Aretha Franklin

Aretha Louise Franklin March 25 1942 August 16 2018 was an American singer songwriter and pianist Referred to as the Queen of Soul Rolling Stone twice named her as the greatest singer of all time With global sales of over 75 million records Franklin is one of the worlds bestselling music artists As a child Franklin was noticed for her gospel singing at New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit Michigan where her father C L Franklin was a minister At the age of 18 she was signed as a recording artist for Columbia Records While her career did not immediately flourish Franklin found acclaim and commercial success once she signed with Atlantic Records in 1966 Hit songs such as I Never Loved a Man The Way I Love You Respect You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman Chain of Fools Think and I Say a Little Prayer propelled Franklin past her musical peers Franklin continued to record acclaimed albums such as I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You 1967 Lady Soul 1968 Spirit in the Dark 1970 Young Gifted and Black 1972 Amazing Grace 1972 and Sparkle 1976 before experiencing problems with the record company Franklin left Atlantic in 1979 and signed with Arista Records The singer appeared in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers before releasing the successful albums Jump to It 1982 Whos Zoomin Who 1985 and Aretha 1986 on the Arista label In 1998 Franklin returned to the Top 40 with the Lauryn Hillproduced song A Rose Is Still a Rose later she released an album with the same name Franklin recorded 112 charted singles on the US Billboard charts including 73 Hot 100 entries 17 topten pop singles 100 RB entries and 20 numberone RB singles Besides the foregoing the singers wellknown hits also include Aint No Way Call Me Dont Play That Song You Lied Spanish Harlem Rock Steady Day Dreaming Until You Come Back to Me Thats What Im Gonna Do Something He Can Feel Jump to It Freeway of Love Whos Zoomin Who and I Knew You Were Waiting For Me a duet with George Michael Franklin won 18 Grammy Awards out of 44 nominations including the first eight awards given for Best Female RB Vocal Performance 19681975 a Grammy Awards Living Legend honor and Lifetime Achievement Award Franklin received numerous honors throughout her career She was awarded the National Medal of Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom In 1987 she became the first female artist to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame She also was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005 and into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2012 In 2019 the Pulitzer Prize jury awarded the songwriter a posthumous special citation for her indelible contribution to American music and culture for more than five decades In 2020 Franklin was inducted into the National Womens Hall of Fame Source Article Aretha Franklin from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30