Michael J.

Michael J.

Michael J is keeping you in touch everywhere you find Country music: on the air, on-line and with the iHeartRadio app! If it's happening in...Full Bio

 

R.I.P. Aretha Franklin. Here are my TOP 5 Favs from Aretha's legendary life

Stevie Wonder told me R & B and Country music are really the same thing. "Authentic and from the heart". #Truth. -MJ

Here are my TOP 5 Favs from Aretha's legendary recording career.

#1- "Respect" is a song written and originally released by American recording artist Otis Redding in 1965. The song became a 1967 hit and signature song for R&B singer Aretha Franklin. The music in the two versions is significantly different, and through a few changes in the lyrics, the stories told by the songs have a different flavor. Redding's version is a plea from a desperate man, who will give his woman anything she wants. He won't care if she does him wrong, as long as he gets his due respect when he brings money home.[1] However, Franklin's version is a declaration from a strong, confident woman, who knows that she has everything her man wants. She never does him wrong, and demands his "respect".[2] Franklin's version adds the "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" chorus and the backup singers' refrain of "Sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me...".

Franklin's cover was a landmark for the feminist movement, and is often considered as one of the best songs of the R&B era, earning her two Grammy Awards in 1968 for "Best Rhythm & Blues Recording" and "Best Rhythm & Blues Solo Vocal Performance, Female", and was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1987. In 2002, the Library of Congress honored Franklin's version by adding it to the National Recording Registry. It was placed number five on Rolling Stone magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".[3] It was also included in the list of "Songs of the Century", by the Recording Industry of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. Franklin included a live recording on the album Aretha in Paris (1968).

#2 -" I Say a Little Prayer" is a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David for Dionne Warwick, originally peaking at number four on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 pop 

#3-"I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" is a Grammy Award-winning number-one song recorded by American singer Aretha Franklin and English singer George Michael as a duet in 1987. It was written by Simon Climie and Dennis Morgan, and produced by Narada Michael Walden. It also stands as Franklin's biggest hit on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, spending several weeks at number two (thwarted from the #1 position by Starshipand Steve Winwood).-Wikepedia

4- "Freeway of Love" is a Grammy Award-winning hit song released as the first single from Aretha Franklin's Platinum-certified 1985 album Who's Zoomin' Who? -Wikepedia

#5 "Chain Of Fools " Aretha Franklin first released the song as a single in 1967 and subsequently it appeared on many of her albums.  It reached number one on the U.S. R&B chart, staying there for four weeks, and went to number two on the pop chart in January 1968.[3] It won the Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, and later a Grammy Hall of Fame Award. In 2004, this song was ranked #249 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time." Wikepedia

And there were SO MANY MORE.


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