A Bite of Aretha Franklin 🍪
The “greatest singer of all time” and the Queen of Soul
Monday Bites are bite-sized musician spotlights & playlists by Grace Lilly.
Enjoying the series? Support here to keep the good stuff coming 😊
• 3 min read •
I never got tired of Lady Soul
Aretha’s hit 1968 album was one of the most-played records in my house growing up. I can vividly remember my mom singing along to “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” in the kitchen making dinner as I watched in admiration of how well she “knew all the words.” A cherished car CD, we listened to it from start to finish on the drive to school, running errands, on road trips… essentially anytime we could. Her voice made each moment feel more exciting.
Ever since then, Aretha has remained one of my favorites.
I’m in good company — she’s one of the single most popular musicians of all time. In fact, she’s had a number one record in every decade since the 1960s.
“Music changes, and I'm gonna change right along with it.”
She sure did, and better than most. Few others in history have possessed Aretha’s ability to move through time and create consistently compelling, impactful, enjoyable music. She’s a true legend.
Aretha Franklin
The basics
🤝 American singer, songwriter and pianist
🤝 b. 1942 (Memphis, Tennessee) - 2018 (Detroit, Michigan)
🤝 “The Queen of Soul”
Why you should know her: One of the best-selling artists in history and a “civil rights and humanitarian icon,” Aretha has twice been named the greatest singer of all time by Rolling Stone
If you like
✨ SZA
✨ Beyoncé
✨ Stevie Wonder
Known for
🏆 Her uniquely powerful, piercing voice that radiated both joy and pain
🏆 73 Billboard Hot 100 singles
🏆 Her skills as a pianist, described by critics as “magic”
🏆 18 Grammy Awards, 44 nominations, the Lifetime Achievement Award
🏆 Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Medal of Arts
🏆 Her version of Otis Redding’s “Respect,” later hailed as a civil rights and feminist anthem
Bite-sized facts
🍪 Learned to play piano by ear as a child, got her first record deal at 14 as a gospel singer
🍪 Went on tour with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when she was 16 and later sang at his funeral in 1968
🍪 Moved to New York at 18 to pursue pop music and by her 20s, was making $100k per year singing in nightclubs & theaters
🍪 Catapulted into fame at 25 with her gold-certified album, I’ve Never Loved A Man the Way I Love You (1967)
🍪 Became “the most successful singer in the nation” by 1968 and expanded her success with Spirit in the Dark (1970) and Young, Gifted and Black (1972)
🍪 Performed at President Barack Obama's inaugural ceremony in 2009
🍪 Received honorary degrees from Harvard, NYU, and honorary doctorates from Princeton, Yale, Brown, University of Pennsylvania, and Berklee College of Music
Activism & The Civil Rights Movement
💪🏾 Described as “the voice of the civil rights movement, the voice of black America”
💪🏾 Provided money for civil rights groups, sometimes covering payroll, and performed at benefits and protests
💪🏾 Her songs “Respect” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” became anthems of these movements for social change
💪🏾 A strong supporter of Native American and First Nation cultural rights and Indigenous peoples’ struggles worldwide
In film & TV
📺 Sparkle (1976): Aretha worked with Curtis Mayfield on the soundtrack, which led to her final top-40 hit of the decade “Something He Can Feel”
📺 The Blues Brothers (1980): Aretha appeared with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi in the beloved comedy musical as Mrs. Murphy, a soul food restaurant owner
📺 Respect (2021): Jennifer Hudson played Aretha in this biopic
Songs & dates
♫ 1961 Releases her first Billboard Hot 100 single, “Won't Be Long,” off her first album, Aretha: With The Ray Bryant Combo
♫ 1967 Gets her first top-ten single with “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)”
♫ 1967 “Respect” becomes a No. 1 hit; “Baby I Love You” and the Carole King-composed “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” become top-ten singles
♫ 1968 Releases some of her most popular hit singles: “Chain of Fools,” “Ain't No Way,” “Think,” and “I Say a Little Prayer” off the top-selling albums Lady Soul and Aretha Now
♫ 1985 “Freeway of Love” and “Another Night” become hit singles off her platinum album Who’s Zoomin’ Who?
♫ 1998 Releases her final top 40 single “A Rose Is Still a Rose” off her gold album of the same name
She said
⭐ “In terms of helping people understand and know each other a little better, music is universal — universal and transporting.”
⭐ “It really is an honor if I can be inspirational to a younger singer or person. It means I've done my job.”
⭐ “I'm the lady next door when I'm not on stage.”
Aretha Franklin Playlist
I gathered my fav Aretha songs, from me to you with love. Like & save on Spotify and listen all week 💗
Where to start
Her first top-ten single
Aretha singing “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)” in 1968 to an enchanted audience who covered the stage with flower petals at the Royal Concertgebouw concert hall in Amsterdam
〰️
A mid-performance standing ovation
Watch 73-year-old Aretha’s acclaimed performance of her hit song “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” at the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors honoring Carole King, who co-wrote the song, during which she drops her fur coat to the stage.
Dropping the coat was symbolic according to Rolling Stone: it “echoed back to those times when gospel queens would toss their furs on top of the coffins of other gospel queens — a gesture that honored the dead but castigated death itself.”
Down the rabbit hole
If you wanna dive even deeper:
Amazing Grace (2018)
Rated 99% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, this critically acclaimed documentary released 46 years after being filmed features Aretha’s two-night, live-church recording of her album Amazing Grace (1972), that became one of the bestselling gospel albums of all time.
Watch on Apple TV, Amazon, Youtube, or Tubi.
Show some love
If you enjoyed this post, “like” it & leave a comment! It makes me very happy 🥰
👀 Bonus: your engagement helps people find us in search engines, so taking a moment to say a few words makes a real difference!
An average concert ticket costs $122.84 🎟️
An annual subscription to This Song Changed My Life costs less than half of that ($50 to be exact).
Become a paid subscriber
Chipping in helps ensure the continued existence of TSCML — plus you’ll instantly unlock 30+ secret, paid-only posts (and counting).
People love it
What paid subscribers are saying
“I love this series! Want to pitch in so you can keep up the high quality content”
“Happy to support the good stuff”
“I believe watching your work develop will by itself change my life”
Learn more about me and my other projects: check out my personal newsletter, Weirdly Good <3
"The greatest singer of all time" is a real thing. She really is. At least in the time of recorded music. Aretha is the queen.