They did not call Aretha Franklin the Queen of Soul for nothing. She had the pipes and the conviction in her music that others couldn't match. And she helped break a few barriers too, in a career that spanned over half a century.
Over 100 of Franklin's songs made the pop and R&B charts between the mid-1960s and the '90s, including "Respect", "Chain of Fools", "Think", "I Never Loved a Man", "Freeway of Love", "Who's Zoomin' Who?", and duets with Annie Lennox of Eurhythmics ("Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves") and George Michael ("I Knew You Were Waiting For Me"). More than 75 million records have been sold worldwide.
Franklin had won 18 Grammy awards, including eight in a row for Best Female Vocal R&B Performance. She was the first woman to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. Rolling Stone magazine named her not only to the top of their "Greatest Singers of All Time", but also by leading their "100 Greatest Singers" survey. The state of Michigan even made her voice a "natural resource".
Franklin sang at a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II, the first inaugurations of Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, and the funeral for Dr. Martin Luther King. She performed the National Anthem at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, and at the Super Bowl in her hometown of Detroit. She also subbed for an ailing Luciano Pavarotti, singing an aria at the 1998 Grammy awards.
Her political and social activism extended from the pulpit of her father's church in Detroit through the Civil Rights and Black Power movements of the 1960s and 70s. Songs like "Respect" and "Think" reflected that time, and they still do in the era of Black Lives Matter and MeToo.
Aretha Franklin, after years of health problems, died at 76 in her Detroit home. She leaves behind a legacy of music that will remind her fans now and in the future that a voice like hers could never be duplicated, no matter how hard they try.
The Queen of Soul is dead. Long live the Queen.
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