Aretha Franklin
If you ever had a wish that you could sing really well, wouldn’t the wish be to sing like Aretha Franklin? America’s Queen of Soul was born in 1942 in Memphis, Tennessee, and grew up in Detroit. Her father, the Rev. Clarence LaVaugh Franklin, was a gospel singer who raised Aretha with his friends including Clara Ward, James Cleveland, and Mahalia Jackson. Franklin began singing in her father’s church, along with her two sisters, at the age of twelve. She recorded her first album, Songs of Faith, at fourteen. In 1960, she moved to New York to create a career. In the two years of 1967 and 1968, Franklin had ten top-ten hits. Franklin’s powerful voice and incredible sense of phrasing have made "Dr. Feelgood", "Baby I love You", "I Say a Little Prayer", and "Respect" (recorded after separating from her first, and abusive, husband) just a few of her songs that we all sing as our own. A recipient of a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, her voice declared a “natural resource” by the state of Michigan, and the first woman inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Franklin must be not only the Queen of Soul, but also the Queen of gospel, blues, rock, and pop.
