One of the many amazing gifts of Aretha Franklin was her ability to transform a familiar song that had previously been a popular hit and make it completely fresh and new. Early in her career, she covered plenty of classic standards and certainly put her stamp on them. But it wasn't until Franklin gained more creative control of her records that she was able to take her version of a well-known song in exciting and unexpected directions.
The Queen of Soul's first breakout hit was in 1967 with a re-imaging of Otis Redding's top-five r&b hit, "Respect". While his take was about a hard-working man coming home to his family and finally getting the attention he feels he deserves, she made it about a woman who demanded to receive R-E-S-P-E-C-T from her man. Aretha's version not only became a powerful feminist anthem but used as inspiration during the civil rights movement.
Here are just a few examples of what Aretha could do with somebody else's song:
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