48 Fun Facts About Aretha Franklin

By what title is Aretha Franklin universally known?

She was crowned the Queen of Soul in Chicago: after a 1960s show at the Regal Theater, a radio disc jockey walked on stage and placed a real crown on her head.

Aretha Franklin grew up in Detroit, but in which Southern city was she born?

Memphis was only her first home: her father's preaching posts took the family to Buffalo and then to Detroit, where he led a famous church, while she was still very young.

C. L. Franklin was pastor of which Detroit congregation, where young Aretha first sang solos?

New Bethel Baptist Church kept him as pastor for 33 years, while records and radio broadcasts of his sermons made him famous far beyond Detroit.

Which British singer duetted with Aretha on the 1985 anthem 'Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves'?

Annie Lennox first had Tina Turner in mind for the song; when that fell through, she and Dave Stewart flew to Detroit and recorded it with Aretha instead.

Which instrument did young Aretha learn to play by ear after refusing formal lessons?

Piano stayed her tool as a star: at Atlantic she played it to set each song's groove for the session musicians, and her first single there topped the R&B chart.

As a teenager, Aretha spent summers on Chicago's gospel circuit staying with the family of which future soul singer?

The Staple Singers' Mavis remained a lifelong friend.

At 16, Aretha went on tour with which civil rights leader, at whose funeral she later sang?

Martin Luther King Jr. was a friend of her father, a famous Detroit preacher who marched alongside him and welcomed civil rights leaders into the family home.

Which label signed Aretha at 18, years before her breakthrough at Atlantic?

Columbia signed her after talent scout John Hammond heard her demo, yet the label mostly had her singing show tunes and pop covers rather than the gospel-rooted soul that made her famous.

Which record label founder tried to sign the young Aretha, only for her father to turn him down?

Berry Gordy was turned down because her father felt the young Motown label couldn't give her the national reach he wanted, so she never recorded for Motown.

In Aretha's 1985 hit 'Freeway of Love', what kind of car is she riding in?

She rides in a pink Cadillac, and when she died in 2018, a fleet of pink Cadillacs turned out for her funeral as a tribute to the song.

In January 1967, Atlantic sent Aretha to record at FAME Studios in which Alabama town?

Muscle Shoals hosted just one day: a fight involving her husband Ted White, studio owner Rick Hall and a horn player sent her home, so the record was finished in New York.

Aretha's signature song 'Respect' was originally written and recorded by which soul singer?

Otis Redding cut it first, but her rearrangement added the spelled-out R-E-S-P-E-C-T hook and her sisters' rapid 'sock it to me' backing line.

Aretha's 1968 hit 'I Say a Little Prayer' was first a hit for which singer?

Dionne Warwick had the original hit; Aretha's version was the B-side of 'The House That Jack Built', but it drew its own airplay and reached the Top 10 too.

Aretha's 'Respect' became an anthem for the civil rights movement and which other cause?

Feminism took it up because her version turned a man's plea for respect at home into a woman's demand for it.

Whose idea sparked the title of Aretha's 1967 hit '(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman'?

Jerry Wexler called out to one of the writers on a New York street that he wanted a song called 'Natural Woman', and they gave him a co-writing credit.

Which of these Aretha hits did she co-write with her husband Ted White?

Think came back twelve years later, when she re-recorded it for The Blues Brothers and sang it on screen in the film.

Which magazine's June 1968 cover story on Aretha also pointed to violence in her marriage?

Time ran it while she was still married to her manager Ted White; she divorced him the next year.

Who exposed the 1969 scheme in which singer Vickie Jones toured Florida posing as Aretha?

Once her own legal team alerted Florida authorities, the prosecutor treated the singer, who had been threatened into the act, as a victim and filed no charges.

In 1971, Aretha won over a hippie crowd in shows recorded at which San Francisco rock venue?

At the Fillmore West, one show ended with her pulling Ray Charles, who was in the audience, onstage for a long duet on 'Spirit in the Dark'.

Aretha's 1972 gospel album Amazing Grace was recorded live over two nights in a church in which city?

Los Angeles was also where the Rolling Stones were finishing Exile on Main St., so Mick Jagger turned up in the congregation on the second night.

Which Hollywood director filmed the Amazing Grace sessions, in footage that stayed unreleased until 2018?

Sydney Pollack shot it for Warner Bros., but Aretha herself went to court to block screenings, and the film came out only after her death.

Why couldn't the 1972 Amazing Grace film be finished at the time?

No clapperboards were used, so sound and picture couldn't be synced, and the footage sat in a Warner Bros. vault until producer Alan Elliott bought it in 2007.

Aretha's 1976 soundtrack album Sparkle, with 'Something He Can Feel', was a collaboration with which songwriter?

Curtis Mayfield wrote the songs for the film's young actresses, but the soundtrack album swapped their vocals for Aretha's.

In The Blues Brothers (1980), what kind of business did Aretha's character work in?

