Aretha Franklin 8/2018 (76) was born on March 25, 1942 in Aretha Louise Franklin was born on March 25, 1942, in Memphis, TN. Her father was a Baptist minister and circuit preacher originally from Shelby, Mississippi, while her mother was an accomplished piano player and vocalist. By age five she had moved with her family to Motor City Detroit. As a child, young Aretha Franklin was noticed for her gospel singing at New Bethel Baptist Church, where her father was a minister.
Shortly after her mother’s death from a heart attack, Franklin at age 10 began singing solos at New Bethel Baptist Church. When Franklin was 12, shortly after giving birth to her first son, her father, a notorious womanizer, began managing her; he would take her on the road with him, during his “gospel caravan” tours for her to perform in various churches. He also helped her sign her first recording deal with J.V.B. Records. 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. 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. Aretha was only 14 when Songs of Faith was recorded.
During this time, Franklin would occasionally travel with the Soul Stirrers. As a young gospel singer, Franklin spent summers on the gospel circuit in Chicago and stayed with Mavis Staples’ family. According to music producer Quincy Jones, while Franklin was still young, Dinah Washington let him know that “Aretha was the ‘next one'”. Franklin and her father traveled to California, where she met singer Sam Cooke. At the age of 16, Franklin went on tour with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and she would ultimately sing at his funeral in 1968. Other influences in her youth included Marvin Gaye (who was a boyfriend of her sister), as well as Ray Charles and Sam Cooke, “two of Franklin’s greatest influences”. Also important was James Cleveland, known as the King of Gospel music, “who helped to focus her early career as a gospel singer”; Cleveland had been recruited by her father as a pianist for the Southern California Community Choir.
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, as a “five-percent” artist (meaning she would receive 5% over all records sold!). Sam Cooke tried to persuade Franklin’s father to sign her with his label, RCA Victor, but she had already decided to go with Columbia. Berry Gordy had also asked Franklin and her elder sister Erma to sign with his Tamla label (Motown), but C.L. Franklin turned Gordy down, as he felt Tamla was not yet an established label. Franklin’s first Columbia single, “Today I Sing the Blues“, was issued in September 1960 and reached the top 10 of the Hot Rhythm & Blues Sellers chart.
But, as her Detroit friends on the Motown label enjoyed hit after hit, Franklin struggled to achieve crossover success. Columbia placed her with a variety of producers who marketed her to both adults (“If Ever You Should Leave Me,” 1963) and teens (“Soulville,” 1964). Without targeting any particular genre, she sang everything from Broadway ballads to youth-oriented rhythm and blues. Critics recognized her talent, but the public remained lukewarm until 1966, when she switched to Atlantic Records, where producer Jerry Wexler helped her to sculpt her own musical identity.
including a young Duane Allman) playing spontaneous arrangements and devising the background vocals herself, Franklin refined a style associated with Ray Charles—a rousing mixture of gospel and rhythm and blues—and raised it to new heights. As a civil-rights-minded nation lent greater support to black urban music, Franklin was crowned the “Queen of Soul.” “Respect,” her 1967 cover of Otis Redding’s spirited composition, became an anthem operating on personal, sexual, and racial levels. “Think” (1968), which Franklin wrote herself, also had more than one meaning. For the next half-dozen years, she became a hit maker of unprecedented proportions; she was “Lady Soul.”
Aretha Franklin, the “Queen of Soul” died August 16th, 2018, the same day that Elvis Presley “The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll” died 41 years earlier.
It is said that Aretha sang the soul from her experiences of becoming a mother at age 12 and then again 14. It is also known that she lived in violent marriages and as a result became alcohol dependent. Her life was often compared to Tina Turner’s life with Ike. A story published in Vanity Fair exposes this wonderful woman.
