Jordan "Jerry" Ragovoy (September 4, 1930 - July 13, 2011)^[1][2] was an American songwriter and record producer.

His best-known composition "Time Is on My Side" (written under the pseudonym of Norman Meade) was made famous by The Rolling Stones, although it had been recorded earlier by Kai Winding and Irma Thomas. Ragovoy also wrote "Stay With Me", which was originally recorded by Lorraine Ellison, and was performed by Mary J. Blige at the 49th Grammy Awards.

An important behind-the-scenes force of East Coast soul music, Ragovoy wrote or co-wrote several classic New York and Philadelphia soul records in the 1960s, often distinguished by a conspicuous gospel feel.^[3] The best of these included Garnet Mimms' "Cry Baby," Erma Franklin's "Piece of My Heart," Howard Tate's "Get It While You Can," all later covered by Janis Joplin, plus "Time Is on My Side" and "Stay With Me."^[3] Ragovoy also contributed to first-class soul records as a producer and arranger.^[3]

Early life and career[link]

Ragovoy was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of a Hungarian-born Jewish optometrist.^[4] He entered record production in 1953 with "My Girl Awaits Me" by The Castelles.^[3]

He worked at Philadelphia's Chancellor Records (where Fabian and Frankie Avalon had hits) and wrote The Majors' vocal group single "A Wonderful Dream," which made #22 in the Billboard Hot 100 in 1962.^[3] Around this time he began writing songs with another white soul songwriter-producer, Bert Berns, including "Cry Baby" by Garnet Mimms and The Enchanters, which made #4 in 1963.^[3]

Another well-known song by Ragovoy is "Piece of My Heart", co-written with Berns and recorded originally by Erma Franklin, and later famously covered by Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company. Between 1966 and 1968, Ragovoy was employed as producer and songwriter for the Warner Bros subsidiary, Loma Records. He also co-wrote several songs in Janis Joplin's solo career, including "Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)" (originally by Lorraine Ellison on Loma Records), "Cry Baby" (originally by Garnet Mimms and The Enchanters, "Get it While You Can" (originally by Howard Tate, covered by Joplin) and "My Baby". Prior to Joplin's death, Ragovoy wrote a song especially for her next album, titled "I'm Gonna Rock My Way to Heaven." The song was never recorded or performed until shortly before Ragovoy's death in July 2011, when it was included in the theatrical production, "One Night with Janis Joplin," written and directed by Randy Johnson with arrangements and musical direction by Len Rhodes. Ragovoy was in attendance on opening night when the show premiered at Portland Center Stage on May 27, 2011.

Ragovoy also produced recorded work by Bonnie Raitt and Milkwood.^[3] However, his involvement in the music industry was less prolific from the 1970s onwards.^[3]

In 1973, he won a Grammy Award as producer on Best Score From an Original Cast Show Album, for Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope.

In 2003, Ragovoy worked again with Howard Tate. The pair returned with an acclaimed CD, Howard Tate Rediscovered, written, arranged and produced by Ragovoy.^[5]

In 2008, Ace Records released a compilation album entitled, The Jerry Ragovoy Story: Time Is on My Side.

Death[link]

Ragovoy died, following a stroke, on July 13, 2011, at the age of eighty.^[2]

Notable compositions[link]

^[6][7][2]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Jerry Ragovoy biography at Allmusic website
• Discography of Loma Records

Janis Joplin
Background information
Birth name	Janis Lyn Joplin
Also known as	Pearl Mary Jane
Born	(1943-01-19)January 19, 1943 Port Arthur, Texas, United States
Died	October 4, 1970(1970-10-04) (aged 27) Los Angeles, California, United States
Genres	Blues rock, soul, psychedelic rock, acid rock, country, folk, hard rock, jazz blues
Occupations	Singer, songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, auto-harp, harmonica, piano, percussion
Years active	1962–1970
Labels	Columbia
Associated acts	Big Brother and the Holding Company Kozmic Blues Band Full Tilt Boogie Band Grateful Dead

Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American singer and songwriter from Port Arthur, Texas. As a youth Joplin was ridiculed by her fellow students due to her unconventional appearance and personal beliefs. She later sang about her experience at school through her song "Ego Rock". Early in her life, Joplin cultivated a rebellious and unconventional lifestyle, becoming a beatnik poet. She began her singing career as a folk and blues singer in San Francisco, playing clubs and bars with her guitar and auto-harp.

Joplin first rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of the psychedelic-acid rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company, and later as a solo artist with her more soulful and bluesy backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band. She was one of the more popular acts at the Monterey Pop Festival and later became one of the major attractions to the Woodstock festival and the Festival Express train tour.

Janis Joplin only charted five singles in her life but her hits and other popular songs from throughout her short four year career include "Down On Me", "Bye, Bye Baby", "Coo Coo", "Summertime", "Piece of My Heart", "Turtle Blues", "Ball 'n' Chain", "Try (Just A Little Bit Harder)", "Maybe", "To Love Somebody", "Kozmic Blues", "Work Me, Lord", "Move Over", "Cry Baby", "A Woman Left Lonely" "Get It While You Can", "My Baby", "Trust Me", "Mercedes Benz", "One Night Stand", "Raise Your Hand" and her only number one hit, "Me and Bobby McGee".

Joplin was well known for her performing abilities and her fans referred to her stage presence as electric. At the height of her career, she was known as "The Queen of Rock and Roll" as well as "The Queen of Psychedelic Soul" and became known as Pearl amongst her friends. She was also a painter, dancer and music arranger.

Rolling Stone magazine ranked Joplin number 46 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time in 2004,^[1] and number 28 on its 2008 list of 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.^[2]

Early life: 1943–1961[link]

Janis Joplin was born in Port Arthur, Texas, on (1943-01-19)January 19, 1943,^[3] to Dorothy (née East) Joplin (1913–1998), a registrar at a business college, and her husband, Seth Joplin (1910–1987), an engineer at Texaco. She had two younger siblings, Michael and Laura. The family attended the Church of Christ.^[4] The Joplins felt that Janis always needed more attention than their other children, with her mother stating, "She was unhappy and unsatisfied without [receiving a lot of attention]. The normal rapport wasn't adequate."^[5]

As a teenager, she befriended a group of outcasts, one of whom had albums by African-American blues artists Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey and Lead Belly, whom Joplin later credited with influencing her decision to become a singer.^[6] She began singing in the local choir and expanded her listening to blues singers such as Odetta, Billie Holiday and Big Mama Thornton.

Primarily a painter while still in school, she first began singing blues and folk music with friends. While at Thomas Jefferson High School, she stated that she was mostly shunned.^[6] Joplin was quoted as saying, "I was a misfit. I read, I painted, I didn't hate niggers."^[5] As a teen, she became overweight and her skin broke out so badly she was left with deep scars which required dermabrasion.^[5][7][8] Other kids at high school would routinely taunt her and call her names like "pig," "freak" or "creep."^[5] Among her classmates were G. W. Bailey and Jimmy Johnson.

Joplin graduated from high school in 1960 and attended Lamar State College of Technology in Beaumont, Texas, during the summer^[7] and later the University of Texas at Austin, though she did not complete her studies.^[9] The campus newspaper The Daily Texan ran a profile of her in the issue dated July 27, 1962, headlined "She Dares To Be Different."^[9] The article began, "She goes barefooted when she feels like it, wears Levi's to class because they're more comfortable, and carries her Autoharp with her everywhere she goes so that in case she gets the urge to break into song it will be handy. Her name is Janis Joplin."^[9]

Singing career: 1962-1965[link]

Joplin's house at 122 Lyon Street in Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco, California. She lived there in the 1960s with her boyfriend Country Joe McDonald.^[10]

Cultivating a rebellious manner, Joplin styled herself in part after her female blues heroines and, in part, after the Beat poets. Her first song recorded on tape, at the home of a fellow student in December 1962, was "What Good Can Drinkin' Do".^[11] She left Texas for San Francisco ("just to get away from Texas," she said, "because my head was in a much different place"^[12]) in January 1963, living in North Beach and later Haight-Ashbury. In 1964, Joplin and future Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen recorded a number of blues standards, further accompanied by Margareta Kaukonen on typewriter (as a percussion instrument). This session included seven tracks: "Typewriter Talk", "Trouble In Mind", "Kansas City Blues", "Hesitation Blues", "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out", "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy" and "Long Black Train Blues", and was later released as the bootleg album The Typewriter Tape.

Around this time, her drug use increased, and she acquired a reputation as a "speed freak" and occasional heroin use.^[3][6][7] She also used other psychoactive drugs and was a heavy drinker throughout her career; her favorite beverage was Southern Comfort.

In early 1965, Joplin's friends, noticing the physical effects of her amphetamine habit (she was described as "skeletal"^[6] and "emaciated"^[3]), persuaded her to return to Port Arthur, Texas. In May 1965, Joplin's friends threw her a bus-fare party so she could return home.^[3] Back in Port Arthur, she changed her lifestyle. She avoided drugs and alcohol, began wearing relatively modest dresses, adopted a beehive hairdo, and enrolled as a sociology major at Lamar University in nearby Beaumont, Texas. During her year at Lamar University, she commuted to Austin to perform solo, accompanying herself on guitar. One of her performances was reviewed in the Austin American-Statesman. Joplin became engaged to a man who visited her, wearing a blue serge suit, to ask her father for her hand in marriage, but the man terminated plans for the marriage soon afterwards.^[8]

Just prior to joining Big Brother and the Holding Company, Joplin recorded seven studio tracks in 1965. Among the songs she recorded was her original composition for her song "Turtle Blues" and an alternate version of "Cod'ine" by Buffy Sainte-Marie. These tracks were later issued as a new album in 1995 titled This is Janis Joplin 1965 by James Gurley.

