at the Grammy Awards; she filled in at the last minute for Luciano Pavarotti, who canceled his appearance after the show had already begun.
In a widely noted performance, she paid tribute to 2015 honoree Carole King by singing (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman at the Kennedy Center Honors.
Franklin recorded 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.
Besides the foregoing, Franklin's well-known hits also include Ain't No Way, Call Me, Don't Play That Song (You Lied), Spanish Harlem, Rock Steady, Day Dreaming, Until You Come Back to Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do), Something He Can Feel, Jump to It, Freeway of Love, Who's Zoomin' Who, and I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me), a duet with George Michael.
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| With Luther King, James Brown & Blue Brothers |
She won 18 Grammy Awards, including the first eight awards given for Best
Female R&B Vocal Performance (1968–1975).
Franklin is one of the
best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 75 million
records worldwide.
Franklin received numerous honors throughout her career. She was awarded the National Medal of Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
In 1987, she became the first female performer to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She also was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005 and into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2012.
In 2010, Rolling Stone magazine ranked her number one on its list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time and number nine on its list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
The Pulitzer Prize jury in 2019 awarded Franklin a posthumous special citation for her indelible contribution to American music and culture for more than five decades.
More information: Rolling Stone
Aretha Louise Franklin was born on March 25, 1942, to Barbara and Clarence LaVaughn C. L. Franklin. She was delivered at her family's home located at 406 Lucy Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee.
Her father was a Baptist minister and circuit preacher originally from Shelby, Mississippi, while her mother was an accomplished piano player and vocalist.
Just after her mother's death, Franklin began singing solos at New Bethel, debuting with the hymn Jesus, Be a Fence Around Me.
When Franklin was 12,
her father began managing her; he would bring her on the road with him
during his so-called gospel caravan tours for her to perform in
various churches. He also helped her sign her first recording deal with
J.V.B. Records. Recording equipment was installed inside New Bethel
Baptist Church and nine tracks were recorded. Franklin was featured on
vocals and piano.
In 1956, J.V.B. released Franklin's first single, Never Grow Old, backed with You Grow Closer. Precious Lord (Part One) backed with Precious Lord (Part Two) followed in 1959. These four tracks, with the addition of There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood, were released on side one of the 1956 album, Spirituals. This was reissued by Battle Records in 1962 under the same title.
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| With B. Streisand, W. Houston & The Divas VH1 |
In
1965, Checker Records released Songs of Faith, featuring the five
tracks from the 1956 Spirituals album, with the addition of four
previously unreleased recordings. After
turning 18, Franklin confided to her father that she aspired to follow
Sam Cooke in recording pop music, and moved to New York. Serving as her
manager, C. L. Franklin agreed to the move and helped to produce a
two-song demo that soon was brought to the attention of Columbia
Records, who agreed to sign her in 1960.
Mostly produced by Clyde
Otis, Franklin's Columbia recordings saw her performing in diverse
genres such as standards, vocal jazz, blues, doo-wop and rhythm and
blues.
In the 1960s, during a
performance at the Regal Theater, WVON radio personality Pervis Spann
announced that Franklin should be crowned the Queen of Soul.
In November 1966, Franklin's Columbia recording contract expired and she chose to move to Atlantic Records.
In April, Atlantic issued her frenetic version of Otis Redding's Respect, which reached number one on both the R&B and pop charts. Respect became her signature song and was later hailed as a civil rights and feminist anthem.
Franklin's debut Atlantic album, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You, also became commercially successful, later going gold.
Franklin scored two more top-ten singles in 1967, including Baby I Love You and (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.
More information: NPR
In 1968, she issued the top-selling albums Lady Soul and Aretha Now, which included some of her most popular hit singles, including Chain of Fools, Ain't No Way, Think and I Say a Little Prayer. That February, Franklin earned the first two of her Grammys, including the debut category for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.
Franklin's career began to experience problems while recording the album, Hey Now Hey, which featured production from Quincy Jones.
Franklin's follow-up albums for Atlantic, including Sweet Passion (1977), Almighty Fire (1978) and La Diva (1979), bombed on the charts, and in 1979 Franklin left the company.
In 1980, after leaving Atlantic Records, Franklin signed with Clive Davis's Arista Records and that same year gave a command performance at London's Royal Albert Hall in front of Queen Elizabeth.
On the 8 February, 2008,
Franklin was honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year, and performed Never Gonna Break My Faith, which she had won the Grammy for best
Gospel performance the year before.
While Franklin canceled some concerts in 2017 due to health reasons, and
during an outdoor Detroit show, she asked the audience to keep me in
your prayers, she was still garnering highly favorable reviews for her
skill and showmanship.
At the Ravinia Festival on September 3, 2017, she gave her last full concert. Franklin's final performance was at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City during Elton John's 25th anniversary gala for the Elton John AIDS Foundation on November 7, 2017.
From her time growing up in the home of a prominent African-American preacher to the end of her life, Franklin was immersed and involved in the struggle for civil rights and women's rights.
Franklin died at her home on August 16, 2018, aged 76, without a will.
Franklin received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1979, had her voice declared a Michigan natural resource in 1985, and became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences awarded her a Grammy Legend Award in 1991, then the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1994.
More information: Forbes
Franklin was a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1994, recipient of the National Medal of Arts in 1999, and was bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005.
She was inducted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame in 2005, and the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2015. Franklin became the second woman inducted to the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. She was the 2008 MusiCares Person of the Year, performing at the Grammys days later.
In 2019 she was awarded a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation for her indelible contribution to American music and culture for more than five decades. Franklin was the first individual woman to receive a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation.
Franklin received honorary degrees from Harvard University and New York University in 2014, as well as honorary doctorates in music from Princeton University, 2012; Yale University, 2010; Brown University, 2009; University of Pennsylvania, 2007; Berklee College of Music, 2006; New England Conservatory of Music, 1997; and University of Michigan, 1987. She was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by Case Western Reserve University 2011 and Wayne State University in 1990 and an honorary Doctor of Law degree by Bethune–Cookman University in 1975.
More information: CR Fashion Book
Being the Queen is not all about singing,
and being a diva is not all about singing.
It has much to do with your service to people.
And your social contributions to your community
and your civic contributions as well.
Aretha Franklin
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