At the beginning of 1967, Atlantic-label record producer Jerry Wexler had a brilliant idea: He would take Aretha Franklin, a 24-year-old vocalist who had languished commercially on the Columbia label, and update her with the sound of now, of soul music – and he would do it by taking her down South, to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and put her together with crack musicians and material. This worked superbly – listen to Aretha’s “
Ten days later, Aretha and the session musicians reunited under Wexler’s supervision at a studio in New York. The players included Spooner Oldham on Farfisa organ, Jimmy Johnson on guitar, Tommy Cogbill on bass guitar and Roger Hawkins on drums – the crème de la crème of white, sympathetic Southern soul players.
Aretha had been performing a cover of “Respect” in her live shows, a song she got from an Otis Redding recording. Now she got down to business in the New York studio on her version, on Feb. 14, 1967 – Valentine’s Day.
The backup singers were Aretha’s sisters, the older, Erma Franklin, and the younger, Carolyn Franklin. Both were fine vocalists but they knew Aretha was the star and they relished their places in her firmament.
It wasn’t just that Aretha flipped the gender on “Respect” and brought more feeling and subtext to it, although that’s all true and at least partly explains why her version was the No. 1 hit; it was Carolyn who supposedly came up with the idea for Aretha to spell it out, R-E-S-P-E-C-T; and Carolyn with Aretha who devised the “sock it to me” refrain, which would become even more famous when it was further popularized the next year on TV, on “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In.” This was sisterhood.
Carolyn, who died in 1988, accompanied Aretha off and on and had a solo career of her own but found no hits. Erma, who died in 2002, was a little luckier: In 1967, she cut the original version of “Piece of My Heart,” a stunning song and performance that is better known from Janis Joplin’s inferior version the next year.
By the end of the 1960s, Aretha was royalty, the undisputed queen of soul. After a lengthy career that turned spottier, she died of a malignant tumor; and on Aug. 31, 2018, after an eight-hour funeral at Detroit’s Greater Grace Temple, she was laid to rest.
She was always good with a chorus. Listen to her 1968 recording of “The House That Jack Built,” backed up by the four voices of The Sweet Inspirations: When Aretha sings “Oh, Jack,” and they flow in with “Come on back, Jack,” we’ve arrived at a point in gospel-tinged pop that has the weight of ancient Greek drama.
“Respect” was a declaration of independence for Aretha, and not just for her; it’s best understood also in the context of the civil rights movement, which she supported with her voice and her purse. But see if you can’t also hear a third layer.
Aretha acquired the childhood nickname “Ree,” which her grown sisters kept on using; and about two-thirds of the way through the song, when Aretha sings “All I want you to do for me is give it to me when you get home,” here come Erma and Carolyn, singing “Ree, Ree, Ree, Ree, Ree, Ree, Ree-spect” – singing her praises; saying her name.