Big Brother and the Holding Company: 1966–1968[link]

Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company, circa 1966 – 1967.

In 1966, Joplin's bluesy vocal style attracted the attention of the psychedelic rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company, a band that had gained some renown among the nascent hippie community in Haight-Ashbury. She was recruited to join the group by Chet Helms, a promoter who had known her in Texas and who at the time was managing Big Brother. Helms brought her back to San Francisco and Joplin joined Big Brother on June 4, 1966.^[13] Her first public performance with them was at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco. In June, she was photographed at an outdoor concert that celebrated the summer solstice. The image, which was later published in two books by David Dalton, shows her before she relapsed into drugs. Due to persistent persuading by keyboardist and close friend Stephen Ryder, Joplin avoided drug use for several weeks, enjoining bandmate Dave Getz to promise that using needles would not be allowed in their rehearsal space or in her apartment or in the homes of her bandmates whom she visited.^[8] When a visitor injected drugs in front of Joplin and Getz, Joplin angrily reminded Getz that he had broken his promise.^[8] A San Francisco concert from that summer was recorded and released in the 1984 album Cheaper Thrills. In July, all five bandmates and guitarist James Gurley's wife Nancy moved to a house in Lagunitas, California, where they lived communally. They often partied with the Grateful Dead, who lived less than two miles away.

On August 23, 1966,^[14] during a four week engagement in Chicago, the group signed a deal with independent label Mainstream Records.^[15] Joplin relapsed into drinking when she and her bandmates (except for Peter Albin) joined some "alcoholic hipsters," as Joplin biographer Ellis Amburn described them, in Chicago. The band recorded tracks in a Chicago recording studio, but the label owner Bob Shad refused to pay their airfare back to San Francisco.^[6] Shortly after four of the five musicians drove from Chicago to Northern California with very little money (Albin traveled by plane), they returned to Lagunitas. It was there that Joplin relapsed into intravenous drug use. Nancy Gurley was an enabler.^[6] Three years later, Joplin, by then using a different band, was informed of Gurley's death from an overdose.^[6]

The Mantra-Rock Dance promotional poster featuring Big Brother and the Holding Company.

One of Joplin's earliest major performances in 1967 was the Mantra-Rock Dance, a musical event held on January 29 at the Avalon Ballroom by the San Francisco Hare Krishna temple. Janis Joplin and Big Brother performed there along with the Hare Krishna founder Bhaktivedanta Swami, Allen Ginsberg, Moby Grape, and Grateful Dead, donating proceeds to the Krishna temple.^[16][17][18]

In early 1967, Joplin met Country Joe McDonald of the group Country Joe and the Fish. The pair lived together as a couple for a few months.^[3][15] Joplin and Big Brother began playing clubs in San Francisco, at the Fillmore West, Winterland and the Avalon Ballroom. They also played at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, as well as in Seattle, Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia, the Psychedelic Supermarket in Boston, Massachusetts, and the Golden Bear Club in Huntington Beach, California.^[15]

Monterey and breakthrough[link]

The band's debut studio album, Big Brother and the Holding Company, was released by Columbia Records in August 1967, shortly after the group's breakthrough appearance in June at the Monterey Pop Festival.^[12] The debut album spawned four minor hits with the singles "Down on Me", a traditional song arranged by Joplin, "Bye Bye Baby," "Call On Me" and "Coo Coo," all of which Joplin sang lead vocals on.

Two songs from the second of Big Brother's two sets at Monterey were filmed. "Combination of the Two" and a version of Big Mama Thornton's "Ball 'n' Chain" appear in the DVD box set of D. A. Pennebaker's documentary Monterey Pop released by The Criterion Collection. The film captured Cass Elliot, of The Mamas & the Papas, seated in the audience silently mouthing "Wow! That's really heavy!" during Joplin's performance of "Ball and Chain".^[6] Only "Ball and Chain" was included in the film that was released to theaters nationwide in 1969 and shown on television in the 1970s. Those who did not attend Monterey Pop saw the band's performance of "Combination of the Two" for the first time in 2002 when The Criterion Collection released the box set.

After switching managers from Chet Helms to Julius Karpen in 1966, the group signed with top artist manager Albert Grossman, whom they met for the first time at Monterey Pop. For the remainder of 1967, Big Brother performed mainly in California. On February 16, 1968,^[19] the group began its first East Coast tour in Philadelphia, and the following day gave their first performance in New York City at the Anderson Theater.^[3][6] On April 7, 1968, the last day of their East Coast tour, Joplin and Big Brother performed with Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Guy, Joni Mitchell, Richie Havens, Paul Butterfield, and Elvin Bishop at the "Wake for Martin Luther King, Jr." concert in New York.

Live at Winterland '68, recorded at the Winterland Ballroom on April 12 and 13, 1968, features Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company at the height of their mutual career working through a selection of tracks from their albums. A recording became available to the public for the first time in 1998 when Sony Music Entertainment released the compact disc. One month later, Live at the Carousel Ballroom 1968, was recorded by Owsley Stanley.

In early 1968, Joplin and Big Brother made their nationwide television debut on The Dick Cavett Show, an ABC daytime variety show hosted by Dick Cavett. Shortly thereafter, network employees wiped the videotape. Over the next two years, she made three appearances on the primetime Cavett program, and all were preserved. By 1968, the band was being billed as "Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company",^[15] and the media coverage given to Joplin generated resentment within the band.^[15] The other members of Big Brother thought that Joplin was on a "star trip," while others were telling Joplin that Big Brother was a terrible band and that she ought to dump them.^[15]

Time magazine called Joplin "probably the most powerful singer to emerge from the white rock movement," and Richard Goldstein wrote for the May 1968 issue of Vogue magazine that Joplin was "the most staggering leading woman in rock... she slinks like tar, scowls like war... clutching the knees of a final stanza, begging it not to leave... Janis Joplin can sing the chic off any listener."^[5]

[edit] Cheap Thrills

For her first major studio recording, Janis played a major role in the arrangement and production of the recordings that would become Big Brother and the Holding Company's second album, Cheap Thrills. During the recording, Joplin was said to be the first person to enter the studio and the last person to leave. Footage of Joplin and the band in the studio shows Joplin in great form and taking charge during the recording for "Summertime". The album featured a cover design by counterculture cartoonist Robert Crumb. Although Cheap Thrills sounded as if it consisted of concert recordings, like on "Combination of the Two" and "I Need a Man to Love", only "Ball and Chain" was actually recorded in front of a paying audience; the rest of the tracks were studio recordings.^[3] The album had a raw quality, including the sound of a cocktail glass breaking and the broken shards being swept away during the song "Turtle Blues". Cheap Thrills produced very popular hits with "Piece of My Heart" and "Summertime". Together with the premiere of the documentary film Monterey Pop at New York's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on December 26, 1968,^[20] the album launched Joplin's successful, albeit short, musical career.^[21]

Cheap Thrills reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart eight weeks after its release, remaining for eight (nonconsecutive) weeks.^[21] The album was certified gold at release and sold over a million copies in the first month of its release.^[8][15] The lead single from the album, "Piece of My Heart", reached No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the fall of 1968.^[22]

The band made another East Coast tour during July–August 1968, performing at the Columbia Records convention in Puerto Rico and the Newport Folk Festival. After returning to San Francisco for two hometown shows at the Palace of Fine Arts Festival on August 31 and September 1, Joplin announced that she would be leaving Big Brother. On September 14, 1968, culminating a three-night final gig together at Fillmore West, fans thronged to honor and exult in the last official night of Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company. The lead-in groups for this night were Chicago (then still called Chicago Transit Authority) and Santana. Janis gave one last performance with Big Brother at a Family Dog benefit on December 1, 1968.^[3][6]

Solo career: 1969–1970[link]

Kozmic Blues Band[link]

After splitting from Big Brother and the Holding Company, Joplin formed a new backup group, the Kozmic Blues Band, composed of session musicians as well as Big Brother and the Holding Company guitarist Sam Andrew and future Full Tilt Boogie Band bassist Brad Campbell. The band was influenced by the Stax-Volt rhythm and blues (R&B) bands of the 1960s, as exemplified by Otis Redding and the Bar-Kays.^[3][6][8] The Stax-Volt R&B sound was typified by the use of horns and had a more bluesy, funky, soul, pop-oriented sound than most of the hard-rock psychedelic bands of the period.

By early 1969, Joplin was allegedly shooting at least $200 worth of heroin per day,^[7] although efforts were made to keep her clean during the recording of I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama!. Gabriel Mekler, who produced the Kozmic Blues, told publicist-turned-biographer Myra Friedman after Joplin's death that the singer had lived in his house during the June 1969 recording sessions at his insistence so he could keep her away from drugs and her drug-using friends.^[8]

Joplin's performance with The Kozmic Blues Band in Frankfurt was released in cinemas around this time. The film shows Joplin arriving in Frankfurt by plane and also includes her interviews from the Royal Albert Hall and on a bus. Most of the performances from this concert were later used in the 1975 film Janis: The Way She Was and is considered one of her best with the Kozmic Blues Band. No security was used so by the end of the concert the stage was so packed with people the band could not see each other. Another film was released of the band's performance in Stockholm featuring Joplin's interpretation of Summertime.

The Kozmic Blues Band performed on many television shows with Joplin. On the Tom Jones television show, they performed "Little Girl Blue" and "Raise Your Hand", the latter with Jones singing a duet with Joplin. On one episode of The Dick Cavett Show, they performed "Try (Just A Little Bit Harder)" as well as "To Love Somebody". As Cavett interviewed Joplin, she admitted that she had a terrible time touring in Europe, claiming that audiences there are very uptight and don't get down. She also revealed that she was a big fan of the then unknown Tina Turner, saying that she was an incredible singer, dancer and show woman. Joplin and Turner also performed together on at least one occasion at Madison Square Garden.

