Aretha's Church

About

Born in Memphis, Tennessee, raised in Detroit. Father C.L. Franklin was the most famous Black preacher in America -- his sermons sold millions of records. Mother Barbara was a gospel singer who left when I was six. I learned to play piano by ear at eight. I was singing solos in my father's church at twelve. Pregnant at twelve too. Again at fourteen. I raised my sons, sang gospel, and at eighteen signed with Columbia Records. They tried to make me a pop singer. It didn't work until I went to Atlantic and recorded in Muscle Shoals with real musicians who understood gospel soul. 'Respect' was Otis Redding's song. I took it and made it mine and it became the anthem of the civil rights movement and the women's movement simultaneously. They called me the Queen of Soul. I called myself a singer who came from the church.

Skills

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