March 25, 2012. Copyright 2012, Graphic News. All rights reserved

"Queen of Soul" forever identified with the civil rights movement, Aretha Franklin turns 70
By Susan Shepherd

LONDON, March 25, Graphic News: She came from Memphis, Tennessee, Elvis Presley's home town and the place of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 1968 assassination; the daughter of a celebrated Baptist minister who, despite having two children of her own before she was 17, was destined to sing for presidents, make more than a dozen million-selling singles and survive personal and professional low points in a career which last year passed the half-century mark. In the news so far in 2012 for, first, calling off her wedding plans and then for not attending her god-daughter Whitney Houston's funeral, Franklin remains tight-lipped about her health, which saw her undergo surgery less than 18 months ago, cancel all concert dates for six months and shed a third of her bodyweight. She has since resumed her U.S. tour and released her 38th studio album -- and the first on her own "Aretha Records" label -- aptly titled A Woman Falling Out of Love.

Abandoned by her mother, who walked out on the family and then died when Franklin was 10, Aretha Louise grew up in Detroit singing gospel alongside her sisters, Carolyn and Erma, at the New Bethel Baptist Church where their father, the Reverend C. L. Franklin, became pastor in 1946. Her powerful voice and natural talent -- she didn't read music and learned to play the piano by ear -- got her noticed by Columbia Records. Leaving her grandmother, Rachel, to look after her two young sons, Franklin moved to New York and released her first record at the age of 18. But it was when she switched to Atlantic Records in 1966 that the hits started to flow. In the space of three years some 20 singles, including hits like I Never Loved a Man, Chain of Fools, Baby I Love You, and I Say a Little Prayer, as well as the song with which she has become most associated -- Respect (1967) -- established her reputation as a mainstream artist. In 1967-68 alone, eight of her singles went "gold". The early 70s continued in the same vein, with six more million-sellers between 1970-73, among them Spanish Harlem and Until You Come Back To Me.

Franklin became a symbol of black pride in a still-racially divided America and was only the second black woman to appear on the cover of Time magazine. She had married her manager, Ted White, in 1961 and had a third son with him, but the couple separated at the end of that decade amid reports of a troubled private life; he was said to have beaten her, she was alleged to be a heavy drinker and was twice arrested, for reckless driving and disorderly conduct, in 1968 and 1969 respectively. Franklin then had a seven-year relationship with her road manager, Ken Cunningham, giving birth to her fourth child, a boy they named -- using their own initials -- Kecalf, before she went on to marry actor Glynn Turman in 1978.  

Collaborations became a hallmark of the second half of her career, with fellow musicians including George Benson, Luther Vandross, the Eurythmics and George Michael lining up to sing alongside "Lady Soul". At celebrity funerals and presidential inaugurations alike, her presence has become almost prerequisite. The extravagantly-bowed grey felt hat she wore to sing My Country 'Tis of Thee when Barack Obama was sworn in, sits in the Smithsonian museum in Washington DC, as much a part of U.S. history as its wearer. The late Ray Charles once said of Franklin: "There are singers, then there is Aretha. She towers above the rest. Others are good, but Aretha is great. She's my only sure-enough sister".
/ENDS