[edit] I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama!

The Kozmic Blues album, released in September 1969, was certified gold later that year, but did not match the success of Cheap Thrills.^[21] Reviews of the new group were mixed. However, the recording quality and engineering of the record as well as the musicianship were considered superior to her previous releases and some music critics argued that the band was working in a much more constructive way to support Janis' sensational vocal talents. Janis wanted a horn section similar to Chicago Transit Authority (band) and her voice had the dynamic qualities and range to not be overpowered by the brighter horn sound. Some music critics, including Ralph J. Gleason of the San Francisco Chronicle, were negative. Gleason wrote that the new band was a "drag" and that Joplin should "scrap" her new band and "go right back to being a member of Big Brother...(if they'll have her)."^[3] Other reviewers, such as reporter Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post generally ignored the band's flaws and devoted entire articles to celebrating the singer's magic. In general the press concentrated more on her leaving Big Brother rather than the qualities of the new recording.

Columbia released "Kozmic Blues" as a single, which peaked at #41 on the Billboard Hot 100, and a live rendition of Raise Your Hand was released and became a top ten hit. Containing other hits like Try (Just a Little Bit Harder), To Love Somebody and Little Girl Blue, I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! reached No. 5 on the Billboard 200 weeks after its release.

Joplin performs with Tom Jones on his television show in late 1969.

Woodstock[link]

Joplin and the Kozmic Blues Band toured North America and Europe throughout 1969, appearing at Woodstock in the late hours of Saturday, August 16. She performed until the early morning hours of Sunday, August 17. Her friend Peggy Caserta claimed in a 1973 book that she encouraged Joplin to perform at the festival. Joplin informed her band that they would be performing at the concert as if it were just another gig. When she and the band were flown in by helicopter with Joan Baez from a nearby motel to the festival site and Joplin saw the enormous crowd she instantly became incredibly nervous and giddy. The documentary film of the festival that was released to theaters the following year includes, on the left side of a split screen, 37 seconds of footage of Joplin and Caserta walking toward her dressing room tent.^[23] By most accounts, Woodstock was not a happy affair for Joplin.^[3][6][7]

Faced with a ten hour wait after arriving at the backstage area, she shot heroin^[6][7] with Caserta and was drinking alcohol, so by the time she hit the stage, she was "three sheets to the wind."^[3] On stage her voice became slightly hoarse and wheezy and she found it hard to dance. Throughout her performance she frequently spoke to the crowd. She pulled through, however, and the audience was so pleased they cheered her on for an encore, to which she replied and sang Ball and Chain. Her performances of Kozmic Blues and Work Me, Lord at Woodstock are notable, though her voice breaks while she sings.

Joplin was ultimately unhappy with her performance and blamed Caserta. Her singing was not included in the documentary film or the soundtrack, Woodstock: Music from the Original Soundtrack and More, although the 25th anniversary director's cut of Woodstock includes her performance of "Work Me, Lord". Joplin however remained at Woodstock for the rest of the festival.

Laura Joplin said in an interview that Janis went straight home to Port Arthur following Woodstock. She was incredibly vibrant and happy after coming home and really loved the festival.

Madison Square Garden[link]

In addition to Woodstock, Joplin also had problems at Madison Square Garden in 1969. Biographer Myra Friedman claimed to have witnessed a duet Joplin sang with Tina Turner during a concert by The Rolling Stones at the Garden on Thanksgiving Day. Friedman described Joplin during this performance as "so stoned, so out of control, that she could have been an institutionalized psychotic rent with mania."^[8]

During a Garden concert where she got solo billing on December 19, some observers believed she tried to incite the audience to riot.^[8] For part of this concert she was joined onstage by special guests Johnny Winter and Paul Butterfield.

Joplin told rock journalist David Dalton, the audience watched and listened to "every note [she sang] with 'Is she gonna make it?' in their eyes."^[15] In her interview with Dalton she added that she felt most comfortable performing at small, cheap venues in San Francisco that were associated with the counterculture. At the time of this June 1970 interview she already had performed in the Bay Area for what turned out to be the last time.

Sam Andrew, the lead guitarist who had left Big Brother with Joplin in December 1968 to form her back-up band, quit in late summer 1969 and returned to Big Brother without her. At the end of the year, the Kozmic Blues Band broke up. Their final gig with Joplin was at Madison Square Garden in New York City on the night of December 19–20, 1969.^[3][15]

Full Tilt Boogie Band[link]

In February 1970, Joplin traveled to Brazil, where she stopped her drug and alcohol use. She was accompanied on vacation there by her friend Linda Gravenites, who had designed the singer's stage costumes from 1967 to 1969. Joplin was romanced by a fellow American tourist named David (George) Niehaus, who was traveling around the world. A Joplin biography written by her sister Laura said, "David was an upper-middle-class Cincinnati kid who had studied communications at Notre Dame. ... [and] had joined the Peace Corps after college and worked in a small village in Turkey. ... He tried law school, but when he met Janis he was taking time off."^[24] Niehaus and Joplin were photographed by the press at Rio Carnival in Rio de Janeiro.^[15] Gravenites also took color photographs of the two during their Brazilian vacation. According to Joplin biographer Ellis Amburn, in Gravenites' snapshots they "look like a carefree, happy, healthy young couple having a tremendously good time."^[6] Rolling Stone magazine interviewed Joplin during an international phone call, quoting her, "I'm going into the jungle with a big bear of a beatnik named David Niehaus. I finally remembered I don't have to be on stage twelve months a year. I've decided to go and dig some other jungles for a couple of weeks."^[6] Amburn added in 1992, "Janis was trying to kick heroin in Brazil, and one of the nicest things about George was that he wasn't into drugs."^[6]

Joplin began using heroin again when she returned to the United States. Her relationship with Niehaus soon ended because of his witnessing her shooting drugs at her new home in Larkspur, California, her romantic relationship with Peggy Caserta, who also was an intravenous addict, and her refusal to take some time off work and travel the world with him.^[6][25] Around this time she formed her new band, the Full Tilt Boogie Band.^[3][6][8] The band was composed mostly of young Canadian musicians and featured an organ, but no horn section. Joplin took a more active role in putting together the Full Tilt Boogie Band than she did with her prior group. She was quoted as saying, "It's my band. Finally it's my band!"^[3]

The Full Tilt Boogie Band began touring in May 1970. Joplin remained quite happy with her new group, which received mostly positive feedback from both her fans and the critics.^[3] Prior to beginning a summer tour with Full Tilt Boogie, she performed in a reunion with Big Brother at the Fillmore West in San Francisco on April 4, 1970. Recordings from this concert were included in an in-concert album released posthumously in 1972. She again appeared with Big Brother on April 12 at Winterland where she and Big Brother were reported to be in excellent form.^[6] It was around this time that Joplin began wearing multi-coloured feather boas in her hair. By the time she began touring with Full Tilt Boogie, Joplin told people she was drug-free, but her drinking increased.^[6]

Festival Express[link]

From June 28 to July 4, 1970, Joplin and Full Tilt Boogie joined the all-star Festival Express train tour through Canada, performing alongside Buddy Guy, Rick Danko and The Band, Ten Years After, Grateful Dead, Delaney and Bonnie, Eric Andersen, and Ian & Sylvia.^[6] They played concerts in Toronto, Winnipeg and Calgary.^[6][15] Janis jammed with the other performers on the train and her performances on this tour are considered to be among her greatest.

Joplin convinced The Band, who originally did not want to perform, to come telling them it was going to be a great party.

Joplin headlined the festival on all three nights. At the last stop in Calgary, Janis took to the stage with Jerry Garcia while her band was tuning up. She told the audience how great the tour was and presented the organisers with a case of Tequila. She then burst into a two hour set, starting with Tell Mama. Throughout this performance, Janis went into several banters where she spoke about her failed love life. She finished the night with long versions pf Get It While You Can and Ball and Chain.

Footage of her performance of the song Tell Mama in Calgary became an MTV video in the early 1980s and the sound was included on the 1982 Farewell Song album. The audio of other Festival Express performances was included on that 1972 Joplin In Concert album. Video of the performances was included on the Festival Express DVD. Her full performances of Festival Express exist and have been released on bootlegs but all footage has yet to be released. In the Tell Mama video shown on MTV in the 1980s, Joplin wore a psychedelically colored loose-fitting costume and feathers in her hair. This was her standard stage costume in the spring and summer of 1970. She chose the new costumes after her friend and designer, Linda Gravenites (whom Joplin had praised in the May 1968 issue of Vogue), cut ties with Joplin shortly after their return from Brazil, due largely to Joplin's continued use of heroin.^[3][6]

During the Festival Express tour, Joplin was accompanied by Rolling Stone writer David Dalton, who later wrote several articles and a book on Joplin. She told Dalton:

I'm a victim of my own insides. There was a time when I wanted to know everything ... It used to make me very unhappy, all that feeling. I just didn't know what to do with it. But now I've learned to make that feeling work for me. I'm full of emotion and I want a release, and if you're on stage and if it's really working and you've got the audience with you, it's a oneness you feel.^[15]

[edit] Pearl

Among her last public appearances were two broadcasts of The Dick Cavett Show. In a June 25, 1970, appearance, she announced that she would attend her ten-year high-school class reunion. When asked if she had been popular in school, she admitted that when in high school, her schoolmates "laughed me out of class, out of town and out of the state."^[26] In the August 3, 1970, Cavett broadcast, Joplin referred to her upcoming performance at the Festival for Peace to be held at Shea Stadium in Queens, New York, on August 6, 1970.

