Respect,” starring Jennifer Hudson as Aretha and opening Friday.“Aretha channeled hardship into her singing,” he told The Post.The singing and the hardship both started young.Aretha’s mother abandoned the family — which had moved from Memphis to Detroit after the patriarch, pastor C.L.
Franklin, fathered a child with a 12-year-old girl in his church congregation — when the future singing legend was just 6 years old.She juggled school and traveling on the gospel circuit with her preacher father.
Known as “the man with the million-dollar voice,” C.L.’s sermons were so stirring that Chess Records released them on vinyl.
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