RESPECT

"Respect", the movie on the life of "the Queen of Soul", Aretha Franklin is finally hitting theaters today after a year delay due to COVID. Jennifer Hudson, who was personally selected by Franklin before her passing in 2018, plays the legendary performer. The film traces Franklin from the beginning as a child growing up in Detroit, displaying her amazing gift singing in her church lead by her reverend father. She soon begins a recording career as a young woman but does not find success immediately, struggling to find her voice as an artist. But a move to Atlantic Records and more input in to creating her music lead to Franklin's long, extraordinary career. "Respect" covers the joy and thrills in Franklin's life but also the heartbreak and trauma the singer had to endure. Hudson ignites the screen as Franklin, performing many of the Queen's biggest hits and sang them live on set during filming.



Jim Farber of Parade Magazine has looked back on Franklin's incredible catalog of music and selected twelve of her biggest hits and tells the story behind each of them. We get her iconic cover of Otis Redding's "Respect" to Franklin's last major charting song in 1998, "A Rose Is Still a Rose", which was written and produced by Ms. Lauryn Hill.

Click below to read the article:

Aretha! The Stories Behind Her Greatest Hits

COVERED BY ARETHA

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:

IT TAKES TWO, TOO

Here is another collection of some of my favorite songs featuring collaborations between two great musical artists:

"Almost Paradise (Love Theme from "Footloose")" - Ann Wilson & Mike Reno (1984) mp3

"Easy Lover" -  Phil Collins & Philip Bailey (1984) mp3

"If This World Were Mine" - Cheryl Lynn & Luther Vandross (1982) mp3

"How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye" - Dionne Warwick & Luther Vandross (1983) mp3

"Endless Love" Mariah Carey & Luther Vandross (1994) mp3

"The Closer I Get To You" - Beyoncé & Luther Vandross (2003) mp3

"You & I" - Crystal Gayle & Eddie Rabbitt (1982) mp3

"Let It Be Me" - Jerry Butler & Betty Everett (1964) mp3

"I'm Your Angel" - Céline Dion & R. Kelly (1998) mp3

"Tramp" - Otis Redding & Carla Thomas (1967) mp3

EARLY ARETHA - PART TWO

Aretha Franklin would become well-known for taking a popular song from another artist and recording a version that would make you completely forget about the original. The most famous example is her 1967 recording of "Respect".

Otis Redding had a respectable hit with this song he wrote a few years earlier but once Aretha got a hold of it, it became something else entirely. With her providing a woman's point-of-view and adding a bridge with the "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" and "Sock It To Me" lines, Franklin not only created a massive smash about female empowerment but this was also embraced as an anthem during the civil-rights movement. This wasn't the first time these two musical titans would record the same song with very different results.

While at Columbia Records, Franklin recorded a version of "Try A Little Tenderness" in 1962. The song had been around since the early '30's and her take is fairly traditional but with a little bit of soul. Otis Redding took the song and completely reworked it in 1967. Later, Redding's slow burn take would become the definitive version of the song.

Let's listen to Aretha deliver a beautiful rendition of "Try A Little Tenderness":

"Try A Little Tenderness" - Aretha Franklin (1962)

As a bonus, here is Otis Redding's original version of "Respect":

"Respect" - Otis Redding (1965)