Joplin attended the reunion on August 14, accompanied by fellow musician and friend Bob Neuwirth, road manager John Cooke, and her sister Laura, but it reportedly proved to be an unhappy experience for her.^[27] Joplin held a press conference in Port Arthur during her reunion visit. Interviewed by Rolling Stone journalist Chet Flippo, she was reported to wear enough jewelry for a "Babylonian whore."^[6] When asked by a reporter during the reunion if Joplin entertained at Thomas Jefferson High School when she was a student there, Joplin replied, "Only when I walked down the aisles."^[3][3][5] Joplin denigrated Port Arthur and the people who'd humiliated her a decade earlier in high school.^[3]

Joplin's last public performance, with the Full Tilt Boogie Band, took place on August 12, 1970, at the Harvard Stadium in Boston, Massachusetts. A positive review appeared on the front page of The Harvard Crimson newspaper despite the facts that Full Tilt Boogie performed with makeshift sound amplifiers after their regular equipment was stolen in Boston.^[8]

During late August, September and early October 1970, Joplin and her band rehearsed and recorded a new album in Los Angeles with producer Paul A. Rothchild, who had produced recordings for The Doors. Although Joplin died before all the tracks were fully completed, there was still enough usable material to compile a long-playing record.

The result of the sessions was the posthumously released Pearl (1971). It became the biggest selling album of her career^[21] and featured her biggest hit single, a cover of Kris Kristofferson's Me and Bobby McGee. Kristofferson had been Joplin's lover in the spring of 1970.^[28] The opening track Move Over was written by Joplin, reflecting the way that she felt men treated women in relationships. Also included was the social commentary of the a cappella Mercedes Benz, written by Joplin, Bob Neuwirth and beat poet Michael McClure. The track on the album features the first and only take that Joplin recorded. The track Buried Alive In The Blues, to which Joplin had been scheduled to add her vocals on the day she was found dead, was included as an instrumental. In 2003, Pearl was ranked No. 122 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Joplin checked into the Landmark Motor Hotel on August 24, 1970,^[29] which was located in Hollywood Heights near Sunset Sound Recorders^[6] where she began rehearsing and recording her album. During the sessions, Joplin continued a relationship with Seth Morgan, a 21-year-old UC Berkeley student, cocaine dealer and future novelist who had visited her new home in Larkspur, California several times in July and August.^[3][6][7] She and Morgan became engaged to be married in early September^[5] even though he visited Sunset Sound Recorders for just eight of the many sessions when Joplin worked, much to her dismay.^[6] Much later Morgan told biographer Myra Friedman that as a non-musician he felt excluded while in the studio.^[8] He stayed at Joplin's Larkspur home for days at a time while Joplin stayed alone at the Landmark,^[8] although several times she visited Larkspur to be with him and to check the progress of renovations she was having done on the house.

Peggy Caserta claimed in her 1973 book Going Down With Janis that she and Joplin had decided mutually in April 1970 to stay away from each other to avoid enabling each other's drug use.^[7] Caserta, a former Delta Air Lines stewardess^[7] and owner of a clothing boutique in the Haight Ashbury,^[7] said that by September 1970 she had resorted to smuggling marijuana throughout California^[7] and she checked into the Landmark that month because it attracted drug users.^[7] Joplin learned of Caserta's presence in Los Angeles and staying at the same hotel from a heroin dealer who made deliveries to the Landmark.^[7] Joplin begged Caserta for heroin^[7] and within a few days became a regular customer of that heroin dealer.^[7]

Joplin's manager Albert Grossman and his assistant Myra Friedman had taken part in an intervention with Joplin the previous winter.^[8] While they worked at Grossman's New York office during the Pearl sessions, they knew Joplin was staying at a Los Angeles hotel but did not know it attracted drug users and dealers.^[8]

On September 26, 1970, Joplin recorded vocals for Half Moon and Cry Baby.^[30] Then Full Tilt Boogie recorded the instrumental track for Buried Alive In The Blues.^[31] The session ended with Joplin, keyboardist Richard Bell (Canadian musician) and drummer Clark Pierson making a special one-minute recording as a birthday gift to John Lennon.^[32] Joplin was among several singers who had been contacted, or whose management had been contacted, by Yoko Ono with a request for a taped greeting for Lennon's 30th birthday,^[27] which was October 9. Joplin, Bell and Pierson chose the Dale Evans composition Happy Trails. Lennon told Dick Cavett on-camera the following year that Joplin's taped greeting arrived at his home after her death.^[27]

The last recording Joplin completed was on October 1, 1970 – Mercedes Benz. On Saturday, October 3, Joplin visited Sunset Sound Recorders^[6] to listen to the instrumental track for Nick Gravenites' song Buried Alive in the Blues, which the band had recorded one week earlier.^[33] She and Paul Rothchild agreed she would record the vocal the following day.^[24][15] At some point on Saturday, she learned by telephone that Seth Morgan was staying at her home and using her pool table with other women he had met that day.^[8] In the studio she was heard expressing anger about this and about Morgan having broken a promise to visit her the previous night,^[8] although she also expressed joy about the progress of the sessions.^[8] She and band member Ken Pearson went from the studio to Barney's Beanery^[34] for drinks. After midnight, Joplin drove him and a male fan who tagged along to the Landmark Motor Hotel.^[8]

Death[link]

On Sunday October 4, 1970, producer Paul A. Rothchild became concerned when Joplin failed to show up at Sunset Sound Recorders for a recording session. Full Tilt Boogie's road manager, John Cooke, drove to the Landmark Hotel. He saw Joplin's psychedelically painted Porsche 356C Cabriolet in the parking lot. Upon entering her room, he found her dead on the floor beside her bed. The official cause of death was an overdose of heroin, possibly combined with the effects of alcohol.^[8][35] Cooke believes that Joplin had accidentally been given heroin that was much more potent than normal, as several of her dealer's other customers also overdosed that week.^[36] Peggy Caserta and Seth Morgan had both stood Joplin up the Friday immediately prior to her death, October 2, and according to the book Going Down With Janis, Joplin was saddened that neither of her friends visited her at the Landmark Motor Hotel as they had promised to.^[6][7]

Joplin was cremated in the Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Mortuary in Los Angeles; her ashes were scattered from a plane into the Pacific Ocean and along Stinson Beach. The only funeral service was a private affair held at Pierce Brothers and attended by Joplin's parents and maternal aunt.^[24]

Joplin's will funded $1,500 to throw a wake party in the event of her demise. The party, which took place October 26, 1970, at the Lion's Share, located in San Anselmo, California, was attended by Joplin's sister Laura, fiancé, Seth Morgan and close friends, including tattoo artist Lyle Tuttle, Bob Gordon, and road manager John Cooke.

Legacy[link]

Joplin's Porsche 356C in "Summer of Love – Art of the Psychedelic Era" (Whitney Museum, New York).

Joplin's death in October 1970 at the age of 27 stunned her fans and shocked the music world, especially when coupled with the death just sixteen days earlier of another rock icon, Jimi Hendrix. Music historian Tom Moon wrote that Joplin had "a devastatingly original voice." Music columnist Jon Pareles of the New York Times wrote that Joplin as an artist was "overpowering and deeply vulnerable." Author Megan Terry claimed that Joplin was the female version of Elvis Presley in her ability to captivate an audience.^[37]

In 1973, a book about Joplin by her publicist Myra Friedman was excerpted in many newspapers. At the same time, Going Down With Janis by Peggy Caserta attracted a lot of attention with its opening line, which referred to her performing a sex act with Joplin while they were high on heroin in September 1970. Joplin's bandmate Sam Andrew would later describe Caserta as "halfway between a groupie and a friend."^[6] According to an early 1990s statement by a close friend of Caserta and Joplin, Caserta's book angered the Los Angeles heroin dealer she described (including the make and model of his car) in detail to her readers. According to Ellis Amburn, in 1973 a "carful of dope dealers" visited a Los Angeles lesbian bar Caserta had been frequenting since Joplin was alive.^[6] Amburn quoted Caserta's friend Kim Chappell, who was in the alley behind the bar: "I was stabbed because, when Peggy's book came out, her dealer, the same one who'd given Janis her last fix, didn't like it that he was referred to and was out to get Peggy. He couldn't find her, so he went for her lover. When they realized who I was, they felt that my death would also hit Peggy, and so they stabbed me."^[6] Despite being "stabbed three times in the chest, puncturing both lungs," Chappell eventually recovered.^[6]

According to biographers Alice Echols and Myra Friedman, Peggy Caserta was one of many friends of Joplin who did not become clean and sober until a very long time after the singer's death, while others died from overdoses.^[3][8] Caserta survived "a near-fatal OD in December 1995," wrote Echols.^[3] In 2000, Caserta appeared on-camera for a segment about Joplin on 20/20 (US television series).^[38]

Joplin, along with Grace Slick of the Jefferson Airplane, opened opportunities into the rock music business for future female singers.^[37] Stevie Nicks commented that after seeing Joplin perform, "I knew that a little bit of my destiny had changed. I would search to find that connection that I had seen between Janis and her audience. In a blink of an eye she changed my life."^[37][39]

Joplin's body art, with a wristlet and a small heart on her left breast, by the San Francisco tattoo artist Lyle Tuttle, was an early moment in the popular culture's acceptance of tattoos as art.^[40] Another trademark was her flamboyant hair styles, often including colored streaks and accessories such as scarves, beads and feathers. When in New York City, Joplin, often in the company of actor Michael Pollard, frequented Limbo on St. Marks Place. The performer, well known to the store's employees, made a practice of putting aside vintage and other one-of-a-kind garments she favored on stage and off.

