Billboard’s pop charts more than 70 times and was awarded 18 Grammys. Then there’s the manner in which she transformed songs like “Respect” (originally Otis Redding’s), “Bridge Over Troubled Water” (by Simon & Garfunkel) and “You’ve Got a Friend” (by Carole King).
And let’s not forget the space Franklin eternally holds in our hearts for being unapologetically and divinely Black—a cultural torchbearer who was among the first Black women to grace the cover of Time.
Sometimes, like in 1970, Franklin was set to bail out the wrongfully arrested Angela Davis. Sometimes, like in 1985, Aretha cruised in a pink Cadillac.
For her entire career, she channeled our melancholia in songs such as “Misty,” “It Hurts Like Hell” and “Chain of Fools.” Her.
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