ArethaFranklin

EvanAretha Franklin became the queen of soul by growing up in the 50's as a young black girl that started singing in a gospel group she was born March 25, 1942, in Memphis, Tenn., U.S. Aretha began performing on the Midwest gospel music circuit as a young girl and made her first recording when she was 14 years old. In 1961 her recording career started when she signed a deal with CBS/Columbia. Celebrated Columbia Records executive John Hammond was so taken by Franklin's recordings that he signed her immediately. Her first Columbia album was issued in the fall of 1960. Later on she signed with Atlantic Records in 1967. Her father, C.L. Franklin, was a well known revivalist preacher. His church and home were visited by musical luminaries such as Clara Ward, Mahalia Jackson, B. B. King, and Dinah Washington.Franklin's talent as a singer allowed her to perform with her father's traveling gospel show. She sang regularly before his congregation at Detroit's New Bethel Baptist Church as well, where her performance of "Precious Lord," among other gospel gems, was captured for posterity. She was 14 years old but already a spellbinding performer.

Franklin's life was no church social, however. She became a mother at age 15 and had her second child two years later. Although first inspired by gospel music, Franklin soon became interested in non-religious music. After receiving her father's encouragement, she traveled to New York in 1960, embarked on vocal and dance lessons, and hired a manager. She then began recording demonstration tapes.Wexler brought Franklin to the Florence Alabama Music Emporium (FAME) studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to record with a unique group of musicians adept in soul, blues, pop, country, and rock. This crew was stunned by Franklin's power and prowess. Accompanying herself on piano, she deftly controlled the tone and arrangement of the songs she performed.



In 1972 Franklin sang at the funeral of gospel giant Mahalia Jackson, which suggested her stature in the gospel world; it was no surprise when //Amazing Grace,// an album of church music she recorded with Wexler, soared up the pop charts that year. At the inauguration of President Jimmy Carter in 1977, she provided an a //capella// rendition of "God Bless America. She divorced with her husband/manager Ted White and re-married actor [|Glynn Turman] in 1978. They divorced six years later. at the end of the 1970s, her record sales had dwindled, but she took an attention-getting turn in the //Blues Brothers// movie, in which she both acted and sang. The film and the Blues Brothers albums, recorded by [|Saturday Night Live] funnymen and blues and soul fanatics Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, helped fuel a new mainstream interest in 1960s soul.