Leonard Cohen's 1974 song "Chelsea Hotel #2" is about Joplin.^[41] Likewise, lyricist Robert Hunter has commented that Jerry Garcia's "Birdsong" from his first solo album, Garcia, is about Joplin and the end of her suffering through death.^[42][43] Mimi Farina's composition "In the Quiet Morning", most famously covered by Joan Baez on her 1972 Come from the Shadows album, was a tribute to Joplin.^[44] Another notable song sung by Joan Baez, Children Of The Eighties mentions Joplin.

At the 1976 Montreux Jazz Festival, Nina Simone, who Janis admired greatly, commented on Joplin:

You know I made thirty-five albums, they bootlegged seventy. Oh, everybody took a chunk of me. And yesterday I went to see Janis Joplin's film here. And what distressed me the most, and I started to write a song about it, but I decided you weren't worthy. Because I figured that most of you are here for the festival. Anyway the point is it pained me to see how hard she worked. Because she got hooked into a thing, and it wasn't on drugs. She got hooked into a feeling and she played to corpses.

Simone also included Joplin in her song Stars and opened this act with a rendition of Little Girl Blue.

The 1979 film The Rose was loosely based on Joplin's life. Originally titled Pearl, after Joplin's nickname, and the title of her last album, it was fictionalized after her family declined to allow the producers the rights to her story.^[45][46] Bette Midler earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance.

In 1988, the Janis Joplin Memorial, with an original bronze, multi-image sculpture of Joplin by Douglas Clark, was dedicated in Port Arthur, Texas.^[47]

In 1992, the first major biography of Janis in two decades, Love, Janis, authored by her younger sister, Laura Joplin, was published. In an interview, Laura stated that Janis enjoyed being on the Dick Cavett Show and that Janis while growing up in Texas had difficulties with some people at school, but not the entire school. Laura stated that Janis was really enthusiastic after performing at Woodstock in 1969.^[48]

Joplin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, and was given a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. In November 2009, the Hall of Fame and museum honored her as part of its annual American Music Masters Series.^[49] Among the artifacts at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum Exhibition are Joplin's scarf and necklaces, her 1965 Porsche 356 Cabriolet with psychedelically designed painting, and a sheet of LSD blotting paper designed by Robert Crumb, designer of the Cheap Thrills cover.^[50] She was the honoree at the Rock Hall's American Music Master concert and lecture series for 2009.^[51]

In the late 1990s, the musical play Love, Janis was created with input from Janis's younger sister Laura plus Big Brother guitarist Sam Andrew, with an aim to take it to Off Broadway. Opening in the summer of 2001 and scheduled for only a few weeks of performances, the show won acclaim and packed houses and was held over several times, the demanding role of the singing Janis attracting rock vocalists from relative unknowns to pop stars Laura Branigan and Beth Hart. A national tour followed.^{[citation needed]}

There have been many attempts at making a film about Joplin. On June 13, 2010, producer Wyck Godfrey said Amy Adams starred in director Fernando Meirelles' biographical drama,^[52] titled Janis Joplin: Get It While You Can.^[45] Previous attempts have included Piece Of My Heart, which was to star Renée Zellweger or Brittany Murphy; The Gospel According To Janis, with director Penelope Spheeris and starring either Zooey Deschanel or P!nk; and an untitled film thought to be an adaptation of Laura Joplin's Off-Broadway play about her sister, with the show's star, Laura Theodore, attached.^[45]

Influence[link]

Joplin had a profound influence on many singers. Florence Welch of Florence and The Machine spoke of Joplin's impact on her own musical prowess in an interview for Why Music Matters in a commercial against piracy:

I learnt about Janis from an anthology of female blues singers. Janis was a fascinating character who bridged the gap between psychedelic blues and soul scenes. She was so vulnerable, self-conscious and full of suffering. She tore herself apart yet on stage she was totally different. She was so unrestrained, so free, so raw and she wasn't afraid to wail. Her connection with the audience was really important. It seems to me the suffering and intensity of her performance go hand in hand. There was always a sense of longing, of searching for something. I think she really sums up the idea that soul is about putting your pain into something beautiful.

^{[citation needed]}

Discography[link]

Janis Joplin recorded four fully conceived studio albums in her career. Her first two albums were recorded with and fully credited to Big Brother and the Holding Company and the later two being solo albums. Previously unreleased studio and live material were added to these albums tracklistings and also released on the compilation Farewell Song in 1982. Joplins early performances from when she was a folk-blues singer have been released on several well received compilations through the years, one such compilation is the nine disc Blow All My Blues Away. In 2012 The Pearl Sessions were released giving an insight into her creative process.

As a popular psychedelic act of the late 1960's, many of Joplin's live concerts with Big Brother were professionally recorded and have been released on albums like Live at Winterland '68 and Live at the Carousel Ballroom 1968.

Though most of her concerts were recorded during her solo career, few have been officially released, resulting in being heavily bootlegged.^{[citation needed]}

Big Brother and the Holding Company

Kozmic Blues Band

Full Tilt Boogie Band

Big Brother & the Holding Company / Full Tilt Boogie

Later collections

Filmography[link]

• Monterey Pop (1968)
• Petulia (1968)
• Janis Joplin Live in Frankfurt (1969)
• Janis: The Way She Was (1974)
• Comin’ Home (1988)
• Woodstock - The Lost Performances (1991)
• Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music (Director’s Cut) (1994)
• Festival Express (2003)
• Nine Hundred Nights (2004)
• The Dick Cavett Show: Rock Icons (2005) Shout
• Rockin' at the Red Dog: The Dawn of Psychedelic Rock (2005)
• This is Tom Jones (2007) 1969 appearance on TV show
• Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music (Director’s Cut) 40th Anniversary Edition (2009)
• Janis Joplin with Big Brother: Ball and Chain (DVD) Charly (2009)

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Amburn, Ellis. Pearl: The Obsessions and Passions of Janis Joplin: A Biography. NY: Warner Books, 1992. ISBN 0-446-39506-4.
• Caserta, Peggy. Going Down with Janis: Janis Joplin's Intimate Story. Dell: 1974. ASIN: B000NSBNMI.
• Dalton, David. Piece of my Heart: A Portrait of Janis Joplin. NY: Da Capo Press, 1991. ISBN 0-306-80446-8.
• Echols, Alice. Scars of Sweet Paradise: The Life and Times of Janis Joplin. NY: Henry Holt, 1999. ISBN 0-8050-5394-8.
• Friedman, Myra. (1973). Buried Alive: The Biography of Janis Joplin. New York: William Morrow. ISBN 0-688-00160-2.
• Gilmore, John (1997). LAID BARE: A Memoir of Wrecked Lives & the Hollywood Death Trip. Los Angeles: AMOK. ISBN 1-878923-08-0. http://www.amazon.com/Laid-Bare-Memoir-Wrecked-Hollywood/dp/1878923080#_. 
  ISBN 1-878923-08-0
• Joplin, Laura. Love, Janis. NY: Villard Books, 1992. ISBN 1-888358-08-4.
• Stieven-Taylor, Alison. Rock Chicks. Sydney: Rockpool Publishing, 2007. ISBN 978-1-921295-06-5.

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Janis Joplin

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Janis Joplin

• Biography at The Handbook of Texas Online
• JohnGilmore.com: Spotlight on Janis Joplin
• Janis Joplin's Kozmic Blues – janisjoplin.net
• Re-introducing Janis Joplin – slideshow by The New York Times
• Artwork created by Janis Joplin, from her family

v t e Janis Joplin Studio albums Big Brother & the Holding Company Cheap Thrills I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! Pearl Live albums In Concert Live at Winterland '68 The Woodstock Experience Live at the Carousel Ballroom 1968 Bootleg albums The Typewriter Tape Compilations Farewell Song Janis (1975 album) Janis (1993 album) 18 Essential Songs Janis Joplin's Greatest Hits Love, Janis The Lost Tapes' Move Over! Songs "Ball 'n' Chain" "Careless Love" "Cry Baby" "Flower In The Sun" "Hesitation Blues" "Kozmic Blues" "Mary Jane" "Me and Bobby McGee" "Mercedes Benz" "Move Over" "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" "Piece of My Heart" "See See Rider" "Silver Threads and Golden Needles" "Summertime" "To Love Somebody" "Trouble in Mind" "What Good Can Drinkin' Do" "Work Me, Lord" Related articles Big Brother and The Holding Company Full Tilt Boogie Band Sam Andrew Jorma Kaukonen Goldy McJohn Gabriel Mekler Michael Monarch Festival Express Book:Janis Joplin

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2012)

Aretha Franklin
Franklin performing at President Barack Obama's inauguration in 2009
Background information
Birth name	Aretha Louise Franklin
Born	(1942-03-25) March 25, 1942 (age 70) Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
Origin	Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Genres	Soul, jazz, blues, R&B, gospel, funk, rock
Occupations	Singer, songwriter, pianist
Instruments	Vocals, piano
Years active	1956–present
Labels	Columbia (1960–1966) Atlantic (1967–1979) Arista (1980–2003) Aretha Records (2004–)
Associated acts	Sweet Inspirations, Carolyn Franklin, Erma Franklin, Cissy Houston, Whitney Houston, George Benson, George Michael, Michael McDonald, Eurythmics, Luther Vandross

Aretha Louise Franklin (born March 25, 1942) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and pianist. In a recording career that has spanned over half a century, Franklin's repertoire has included gospel, jazz, blues, R&B, pop, rock and funk. Franklin is known as one of the most important popularizers of the soul music genre and is referred to as the Queen of Soul, a title she was given early in her career. Franklin, the daughter of prominent Baptist minister and activist C. L. Franklin, began her singing career singing in her father's church at the age of ten and started recording four years later. After several years in the gospel circuit and with her father's blessing, she formed a secular pop music career at the age of eighteen, signing with Columbia Records, where she was branded by its CEO John Hammond as his most important act since Billie Holiday. Franklin's Columbia period wasn't as successful as hoped and in late 1966, Franklin switched over to Atlantic Records, where she began recording a string of popular hits including "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)", "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman", "Think", "Chain of Fools" and what later became her signature song, "Respect".

