Aretha Franklin

From Wikipedia:

Aretha Louise Franklin was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Honored as the “Queen of Soul”, Rolling Stone magazine twice named her as the greatest singer of all time.

As a child, Franklin was noticed for her gospel singing at New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, where her father C. L. Franklin was a minister. At the age of 18, she was signed as a recording artist for Columbia Records. While her career did not immediately flourish, Franklin found acclaim and commercial success once she signed with Atlantic Records in 1966. She recorded albums such as I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You (1967), Lady Soul (1968), Spirit in the Dark (1970), Young, Gifted and Black (1972), Amazing Grace (1972), and Sparkle (1976), before experiencing problems with the record company. Franklin left Atlantic in 1979 and signed with Arista Records. Her success continued with the albums Jump to It (1982), Who’s Zoomin’ Who? (1985), Aretha (1986) and A Rose Is Still a Rose (1998).

Franklin is one of the best-selling music artists, with over 75 million records sold worldwide. She recorded 112 charted singles on the US Billboard charts, including 73 Hot 100 entries, 17 top-ten pop singles, 96 R&B entries and 20 number-one R&B singles. Her best-known hits include “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)”, “Respect”, “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman”, “Chain of Fools”, “Think”, “I Say a Little Prayer”, “Ain’t No Way”, “Call Me”, “Don’t Play That Song (You Lied)”, “Spanish Harlem”, “Rock Steady”, “Day Dreaming”, “Until You Come Back to Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do)”, “Something He Can Feel”, “Jump to It”, “Freeway of Love”, “Who’s Zoomin’ Who”, “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)” (a duet with George Michael) and “A Rose Is Still a Rose”. Aside from music, she appeared in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers.

Franklin received numerous honors throughout her career. She won 18 Grammy Awards (out of 44 nominations), including the first eight awards given for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance (1968–1975), a Grammy Awards Living Legend honor and Lifetime Achievement Award. She was also awarded the National Medal of Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1987, she became the first female artist to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Her other inductions include the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005, the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2012, and posthumously the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2020. In 2019, the Pulitzer Prize jury awarded her a posthumous special citation “for her indelible contribution to American music and culture for more than five decades”. […]

In August 1968, photographer Linda Eastman was tasked by Mademoiselle magazine to photograph Aretha Franklin in Los Angeles. Prior to her departure from New York to Los Angeles, she received an invitation from Paul McCartney to visit him in London and further the relationship they had begun a few months earlier.

Before leaving for Los Angeles in August 1968 to work on a major photo shoot for Mademoiselle magazine, probably the most lucrative assignment she’d ever had, Linda had a phone call from Paul inviting her to stay with him in London. The excellent biography of Paul by Barry Miles, Many Years from Now, quotes Linda as saying the call came in late September, but it was in August. […]

Linda and I had dinner at a nice, long-since-gone restaurant on Sunset Boulevard one night, after she’d spent a memorable afternoon photographing Aretha Franklin in a little park in Beverly Hills. […] After recounting the Aretha session while we dawdled over drinks, Linda became silent, nervous, and fidgety. She looked down at the table, and then right into my eyes.

“Paul asked me to come to London,” she announced.

I said, “Great!“

“But do you think he says that to lots of girls so that he’s never without one? He didn’t say anything specific, just to come over and call him when I get there. What if he wasn’t serious?“

“How can you take a chance that he’s not serious? You love him. What can you lose? At the worst, you’ll find out you’re one of many — which I don’t think, because no one is that callous — it’ll cost you a plane ticket, and you’ll get enough pictures while you’re there to pay for the trip. On the other hand, if he’s serious, Linda… well, if he’s serious you’d better find out. Just go.” It was one of my finer lectures.

“Hmm…” she replied. “Maybe I should go.” As if she really needed convincing.

Danny Fields – From “Linda McCartney – A Portrait” by Danny Fields, 2000

Let’s all take a moment to give thanks for the beautiful life of Aretha Franklin, the Queen of our souls, who inspired us all for many many years. She will be missed but the memory of her greatness as a musician and a fine human being will live with us forever. Love Paul

Paul McCartney – From paulmccartney.com, August 16, 2018