Her character worked in a soul food restaurant with her husband, guitarist Matt 'Guitar' Murphy, and sang to talk him out of rejoining Jake and Elwood's band.

Which label, run by Clive Davis, revived her career after she left Atlantic in 1980?

Rolling Stone wrote that 'if anybody could rejuvenate Franklin's puzzlingly stuck career, it was Davis'.

Which rising soul star produced her 1982 comeback album Jump to It?

It was her first gold album in seven years; his follow-up Get It Right fared less well.

Which member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band played on Aretha's 1985 hit 'Freeway of Love'?

Clarence Clemons played the saxophone solo and then appeared in the song's video, which cut between the band and scenes of cars being built.

Which singer recorded the 1987 chart-topping duet 'I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)' with Aretha?

George Michael had once felt unworthy even to write a song for her, and he admitted being nervous when they finally sang together.

Aretha sang 'America the Beautiful' to open which 1987 sporting spectacular?

WrestleMania III was held at the Pontiac Silverdome near Detroit, and when WrestleMania 23 came back to the area twenty years later, she opened it with the same song.

At the 1998 Grammys, Aretha stepped in at the last minute to sing 'Nessun dorma' for which ailing tenor?

Luciano Pavarotti was too ill to go on, so she sang the aria in the tenor's key the orchestra had already prepared, and her performance stopped the show.

What was Aretha's real relationship to Whitney Houston, whose mother Cissy sang backup on her hits?

She was an honorary aunt, not the godmother some reports claimed, and a young Whitney called her 'Aunt Ree'.

Aretha's famous church hat made headlines when she sang at which January 2009 event?

The following year she accepted an honorary degree from Yale.

At the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors, Aretha dropped her fur coat mid-song while performing for which honoree?

Carole King co-wrote '(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman', the song Aretha sang in her honour, and the coat drop brought the crowd to its feet mid-song.

Which phobia did Aretha develop in the years after her father was shot in 1979?

Flying terrified her, and that phobia forced her to cut back on touring.

In 1979, what was happening when Aretha's father, a famous preacher, was shot?

He was shot during a burglary at his Detroit home and spent five years in a coma, so in 1982 she moved back from California to help care for him.

Which US president presented Aretha with the Presidential Medal of Freedom?

George W. Bush presented it in 2005, a week after she sang at Rosa Parks' funeral in Detroit.

Which actress and singer played Aretha in the 2021 biopic Respect?

Aretha hand-picked Jennifer Hudson for the role, and Hudson had already sung 'Amazing Grace' at her funeral in 2018.

Aretha's final public performance, in November 2017, was at a New York gala for whose AIDS Foundation?

Elton John's gala proved to be her last show, because she cancelled her 2018 concert dates on her doctor's advice.

What illness did Aretha die of at home in August 2018?

It was pancreatic cancer, though after surgery to remove a tumour in 2010 she had denied reports that she had the disease.

Which actress played Aretha in the third season of National Geographic's Genius in 2021?

Cynthia Erivo got the part after Nat Geo switched that season's subject to Aretha from Frankenstein author Mary Shelley, whom it had announced in 2018.

By what nickname was C. L. Franklin, Aretha's father, known for his sermons?

Admirers called him the man with the million-dollar voice, and his fame drew gospel stars such as Mahalia Jackson and Clara Ward to the family home.

At 18, Aretha said she wanted to follow which gospel-turned-pop singer into secular music?

Sam Cooke had met the Franklins on a trip to California, and inspired by his crossover success, she moved to New York with her father's blessing to launch a pop career.

In 1970, Aretha offered to put up bail for which jailed activist?

Angela Davis should go free, Aretha told Jet, not because she believed in communism but because Davis was a Black woman.

Aretha's older sister Erma recorded the original version of which song that Janis Joplin made famous?

Piece of My Heart became a much bigger hit for Janis Joplin's band, but a 1992 Levi's jeans commercial finally sent Erma's original into the UK top 10.

Which Aretha album topped Rolling Stone's 'Women in Rock: 50 Essential Albums' list?

I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You was her first album for Atlantic Records, and after years of modest sales it became her breakthrough, reaching number 2 on the Billboard album chart.

Aretha's 1972 album Young, Gifted and Black took its title from a civil rights anthem first recorded by which singer?

Nina Simone's song honoured her late friend Lorraine Hansberry, the playwright behind A Raisin in the Sun, who had died in 1965.

Which music legend produced Aretha's 1973 album Hey Now Hey (The Other Side of the Sky)?

Quincy Jones and Aretha looked like a dream pairing, but the album fell short, and only 'Angel', a song by her sister Carolyn, became a big hit.

Which Simon & Garfunkel song did Aretha turn into a hit single in 1971?

Paul Simon wrote Bridge over Troubled Water, and he later said her version was maybe the best cover of any of his songs that anyone ever did.