 | Aretha Franklin: Encyclopedia II - Aretha Franklin - Biography
Aretha Franklin - Biography
Franklin was born in Memphis. The family lived in Buffalo, New York for a short time before moving to Detroit, Michigan when she was seven. Aretha's mother, Barbara (a gospel singer), left the family when Aretha was only six years old.
As a child, Franklin and her sisters, Carolyn and Erma, sang at her father's Detroit-area church and made her first recordings at the age 14. One of their two brothers, Cecil, became a minister like their father, but was also Aretha's manager for a time. Their other brother, Vaugh, became a career Air Force pilot.
Aretha signed with Columbia Records after being discovered by legendary A&R man John Hammond. In the early 1960s, Franklin had a few popular songs, most notably "Rock-a-bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody." Though Columbia really wanted her as a jazz singer, the results never gave full rein to Franklin's talents. Her greatest and most innovative work was yet to come.
Franklin had her first two sons around this time. Clarence, Jr. was born when she was 15 and Edward "Eddie" was born when she was 16. She dropped out of high school soon after the birth of her second son. Her grandmother took in her sons to help Aretha move on in her career.
After moving to Atlantic Records in 1967, Franklin teamed up with producers Jerry Wexler and Arif Mardin, resulting in some of the most influential R&B recordings of the 1960s, including "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)", a much more soulful and impassioned song than most of her earlier work. By the late 1960s, Franklin had earned the nickname "The Queen of Soul", having become an internationally famous artist and a symbol of pride for the Black community. Franklin said herself of this period, "When I went to Atlantic, they just sat me down at the piano and the hits started coming."
She released numerous Top Ten hits in the late 1960s and early 1970s, dabbling in gospel music, blues music, pop music, psychedelic music and rock and roll, including notable covers of songs by The Beatles ("Eleanor Rigby"), The Band ("The Weight"), Simon & Garfunkel ("Bridge Over Troubled Water"), Sam Cooke and The Drifters. Live at Fillmore West and Amazing Grace were two of her most influential full-length releases, the latter a double LP of live gospel music recorded in a Los Angeles Baptist church. Surprisingly she never made it to number one in the UK pop charts — the best result being a number four with her version of Burt Bacharach's "I Say a Little Prayer" in 1968.
Among her most successful hit singles from this era were "Chain of Fools", "You Make Me Feel (Like a Natural Woman)", "Think", "Baby I Love You", "The House That Jack Built", and "Respect", a cover of an Otis Redding single which became her signature song. After the R&B category was added to the Grammy Awards in 1968, she was virtually unchallenged, winning eight successive awards for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance; she later added three more Grammies in this category in the 1980s.
Franklin married Ted White in 1962 and he became her manager during her years with Columbia Records. They had one son, Theodore "Teddy" White, Jr. (b. 1969). The marriage ended in 1969 and she has always refused to answer questions about it. A Time Magazine cover story in 1968 led to a lawsuit from Ted White over allegations that he had roughed her up in public. The affair made her guard her private life even more jealously and she gave no interviews for several years after that.
In the early 1970s, her music mellowed slightly, though losing nothing of its power, and she continued the hugely successful relationship with Wexler and Mardin while beginning to take a greater role in producing her work. A partnership with Quincy Jones led to a disappointing album in 1973 Hey Now Hey (The Other Side of the Sky). But it still produced a standout track "Angel", written by her sister Carolyn which became a soul classic.
She returned to working with Wexler, but their last collaboration, the Atlantic LP You was released in 1975.
Franklin released several LPs after You including Sparkle in 1976 which yielded a #1 R&B single, "(Giving Him )Something He Can Feel" , Sweet Passion, Almighty Fire (also produced by Curtis Mayfield) and La Diva, her last Atlantic LP.
Wexler had now left Atlantic and the partnership was over. Despite working with artists of the stature of Curtis Mayfield, popularity and critical success waned during the mid to late 1970s and the 1980s, though she scored several hits, often with partners (such as Luther Vandross). Her most notable 1980s hit was the dance song "Freeway of Love", which charted in 1985. Most critics dismiss her post-Atlantic material as far inferior to the legendary recordings of the mid to late sixties.
There were two other prominate relationships in Franklin's life. She had a son Kecalf with boyfriend, Ken Cunningham (1969-1970). She was married to actor Glynn Turman (1978-1984).
She lives today in Detroit when not on tour.
Other related archives"Respect", 1942, 1960s, 1969, 1970, 1970s, 1978, 1980s, 1984, 1987, American, Arif Mardin, Atlantic Records, Best female R&B vocal performance, Billboard Hot 100, Black, Blues Brothers 2000, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Broadway, Buffalo, New York, Burt Bacharach, Carolyn, Chaka Khan, Columbia Records, Detroit, Detroit, Michigan, Eleanor Rigby, Erma, George Michael, Glynn Turman, Grammy Awards, Grammys, I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me), I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You), January 3, Jerry Wexler, John Hammond, LP, Lady Soul, List of artists who reached number one on the Hot 100 (US), List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart, List of best-selling music artists, List of number-one dance hits (United States), List of number-one hits (United States), Los Angeles, Luther Vandross, Mahalia Jackson, March 25, Memphis, Michigan, Michigan Women's Hall of Fame, Otis Redding, Quincy Jones, R&B, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Rolling Stone, Rolling Stone's list of the 50 Moments that Changed Rock and Roll, Sam Cooke, Simon & Garfunkel, Tennessee, The Band, The Beatles, The Blues Brothers, The Drifters, The Weight, Time Magazine, UK, VH1, Young, Gifted and Black, blues, blues music, church, fear of flying, gospel, gospel music, iconic, jazz, opera, pop, pop music, psychedelic music, rock, rock and roll, soul, vocalists
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