Aretha Louise Franklin (March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter, civil rights activist, actress, and pianist. She began her career as a child singing gospel at New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, where her father C.L. Franklin was minister. During this time, Franklin would occasionally travel with The Soul Stirrers. In 1958, 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. 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.
Franklin's first Columbia single, "Today I Sing the Blues", was issued in September 1960 and later reached the top 10 of the Hot Rhythm & Blues Sellers chart. In January 1961, Columbia issued Franklin's first secular album, Aretha: Wtih The Ray Bryant Combo. The album featured her first single to chart the Billboard Hot 100, "Won't Be Long", which also peaked at number 7 on the R&B chart. Before the year was out, Franklin scored her first top 40 single with her rendition of the standard "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody", the b-side of which was the R&B hit "Operation Heartbreak". In 1962, Columbia issued two more albums, The Electrifying Aretha Franklin and The Tender, the Moving, the Swinging Aretha Franklin, the latter of which reached No. 69 on the Billboard chart.
In November 1966, Franklin's Columbia recording contract expired and she chose to move to Atlantic Records. In January 1967, she traveled to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to record at FAME Studios and recorded "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)".
The song was released the following month and reached number one on the
R&B chart, while also peaking at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100, giving Franklin her first top-ten pop single. The song's b-side, "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man", reached the R&B top 40, peaking at number 37. In April, Atlantic issued her frenetic version of Otis Redding's "Respect", which reached number one on both the R&B and pop charts and 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". 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", "Think" and "I Say a Little Prayer".
Franklin's success expanded during the early 1970s, during which she recorded the multi-week R&B number one "Don't Play That Song (You Lied)", as well as the top-ten singles "Spanish Harlem", "Rock Steady", and "Day Dreaming". Some of these releases were from the acclaimed albums Spirit in the Dark and Young, Gifted and Black. She returned to Gospel music with the album, Amazing Grace which sold more than two million copies.
In 1980, after leaving Atlantic Records, Franklin signed with Arista Records. All in all Franklin recorded 112 charted singles on Billboard, including 77 Hot 100entries, 17 top-ten pop singles, 100 R&B entries, and 20 number-one R&B singles, becoming the most charted female artist in history.
She died at her home on August 16, 2018, aged 76.