After a brief lull in 1969, Franklin continued to record a string of popular singles throughout the early 1970s, reaching her peak as an albums artist with 1970's Spirit in the Dark, 1971's Young, Gifted & Black and the 1972 gospel record, Amazing Grace, which later became one of the best-selling gospel albums of all time and was the biggest-selling album in gospel music for over 25 years. Franklin's success in Atlantic peaked after the release of the singles, "Until You Come Back to Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do)", "I'm in Love" and "Giving Him Something He Can Feel" and the 1976 soundtrack to the movie, Sparkle and Franklin left the label in 1980 to sign with Clive Davis' Arista Records label where she switched over from soul and funk music to a more conservative urban adult contemporary sound in the albums, Aretha and Love All the Hurt Away, before regaining commercial success with the 1982 album, Jump to It, produced by R&B hitmaker Luther Vandross. In 1984, Franklin added modern day pop rock and dance elements to her sound, which was integral to the success of her 1985 album, Who's Zoomin' Who?, which spawned the hits "Freeway of Love", "Who's Zoomin' Who" and the Eurythmics featured "Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves". The 1986 release of Aretha featured her last number-one hit single with the George Michael duet "I Knew You Were Waiting for Me". Afterwards Franklin returned to a lull in her career until the release of 1998's A Rose Is Still a Rose, which incorporated modern day contemporary R&B and which the title track returned Franklin to the top 40 of the pop charts.

Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its "100 Greatest Singers of All Time" list,^[1] as well as the ninth greatest artist of all time.^[2] She has won 18 Grammys and received two honorary Grammys. In 1987, Franklin became the first female artist to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Franklin is planned to be inducted to the GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame in August 2012.

Early life (1942-1960)[link]

Aretha Franklin's birthplace at 406 Lucy Ave. in Memphis, Tennessee.^[3]

Franklin was born in Memphis, Tennessee to Barbara (née Siggers) and Clarence LaVaughn Franklin. Franklin's father, Clarence, otherwise known as "C. L." Franklin, was a rising itinerant preacher, who moved to Memphis from Shelby, Mississippi. Within two years after Aretha's birth, however, Franklin's father again moved, this time up north to Buffalo, New York. The initial reasoning behind Franklin's move to Buffalo was because Franklin sought to find better opportunities and reach a bigger church audience as compared to the South. However, it was debated Franklin moved after word reached about him impregnating a teenage member of his Memphis church and he moved north to avoid the scandal and a possible court case.

Franklin wasn't six yet when her father moved to and eventually settled in Detroit where he built his own church, the New Bethel Baptist Church. Following the move, Franklin's parents separated after a contentious marriage, with Barbara Franklin settling in Buffalo, New York where she became a nurse. Aretha would later recall spending time with her mother at her house in Buffalo during summertime visits though it had been debated Franklin's mother had abandoned her, a charge Franklin has constantly denied. Franklin wasn't yet ten when her mother died suddenly in Buffalo. While she and her siblings attended her funeral, it was said their father either couldn't or refuse to attend. Shortly after her mother was buried, Aretha started singing solos at her father's church.^[4] Her father's local celebrity in Detroit helped to attract attention to Franklin's home. Franklin remembered seeing several celebrities and prominent public figures at her house. Among those that would later influenced her music and vocal style included gospel musicians Mahalia Jackson, Clara Ward and The Caravans founder Albertina Walker, while other musicians such as Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson and fellow preacher Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. also became prominent visitors. Franklin began playing the piano at a young age and knew much of how to play by ear. Franklin recalled that when it came to musical taste, her father wasn't strict, allowing Franklin to listen to a variety of genres including blues, jazz and R&B.

By the mid-fifties, Franklin's father was recording for JVB Records, becoming one of the few preachers to record an album full of sermons, which also included musical performances by the minister along with his choir. In 1956, Franklin started bringing his daughter with him to perform on the gospel circuit. That year, Franklin's father recorded his 14-year-old daughter's gospel performances at a local church and helped Franklin reach a deal with JVB Records where she recorded the album, Songs of Faith, and also released her first single, "Never Grow Old", which would later be reissued by Checker Records numerous times. Franklin's performances on the gospel circuit continued until she reached 17, by then Franklin had a desire to record pop music, something always frowned upon in the ministry. However, her father C. L. approved of her decision, and did the same with his eldest daughter Erma, and helped both daughters reach deals with several record labels outside of Detroit. Prior to signing her first deal, Motown CEO Berry Gordy pursued both Erma and Aretha to sign with Motown. C. L. Franklin, however, passed on the offer thinking the label was too local to promote their talents. Eventually, Aretha settled for Columbia Records.

Music career[link]

Early recordings (1960-1966)[link]

Franklin's first Columbia single, "Today I Sung the Blues", was released in September 1960, becoming her first charted success, it eventually reached #10 on Billboard's R&B chart. Her debut album Aretha followed in January of the following year, recorded with the Ray Bryant Combo. Franklin's second single, "Operation Heartbreak", repeated the R&B chart success of Franklin's debut single, reaching #7, followed by another R&B top ten single, "Won't Be Long". Franklin's recordings were often compared to that of Dinah Washington and Billie Holiday, singers Franklin admired. Columbia CEO and founder John Hammond, upon hearing Franklin, felt she had what it took to be the next Billie Holiday and recorded Franklin strictly in jazz-influenced pop.

Later Hammond acknowledged that he felt the label didn't understand Franklin's background in gospel music and failed to bring that aspect out in her first secular recordings.^[5] Later in 1961, Franklin had her first top 40 single on the pop chart with a ballad rendition of "Rock-A-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody". While Franklin would later say she enjoyed her tenure on Columbia Records, most of the records were considered to be not artistically satisfying to Aretha's style and would later be forgotten about following Franklin's rise to stardom with her earthier R&B recordings with Atlantic. Franklin was placed on the list of jazz magazine Downbeat's top ten best jazz vocalists in 1961, 1962 and 1963. One of her most significant recordings during her early Columbia period was the ballad, "Skylark", recorded in 1962. The song previewed what was to come of Franklin as parts of her gospel singing was showcased in the song.

After a well received tribute album to Dinah Washington, Columbia Records switched paths from their early hopes of jazz stardom to more commercial pop music for Franklin as well as some blues music. The latter music showed up in Franklin's 1964 hit, "Runnin' Out of Fools". Afterwards, Franklin was given covers of Motown hits and other girl group sounding hit singles to record as well as original songs such as "One Step Ahead" and "Cry Like a Baby", which was a top 30 R&B recording and was one of the first hits written by the team of Ashford & Simpson. Following this, Franklin and Columbia opted not to renew their contract. Under the advice of her then-husband and manager, Ted White, Franklin decided to sign with top R&B label, Atlantic Records, signing with them in December 1966. Following her success with Atlantic, Columbia began reissuing Franklin's Columbia material and releasing Columbia recordings that Franklin hadn't released before she left the label in an attempt to capitalize on her success.

Success with Atlantic (1967-1976)[link]

After signing with Atlantic, Franklin was sent to the FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama to record her first songs with the label alongside the respected Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. It was in Muscle Shoals that Franklin cut her first Atlantic recording, the blues ballad "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)".^[5] While busy recording another song at the studio, Franklin's husband and one of the musicians got into a drunken argument over Franklin, leading to the couple returning to their house in New York, where they hid for several weeks. Eventually, Franklin returned to record at New York's Atlantic Studios to finish her vocals on the song, "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man". "I Never Loved a Man" would be released in February 1967 and become Franklin's first significant hit single, reaching #9 on the pop chart and #1 on the R&B chart. The b-side, "Do Right Woman", helped Aretha's first Atlantic single to become a double-sided hit on the R&B chart, where it peaked at #37.

In April, Atlantic issued her second single, the Otis Redding song, "Respect"^[5], which was re-arranged by the song's producers Jerry Wexler and Arif Mardin and Aretha into a gospel-sounding shouter with Franklin later incorporating call and response vocals with her two sisters, Erma and Carolyn present. With Wexler's allowance, Franklin added in the ad-lib, "r-e-s-p-e-c-t, find out what it means to me, r-e-s-p-e-c-t, take care, TCB", which led to her sisters afterwards shouting out, "sock it to me" repeatedly. Franklin would later insist the song's alleged sexual overtones were not what people insisted saying it was simply a female's response to her lover to show her respect. The song became a simultaneous #1 hit on the pop and R&B charts. Both songs helped its parent album, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You, to reach the top ten of the pop albums chart. Franklin's version of "Respect" later was hailed as a 1960s anthem. Franklin's hit streak continued throughout 1967 and 1968 with songs such as "Baby I Love You", "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" and "Chain of Fools".^[5] "Respect" later won Franklin her first two Grammys. She eventually won eight consecutive Grammys under the Best Female R&B Vocal Performance category.^[6]

During a 1967 performance in a Chicago dance, deejay Pervis Spann crowned Franklin a tiara and announced her as "Lady Soul". Franklin's hit streak continued with songs such as "Think" (also referred sometimes as "Freedom" due to Franklin's repeats of the word), "Ain't No Way", "(Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You've Been Gone", "The House That Jack Built" and "I Say a Little Prayer". Due to Franklin's earthier hits, her rendition of the latter song generated mild controversy due to her recording what had been strictly a sweet pop song recorded by Franklin's friend Dionne Warwick, however, the song turned out to be a huge success, eventually becoming a bigger hit in the UK where it reached #4. Franklin's albums such as Lady Soul (taken from the title she was given to in 1967) and Aretha Now became successful albums with Lady Soul boasting three top ten singles. Though she wouldn't take part in the civil rights movement of that time period, Franklin's songs, including "Respect" and "Think", were often used as a means of protest. Franklin insists however that she recorded the songs for fun as she was allowed to freely experiment with vocal styles in the studio. Around this time, Franklin used other background singers, including New Jersey backing group The Sweet Inspirations, to help her on recordings.

