Franklin was born in 1942 in Memphis, TN, and, not surprisingly, began her career as a child singing gospel music in Detroit where her father was a minister. In popular culture, she made that gospel soul sound her own, and this sound became her lifelong signature. Her voice — once described as a “powerful mezzo-soprano”, was immediately and unmistakably recognizable.
What’s not widely recognized about Aretha Franklin’s amazing depth of artistic talent is that she was a child prodigy on keyboards, where her talents were underrated (she walks onstage at about 6:22).
Tragedy befell both parents — her mother died of natural causes before Aretha was ten years old, and in 1979, her minister father suffered multiple gunshots at point blank range in his home in Detroit. Clarence LaVaughn “CL” Franklin was in a coma for six months, but lived another five years.
Aretha was a force of nature as an R&B performer:
- 112 charted singles on Billboard
- Of these, 77 were Hot 100 entries
- 17 Top ten pop singles
- Recipient of a Grammy Legend award (1991)
- Recipient of a Grammy Lifetime Achievement award (1994)
- Recipient of the National Medal of the Arts (1999)
- Bestowed with the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2005)
- Ranked 1st on Rolling Stone’s Greatest Singers of all Time (2011)
- Honorary degree from Harvard College (2014), Princeton (2012), Yale (2010), Brown (2009), Berklee College of Music (2006), University of Michigan (1987)
- Asteroid 249516 Aretha was named in her honor (2014)
- Aretha Franklin was the most charted female artist in the Billboard’s chart history
Franklin could do it all. In 1998, she stood in at the last minute for her esteemed friend Luciano Pavarotti at the Grammys that year, singing the famous aria Nessun Dorma from Puccini's Turandot, as Pavarotti was suffering from a sore throat.
President Barack Obama had an emotional response to her performance of A Natural Woman at the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors, and had this to say:
American history wells up when Aretha sings. Nobody embodies more fully the connection between the African-American spiritual, the blues, R&B, rock and roll — the way that hardship and sorrow were transformed into something full of beauty and vitality and hope.
She won a total of 18 Grammy Awards, and selling 75 million records worldwide made her one of the best-selling musical artists of all time. Aretha Franklin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, becoming the first female performer to be honored with enshrinement at the Cleveland, Ohio institution.
Franklin died of an illness which has yet to be confirmed - it was her wish not to disclose it over this past year — but it is said to have been cancer. Franklin had to cancel several planned performances due to health issues in 2017, and her last public performance was in November of that year.
Aretha singularly transformed traditional gospel, made it soul, and brought it to the world stage. Others followed her lead, but Aretha Franklin, Queen of Soul, not only did it first - she did it best.
Respect.
All composite things are impermanent,
They are subject to birth and death;
Put an end to birth and death,
And there is blissful tranquility. -Gatha of Impermanence