Women's History: A Look at Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin was born in 1942 in Memphis Tennessee. But she obviously performed publicly for the past 50 years. Her performances have endured time, criticism, racism, changes in tastes, but still are memorable and often sung, but never duplicated. Her powerful voice was a true gift. Her mother was a gospel singer and her father a Preacher. The family relocated to Detroit soon after her mother's untimely death.But it was in Detroit that Aretha learned and honed her voice growing up singing gospel songs for the Lord.

Franklin was a gifted pianist with a whale of a voice and by the age of 14 had recorded some tracks for the church. After learning many of life's lessons on the road, Franklin's father gave her permission to go to New York in 1960. And at the age of 18 was signed by Columbia Records and released an album that same year.

In 1961 she scored an enormous hit on the Pop Charts (not the R&B charts) with "Rock-a-by Your Baby with a Dixie Melody". Shortly thereafter her current husband and manager, Ted White, moved her over to Atlantic Records in 1967. Even with her musical prowess, she still had to bow to the wishes of her man.Luckily Atlantic producer Jerry Wexler recognized her gift and immediately sent Franklin over to the Florence Alabama Musical Emporium.

There Aretha eagerly learned some new sounds as she was paired with sidemen trained in soul, blues, rock and gospel. She even experienced some sessions with guitarists Eric Clapton and Duane Allman. Unfortunately the hot-headed Ted White picked a fight during the session and he and Aretha left abruptly. Although Aretha did survive the nasty conflict and completed the successful track "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man."

By 1967 Aretha Franklin had firmly claimed her reign over the blues and jazz scene with a string of hit singles- many that would become enduring classics. In her 1967 album "I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)", the first song on that album was her legendary, "Respect." That song alone made a huge jump in empowering women and is an historical event in its own right. It was a cover of an Otis Redding track and it reached No. 1 on both the R&B and pop charts.

It was not just her musicality and raw talent but passion and determination to let her voice soar and be heard that made her so popular and enduring. She won two Grammy Awards with the "Respect" album. Then went on to create ten top hits with "Baby I Love you", "Think", "Chain of Fools", "I Say a Little Prayer" and the Murphy Brown favorite, "You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman." Her soul just oozed out of her and into the audience.

As quoted in Rolling Stone Magazine, "Aretha Franklin is not only the definitive female soul singer of the '60s, but one of the most influential and important voices in the history of popular music." Which certainly makes her an absolute rock of not only music history, but of Women's History. She overcame archaic male demands, racism and a teen pregnancy to rise to the top and give us all such a joy in the pure talent of her complex vocal abilities.