Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin learned to sing in church, and you can hear the church in every note she ever hit. Born in Memphis in 1942, she was a child when the congregation at New Bethel Baptist in Detroit, where her father, C. L. Franklin, preached, first got an earful of that voice. Columbia signed her at 18, but for years the records went nowhere much.

Atlantic knew what to do with her. From 1966 on, the hits came in an avalanche: I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You, Lady Soul and Aretha Now, one after another. "Respect" became her signature, a demand delivered at full gospel force, and "Chain of Fools", "Think", "I Say a Little Prayer" and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" came roaring after it, church fire poured into three-minute pop. She won the first eight Grammys ever handed out for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, and people started calling her the Queen of Soul.

The '70s brought "Rock Steady" and Young, Gifted and Black, and after a move to Arista in 1979 she had a second life with hits like "Freeway of Love" and a scene-stealing turn in The Blues Brothers. In 1987 she became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She died in 2018 with 18 Grammys to her name.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.