Aretha Franklin

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  • Year:
    1987
  • Inducted by:
    Keith Richards (Rolling Stones)
  • Category:
    Performers
aretha_franklin

Introduction

Lady Soul.

The first woman inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Aretha Franklin was an artist of passion, sophistication and command, whose recordings remain anthems that defined soul music. Long live the Queen.

Hall of Fame Essay

1987

Michael Hill

Aretha Franklin was only twenty-five when she clinched the title of Lady Soul with her unforgettably proud, sexy, candid and confident 1967 version of Otis Redding’s ‘‘Respect.” 

Franklin had already given notice of the sound of things to come with her first Jerry Wexler-produced single for Atlantic  Records, “I Never Loved a Man (the Way l Love You),” cut at Rick Hall’s Fame Recording Studios, in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. 

That legendary one-day session marked not only the emergence of a prodigious talent but the start of a new era of fresh, forthright soul music.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Program 1987
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the Queen of Soul, the Queen of Music
Clive Davis

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Collection

Hat with Bow, 2009
Note to Clive Davis, c. 1980s

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Gallery

Photography: Sony; Kevin Mazur, WireImage