Aretha Franklin Trivia
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48 free Aretha Franklin trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
Aretha Franklin trivia for soul fans, gospel lovers and anyone who has ever felt the hairs stand up during 'A Natural Woman'. The quiz starts in Memphis and Detroit: her father C. L. Franklin's 'million-dollar voice', the New Bethel Baptist Church, the gospel caravan tours, the album she recorded at 14, and the DJ who crowned her Queen of Soul on a Chicago stage. From there it follows the frustrating Columbia years, the move to Atlantic, the single explosive day at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, and the run of hits that made her the most successful singer in America by 1968: 'Respect', 'Chain of Fools', 'Think', 'I Say a Little Prayer'. Later rounds cover the two-million-selling Amazing Grace, her cameo in The Blues Brothers, the Arista comeback with 'Freeway of Love' and the George Michael duet, the night she stood in for Pavarotti at the Grammys, the fur coat at the Kennedy Center Honors, and her Rock and Roll Hall of Fame first. Questions run from easy to expert and every answer was checked against a reference page and carries its source. See also our soul music and Motown quizzes.
30 of 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01By what title is Aretha Franklin universally known?
the Queen of Soul
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.
Q 02Aretha Franklin grew up in Detroit, but in which Southern city was she born?
Memphis
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.
Q 03C. L. Franklin was pastor of which Detroit congregation, where young Aretha first sang solos?
New Bethel Baptist Church
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.
Q 04Which British singer duetted with Aretha on the 1985 anthem 'Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves'?
Annie Lennox
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.
Q 05Which instrument did young Aretha learn to play by ear after refusing formal lessons?
Piano
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.
Q 06As a teenager, Aretha spent summers on Chicago's gospel circuit staying with the family of which future soul singer?
Mavis Staples
The Staple Singers' Mavis remained a lifelong friend.
Q 07At 16, Aretha went on tour with which civil rights leader, at whose funeral she later sang?
Martin Luther King Jr.
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.
Q 08Which label signed Aretha at 18, years before her breakthrough at Atlantic?
Columbia
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.
Q 09Which record label founder tried to sign the young Aretha, only for her father to turn him down?
Berry Gordy
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.
Q 10In Aretha's 1985 hit 'Freeway of Love', what kind of car is she riding in?
a pink Cadillac
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.
Q 11In January 1967, Atlantic sent Aretha to record at FAME Studios in which Alabama town?
Muscle Shoals
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.
Q 12Aretha's signature song 'Respect' was originally written and recorded by which soul singer?
Otis Redding
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.
Q 13Aretha's 1968 hit 'I Say a Little Prayer' was first a hit for which singer?
Dionne Warwick
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.
Q 21Which Hollywood director filmed the Amazing Grace sessions, in footage that stayed unreleased until 2018?
Sydney Pollack
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.
Q 22Why couldn't the 1972 Amazing Grace film be finished at the time?
No clapperboards
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.
Q 23Aretha's 1976 soundtrack album Sparkle, with 'Something He Can Feel', was a collaboration with which songwriter?
Curtis Mayfield
Q 14Aretha's 'Respect' became an anthem for the civil rights movement and which other cause?
Feminism
Feminism took it up because her version turned a man's plea for respect at home into a woman's demand for it.
Q 15Whose idea sparked the title of Aretha's 1967 hit '(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman'?
Jerry Wexler
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.
Q 16Which of these Aretha hits did she co-write with her husband Ted White?
Think
Think came back twelve years later, when she re-recorded it for The Blues Brothers and sang it on screen in the film.
Q 17Which magazine's June 1968 cover story on Aretha also pointed to violence in her marriage?
Time
Time ran it while she was still married to her manager Ted White; she divorced him the next year.
Q 18Who exposed the 1969 scheme in which singer Vickie Jones toured Florida posing as Aretha?
her own legal team
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.
Q 19In 1971, Aretha won over a hippie crowd in shows recorded at which San Francisco rock venue?
the Fillmore West
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'.
Q 20Aretha's 1972 gospel album Amazing Grace was recorded live over two nights in a church in which city?
Los Angeles
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.
Curtis Mayfield wrote the songs for the film's young actresses, but the soundtrack album swapped their vocals for Aretha's.
Q 24In The Blues Brothers (1980), what kind of business did Aretha's character work in?
a soul food restaurant
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.
Q 25Which label, run by Clive Davis, revived her career after she left Atlantic in 1980?
Arista
Rolling Stone wrote that 'if anybody could rejuvenate Franklin's puzzlingly stuck career, it was Davis'.
Q 26Which rising soul star produced her 1982 comeback album Jump to It?
Luther Vandross
It was her first gold album in seven years; his follow-up Get It Right fared less well.
Q 27Which member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band played on Aretha's 1985 hit 'Freeway of Love'?
Clarence Clemons
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.
Q 28Which singer recorded the 1987 chart-topping duet 'I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)' with Aretha?
George Michael
George Michael had once felt unworthy even to write a song for her, and he admitted being nervous when they finally sang together.
Q 29Aretha sang 'America the Beautiful' to open which 1987 sporting spectacular?
WrestleMania III
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.
Q 30At the 1998 Grammys, Aretha stepped in at the last minute to sing 'Nessun dorma' for which ailing tenor?
Luciano Pavarotti
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.