Recorded at the famed Muscle Shoals studios, this is it, the record that started it all for Aretha, a hugely influential unimpeachable masterpiece with her brilliant and impassioned vocals soaring and swooping over a smokin’ house band as her bountiful talents were at last allowed to flower. Aretha's first side on Atlantic Records was this watershed recording for both her own career and soul music itself. I Never Loved a Man (The Way I loved You) (1967)Īfter her years of frustration with Columbia Records, the stars aligned as Atlantic producer Jerry Wexler provided the perfect ambience and outstanding material and let Aretha's wonderful voice and dazzling piano chops do the rest. The song's other startling innovation was the dramatic spelling out of the title R-E-S-P-E-C-T, just one of the many iconic moments in the Aretha Franklin canon.ġ. She had more than 100 singles on the Billboard charts, including 17 songs that were top 10 pop singles and 20 that were No. And when Aretha sings about getting her “propers” (not in Redding's original), we're left in no doubt as to what she is referring to. This instant classic became a huge feminist and civil rights anthem as Aretha turned the song on its head by taking it at a faster lick and adding some inspired and judicious lyrics.Īretha and her sister Carolyn came up with the infectious “sock it to me” line which, as she later remembered, “coined a phrase”. Otis Redding's original was certainly a great record, but Aretha's blistering re-imagining blew it out the water and in the process became her first Billboard number one, winning her the first of her 18 Grammys. Aretha Franklin's 'Respect' with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.So many of Aretha’s songs are about suffering and being unhappy in love but in this transcendent beauty, she rejoiced in love. One of Aretha’s many signature songs and composed by Carole King and Gerry Goffin at the behest of producer Jerry Wexler, who wanted a “natural woman”-type song for her. (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (1967) Written by Don Covay and owing much to Joe South’s sinewy guitar and the irresistible backing vocals of The Sweet Inspirations, “Chain of Fools” capped a remarkable year for Franklin in which she rewrote the rules of soul music.ħ. Aretha brilliantly dons the persona of a woman who knows she is part of her lover’s harem, but who just can’t help herself. (She can’t stand to listen to the song that reminds her so much of her lying lover.)Īretha picked up a Grammy for a typical gospel-flecked powerhouse vocal on her fifth hit single in 1967 alone, and one which reached number two in the Billboard charts. Demonstrating Aretha’s oft overlooked piano chops to great effect (check her 1970 appearance on the Cliff Richard show on YouTube), this million-selling single features an exuberant whooping and soaring Franklin vocal, totally at odds with the song’s lyrics.
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