Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin
Queen of Soul, Aretha Louis Franklin was born on March 25, 1942 in Memphis, Tennessee. Apart from winning 20 Grammy Awards, Franklin was also honored as the first female musician ever to be induced in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Franklin"s father Rev. C. L. Franklin was a Baptist Minister, while the name of her mother was Barbara Siggers Franklin. Franklin"s parents separated when she was only six years of age, and as she turned ten she lost her mother due to heart attack.

The family initially moved to Buffalo, New York as her father"s pulpit was their. Later on the whole family moved to Detroit, Michigan and stayed there as her father gained nationwide recognition as a preacher.

Franklin was into music from her early ages and skillfully mastered piano at her early ages. Her skill at piano joined with her gifted voice made her a young music sensation.

She signed her first record deal, with the Battle Records, at the time when she was fourteen. Franklin was highly influenced by the likes of Clara Ward and Mahalia Jackson and issued "Songs of Faith" in 1956.

Franklin"s music career suffered a major set back when she gave birth to two out of her four sons at the age of 14 and 16. Initially Franklin started off as a gospel singer but later when she made her come back she took major influence from the singers like Dinah Washington and Sam Cooke and selected pop as her favorite genre.

In 1960, Franklin signed her record deal with Columbia records. As she started recording at the Columbia Records, she completely drifted away from her gospel singing and leaned towards jazz and pop genre.

Initially she gave mediocre hits later followed by the Top 10 R&B hits like "Wont be Long", "Operation Heartbreak" and "Today I Sing The Blues." She stayed with Columbia records for six years and acquired mild commercial success by 1966, after that she signed a record deal with Atlantic Records.

The following year Franklin released her first single with Atlantic Records titled "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)". It became Franklin"s breakthrough single as it took the listeners back to her gospel style of singing. The single peaked at #7 spot on Billboards R&B Singles chart, and maintained its position for 7 weeks.

What bring Franklin even closer to her superstardom was her second single "Respect" that was written by Otis Redding. Like her previous single, "Respect" also peaked at #1 on two charts this time, R&B and Pop Charts.

Unlike her previous single, "Respect" maintained its #1 position for a record duration of 8 weeks. Fame of her first two singles was enough to predict the success of her debut album at Atlantic Records.

The album titled "I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You" realized that prediction and the album sold well over million copies.

Followed by the success of her album, a number of top ten hits including "Chain of Fools", Baby I Love you" and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman", were released later in the next ten months.

Aretha Franklin is considered to be a living legend when it comes to the genre of Soul music. Moreover she has also been crowned with the title of The Queen of Soul for her remarkable and innovative work in the world of soul music. In addition to soul music, she has also flourished in various other genres like rock, R&B, gospel and blues music. In her more than five decades long music career, Aretha Franklin has claimed numerous awards and honorariums including a total of eighteen Grammy Awards. Apart from that, she also won two honorary Grammy Awards. On Billboard R&B chart, Aretha Franklin managed to score twenty #1 hit singles throughout her career. Furthermore two of her singles also topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart. With more than fourteen million singles sold worldwide, she is also the highest selling female artist when it comes to selling singles. In 2009, Aretha Franklin also had the honor of being the only singer at Barak Obama's presidential inauguration. Franklin was also inducted in the Rock and Roll hall of fame in 1987, and became the only female singer to accomplish that feat. Aretha Franklin's fan following is widespread, and as soon as she steps out for a live performance, Aretha Franklin tickets are bound to sell out soon.

Justin Bieber Tickets
Madonna Tickets