Franklin's hit streak was more modest throughout 1969 while Aretha battled personal problems including her filing for divorce from Ted White after eight years of an acrimonious marriage. After a break from the studio, she returned in mid-1969 and recorded "Share Your Love with Me" and the self-penned composition "Call Me", which was released in late 1969 and early 1970 respectively and returned Franklin to #1 on the R&B chart. Franklin also reinvented her style of dress and, as was the trend at the time, she wore an Afro hairstyle and adapted traditional African garb, influenced by the black nationalist movement that had started in the late 1960s. Franklin's success continued with her hit renditions of rock songs such as "The Weight", "Let It Be" and "Eleanor Rigby". Franklin's next album, Spirit in the Dark, included the hits "Spirit in the Dark" and "Don't Play That Song (You Lied)", which became a hit in the UK where Franklin promoted the single. The following year, Franklin became the first black artist to perform at Bill Graham's Fillmore West^[7] where she later released a live album from the performance. Following these triumphs, Franklin was beginning to be referred to as "The Queen of Soul", a title which she's kept since.

Following the release of the 1971 hits, "Spanish Harlem" and the self-penned number "Rock Steady", Franklin issued the acclaimed Young, Gifted and Black album in early 1972 and had a follow-up hit with the ballad, "Day Dreaming". The album was also noted for Franklin recording the first cover of an Elton John song with Elton's song, "Border Song". Later in 1972, Franklin released her first gospel album in sixteen years with the Amazing Grace album, which became her most successful album in Atlantic Records, later reportedly selling over two million copies making it at that time the best-selling gospel album of all time. That record has since passed but Franklin's album still remains a huge seller. Franklin's success continued the following year with the release of the ballad, "Angel", which was co-penned by her sister Carolyn. The song was co-produced by Franklin and Quincy Jones, who together produced the concept album, Hey Now Hey (The Other Side of the Sky), which had initially started off as a jazz album. Though some noted the album for its risky experimentation of different styles, it wasn't totally received well by the Atlantic staff and some fans didn't know what to make of its direction. Following its release, Franklin began producing her own Atlantic albums after a renegotiation of her contract with the label. One of the first albums she released following her new deal was Let Me In Your Life, in 1974. The album returned Franklin, who was now adapting a more glamorous figure, to the top 40 thanks to the hits, "Until You Come Back to Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do)" and "I'm in Love" and a sensual cover of the Marvin Gaye single, "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing".

By the release of 1974's With Everything I Feel in Me and 1975's You, however, Franklin's success had started to peak. Having relocated to Los Angeles, Franklin's recordings suffered from dismal promotion and changing musical tastes as soul music started to lose its popularity with pop fans in the emergence of different genres such as hard rock, heavy metal, funk and disco. The albums weren't hits and no song from any of those albums were huge hits, leading to a fallout between Franklin and Atlantic Records, which had started with the label's embrace of British hard rock group Led Zeppelin and softer R&B vocalist Roberta Flack, no longer making Franklin the top priority artist she had been since signing with the label. To make matters worse, in 1976, her eight-year streak of winning a Grammy for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, was broken by Natalie Cole. However, that year, Franklin found renewed success with the Curtis Mayfield production, Sparkle, which spawned the #1 R&B hit, "Giving Him Something He Can Feel" and going gold.

Fallout with Atlantic and first Arista recordings (1977-1984)[link]

However, the success wouldn't last long. Franklin's next three albums, the Lamont Dozier and Carole Bayer Sager-produced Sweet Passion, the Mayfield produced Almighty Fire and the Van McCoy-produced La Diva tanked on the charts and no single released from those albums charted on the Hot 100 during this tumultuous period. Franklin continued performing in the US and worldwide but was now building a reputation on living comfortably off royalties so that she only performed on occasion rather than as normal procedure. Aretha would later win the masters off her post-1974 Atlantic recordings. Following the release of La Diva in 1979, Atlantic decided not to renew her contract.

In 1980, Franklin gained something of a new audience after a cameo appearance in The Blues Brothers film where she appeared as the wife of Matt "Guitar" Murphy and engages in a brief war of words with Dan Aykroyd's and John Belushi's characters Elwood and Jake Blues, over Murphy leaving his restaurant to perform with them again in which Franklin afterwards performed "Think". Afterwards, Franklin signed a contract with Clive Davis' Arista Records label. Later in 1980, she issued the Aretha album, which featured a minor hit, "United Together", which became a #3 R&B hit. The music on Aretha and its 1981 follow-up, Love All the Hurt Away, furthered Franklin away from earthy soul and into a more glossier and conservative form of R&B music labeled as urban contemporary. The title track off her 1981 album produced another R&B hit with duet vocals provided by George Benson.

In 1982, Franklin returned to the top of the R&B charts with the Jump to It album boasted by the success of the title track, which became her first number-one R&B single in five years. The album also became her first to go gold after her first two Arista albums had failed to reach that position. The album was produced by then R&B hitmaker Luther Vandross, who was then called in to produce Franklin's follow-up, 1983's Get It Right. However, that record failed, selling less than 200,000 copies, despite the title track becoming another number-one R&B hit for Franklin.

Success with Arista (1985-1998)[link]

Following its release and the subsequent death of her minister father, C. L., in 1984, Franklin laid low for a few months before returning to the studio in her native Detroit to record her next Arista album which was later titled, Who's Zoomin' Who? The inspiration behind the making of the album was due to Aretha listening to the radio and liking what she heard and opted for "a younger sound".^[8] This album was produced by rising producer Narada Michael Walden. The album included dance, pop and modern rock elements and would return Franklin to the top ten of the pop charts. "Freeway of Love" became her biggest hit in years reaching #3 on the pop chart and #1 R&B while the follow-up, "Who's Zoomin' Who" reached #7 pop and #2 R&B and was co-penned by Franklin, partly because she inspired the song title. A third single, "Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves", featuring the Eurythmics, peaked at #18 on the pop charts. The videos for "Freeway of Love" and "Sisters" made Franklin popular with music video audiences and her success was compared to another sixties R&B contemporary, Tina Turner's own groundbreaking success years after leaving Ike Turner.

Franklin followed up this success with the Aretha album in 1986. The album spawned another series of hits including "Jimmy Lee", a cover of the Rolling Stones hit "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and the #1 George Michael duet, "I Knew You Were Waiting for Me" later going gold. To help promote the album, Franklin filmed a Showtime concert TV special. Around this time, Franklin also contributed her voice to several TV networks including a theme song for ABC TV titled "Together" in 1986^[9] and the hit series, "A Different World", where her rendition of the theme song remained part of the show from its second season in 1988 through its fifth season in 1992. However, Franklin's success was not as long lasting. Due to an accident in a plane she suffered in 1983, Franklin missed schedule for performances overseas which caused a pain for Arista promoters overseas. Also a problem was Franklin's vocals, which was starting to hamper after years of cigarette smoking. Franklin started adapting to a raspier, low tone starting with performances in 1982 and 1983. In spite of this, she remained a popular concert draw. In 1987, Franklin recorded her first gospel album in fifteen years, One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, in hopes of having similar success with that record as she had had with Amazing Grace. However, the album failed to find an audience. Franklin returned to the pop charts in 1989 with the release of the Elton John duet, "Through the Storm" and the subsequent release of the album of the same name. However, the album failed to become a success and a much publicized duet with fellow label mate and chart-topping singer Whitney Houston titled "It Isn't, It Wasn't, It Ain't Never Gonna Be" failed to bring much notice peaking below the top 40.

Franklin's attempt at revamping her sound with new jack swing productions in the 1991 album, What You See Is What You Sweat was badly received and was another commercial failure. Following this, Franklin quit chain smoking and spent the next several years reviving parts of her vocal style. In 1994, she contributed to the Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit soundtrack recording the dance song, "A Deeper Love", which became Franklin's biggest single in years reaching #5 in the UK. Later that year, following the release of an Arista best-of, Franklin recorded the Babyface compositions, "Honey" and "Willing to Forgive", with the latter single becoming her first top 40 single in five years. Franklin later contributed vocals to the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack recording the song "It Hurts Like Hell" and following a couple years on the road, recorded the hit album, A Rose Is Still a Rose, which success was mainly due to the success of its title track, which became her last top 40 single on the Billboard Hot 100 nearly 40 years after recording her first one. Throughout 1998, Franklin had success with TV performances including the 1998 Grammys when she performed Luciano Pavarotti's rendition of the opera ballad, "Nessun Dorma", generating a standing ovation at the end of her performance, and a show-stopping performance at VH-1's Divas Live.

Later work (1999-present)[link]

Franklin performing on April 21, 2007 at the Nokia Theater in Dallas, Texas.

In 1999, Franklin issued her autobiography, Aretha: From These Roots. Franklin would not release her next album until 2003 when she issued the album, So Damn Happy. In between then, she contributed to albums and songs by several artists including K-Ci and JoJo on a song titled "Angel", and Mary J. Blige on the song, "Don't Waste Your Time", featured on Blige's 1999 album, Mary. The So Damn Happy album featured a minor R&B hit with "Wonderful", which later nabbed Franklin another Grammy. After the release of So Damn Happy, Franklin decided to not renew her contract with Arista after 23 years with the label. In 2004, she began work on her album, A Woman Falling Out of Love, due to be the first release off her dormant Aretha's Records, in 2005. In the meantime, Arista released a duets compilation, 2007's Jewels in the Crown: All-Star Duets with the Queen, which featured another minor R&B hit with the Fantasia duet, "Put You Up on Game". That same year, Franklin issued her first Christmas album, This Christmas, Aretha, which was initially released as a Borders Group exclusive and was later issued on the DMI label.

In 2008, she won her 18th career Grammy in the gospel category on the song "Never Break My Faith" with Mary J. Blige. A year after, she received news for performing at the inauguration for then newly elected President Barack Obama performing the song "My Country 'Tis of Thee", with her attire, including her church hat, becoming a popular item online and the subject of several internet memes. The following year, Franklin received an honorary music degree from Yale.^[10] By 2010, Franklin announced that she had sold her rights to movie producers to produce a biopic on her in which would be loosely based off Franklin's 1999 memoirs, Aretha: From These Roots. Franklin had initially planned for Halle Berry to play her in the featured role but Berry turned down her offer in January 2011. Franklin has since picked singer Audra McDonald to play her.

In May 2011, commemorating on her 50th anniversary since the release of her first non-gospel recording, Franklin issued her 38th studio release, A Woman Falling Out of Love through WalMart. Franklin recorded two duets with longtime friend, Ronald Isley of The Isley Brothers, recording "The Way We Were" on Aretha's album, while recording "You've Got a Friend" on Isley's record, Mr. I. Later in September, Franklin contributed duet vocals to the Tony Bennett rendition of "How Do You Keep The Music Playing" off his Duets II album.

Personal life[link]

Children[link]

Aretha, by her own admission grew up fast as a child and discovered boys at the age of thirteen, getting pregnant just three months after becoming a teenager. A relationship with one boy led to the birth of her first son, Clarence, named after her father, on March 28, 1956, just three days after she turned 14. In January 1957, before reaching 15, Franklin had another son, Edward, with another boy.^[11] She never identified by name the father of either child. Her grandmother, Rachel, raised the boys while Aretha pursued her singing career. Rachel lived in a guest house behind C.L. Franklin's LaSalle Street home. (The Franklin family moved from their home on Boston Street in Detroit's North End section to LaSalle Street during the late 1950s.)

Franklin had a third son, Ted White, Jr. (sometimes referred to as Teddy Richards), with her manager and former family friend Ted White, Sr., born in 1964. Teddy is the musical director and guitarist of his mother's touring band.^[12] A relationship with road manager Ken Cunningham produced a fourth son, Kecalf, who was named after the first initials of their parents' names.^[13] Kecalf, her youngest-born child, was born three days after his mother's 28th birthday. In 2010, Aretha's son Edward was attacked by three people at a Detroit gas station near Plymouth Road and Evergreen.^[14][15] Kecalf Franklin, Aretha's youngest son, is currently a rapper and produces gospel recordings.^[16]

Marriages[link]

Aretha Franklin and William Wilkerson watching Roger Federer at the 2011 US Open.

Against her father's wishes, Aretha married her first husband, Ted White, in front of a justice of the peace in Ohio in 1961 when she was nineteen. White later replaced Aretha's father as her manager in 1967. According to close friends, White was physically abusive and it's suggested White's physical abuse and philandering were the cause of Franklin's heart-wrenching vocals on her best-known recordings during the Atlantic years. Her producer, Jerry Wexler once called Franklin "the lady of mysterious sorrows" since Aretha didn't tell anyone her personal story. Following a 1968 cover article in Time magazine in which her abusive marriage and a claim that her mother abandoned her at a young age led Franklin to not give any interviews to media groups and increasing her privacy.

After ending her affair with Ken Cunningham after a seven-year on-again, off-again relationship, Franklin married actor Glynn Turman on April 11, 1978 at her father's New Bethel Baptist Church with her father presiding over the ceremony. Aretha became a surrogate stepmother to Turman's three children from a previous marriage. Due to their schedules, however, it wasn't long before their marriage fell apart despite living together in Franklin's mansion in Encino. In late 1982, Franklin and Turman separated after only four years, eventually divorcing in early 1984. In early 2012, it was reported that Franklin was set to walk down the aisle a third time with her longtime companion Willie Wilkerson.^[17][18] Franklin and Wilkerson had plans to marry in 1987 but later nixed those plans. Within a month after Aretha had announced the wedding this year, she nixed the plans again.

Relatives, other romances and friends[link]

Franklin's sisters Erma Franklin and Carolyn Franklin were professional singers and sang as backup for Aretha during her initial success at Atlantic. Her brother, the Reverend Cecil Franklin, took over as her manager after her divorce from Ted White was finalized. Cecil remained her manager until his death from cancer on December 26, 1989. Younger sister Carolyn preceded Cecil in death in early 1988 from breast cancer while Erma Franklin later died from throat cancer in 2002. Franklin's eldest half-brother, Vaughn (born December 24, 1934) and elder half-sister Carl Kelley (née Jennings; born 1940) are still alive. Kelley is C.L. Franklin's daughter by Mildred Jennings, a then 12-year-old congregant of New Salem Baptist Church of Memphis, Tennessee, where C.L. was pastor in the late 1930s and early 1940s.^[19] Franklin was close to her minister father, C. L. Franklin. C. L. served as Franklin's first manager, a position he gave up to Ted White around 1967. Aretha was performing in Las Vegas on June 10, 1979 when her father was shot by attempted robbers at his LaSalle Street home in Detroit. Aretha and her family returned their father back to his home six months after the shooting left him in a coma. Aretha moved back to Detroit at the end of 1982 to assist with the care of her father, who died in a nursing home on July 27, 1984.

Aretha's relationship with road manager Ken Cunningham was on and off from 1969 until a final breakup in 1976. During one breakup in 1971, Franklin, living back in northwest Detroit, had a brief liaison with Temptations star Dennis Edwards. The relationship inspired Franklin's hit, "Day Dreaming". Franklin and Edwards' romance cooled quickly but they've remained friends. Aretha is also friendly with many of her Detroit peers that went on to be music superstars including Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder. She was friendly with members of the Four Tops as well, later singing with them on several records in the 1980s. Franklin also had a close friendship with Sam Cooke after meeting as gospel performers. Following Cooke's death, Franklin recorded his songs "A Change Is Gonna Come" and "You Send Me".

Franklin grew close with Sweet Inspirations founder Cissy Houston, who sang background on Franklin's "Ain't No Way".^[20] Due to this friendship, she was later made honorary aunt of Cissy's daughter, Whitney Houston, who often referred to Franklin as "Auntie Ree".^[21] Franklin recalled meeting Whitney at either 8 or 9 years old when Whitney's mother brought her to a recording studio.^[22] Sometime in the 1980s, a PR mistake listed Franklin as Houston's godmother. On February 11, 2012, Whitney Houston died in Beverly Hills from unknown causes.^[23] Aretha was devastated by her death and said it was "so stunning and unbelievable".^[23] She planned to perform at the memorial service on February 18, but her representative claimed that Aretha was "ill" and was "not performing at the memorial service", though she later performed at New York's Radio City Music Hall on the same night.^[24][25]

Weight issues, health problems, surgery and rumors of cancer[link]

Franklin acknowledged her issues with her weight in the past even telling an interviewer from Jet magazine that she was always trying to lose weight. Before undergoing surgery for an undisclosed ailment that halted her schedule in 2010, Franklin had begun losing weight. According to the singer in 2011, she said she had lost up to 85 lbs in weight following her surgery. In the past, Franklin had went through periods of yo-yo dieting, at one time, losing over 100 pounds showing off her weight loss on the cover of Ebony magazine in 1974. Franklin managed to keep the weight off until after 1982. After another slim period in the early '90s, and after quitting cigarettes cold turkey in 1991, Franklin's weight started to balloon up. In 2010, Franklin suffered a pain in her side which she said, "was so hard it almost brought me to my knees." After continuing a concert tour, the pain recurred, and she subsequently underwent surgery for an undisclosed ailment in October 2010, ending several engagements with Condoleeza Rice. At this time, rumors surfaced that she was suffering from pancreatic cancer. In discussing the events in 2011, she has said that this was not the case and that her doctor told her, "the surgery that you just had is going to add 15 to 20 more years to your life."^[26]

Connection to the Civil Rights Movement[link]

Franklin’s music and civil rights involvement cannot be separated for it was through music, which Franklin was able to reach out to so many and empower those who had felt so long oppressed.

Aretha Franklin first became connected with the civil rights movement through her father, Reverend C.L. Franklin. Rev. Franklin was an influential preacher who traveled the country as well as recorded a weekly sermon for the radio station, WLAC, which reached 65 percent of the African-American population. It was these same tours that Aretha would begin her singing career.^[27] Rev. Franklin would also introduce Aretha to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. starting a life long friendship between the two.

It was Franklin's soulful sound, which would become the driving anthem of the civil rights movement or as poet Nikki Giovanni put it “the voice of the civil rights movement, the voice of the black America”.^[28]

Through Franklin’s album ‘I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You’, hit ‘Respect’ rose to the top. Her strong voice asking for something as simple as respect reflects the cries of the civil rights movement. Her lyrics mirror that of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s ‘I Have A Dream’ speech. Most notably the lines “Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children”.^[29] While the civil rights movement was already in motion before Franklin became a prominent figure she had now lent it a soundtrack.

Franklin did not have to do much to help propel the civil rights movement. “Her own sense of pride and her dignified stance, she represented the new black woman of the late 1960s”.^[13] Franklin’s own sound and presence were enough to reflect the ideas of the movement and were what caused her to become a notable figure in the cause.