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Aretha Franklin

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  • Awesome Moments: The fact that she is the first artist to have a single peak at every single top 10 position on the Billboard Hot 100, a feat only repeated by just four other artists.note 
    • At the 1998 Grammy Awards presentation, Luciano Pavarotti had to bow out of a planned appearance and performance of his iconic "Nessun Dorma", at the insistence of his doctor. With literally a moment's notice, Aretha declared that she could do it. She killed it.
    • Franklin's surprise appearance at the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony for Carole King. Her performance of "(You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman", which King co-wrote, repeatedly brought the house down—including a standing ovation mid-song when Aretha removed the mink coat she was wearing as she riffed on the chorus. Then-President Barack Obama shed Manly Tears during the opening verse, and King herself spent the entire performance practically leaping out of her seat with joy as she cheered Franklin on. It's especially awesome because Franklin had been plagued with health problems toward the end of her life and cancelled several shows over the years—but this performance proved that her title as the Queen of Soul was still firmly in place.
  • Awesome Music: "Respect", "Think", "Chain of Fools", "(You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman", "I Say a Little Prayer", "Freeway of Love", "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man", "Ain't No Way", "Something He Can Feel", "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)", "Until You Come Back to Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do)", "You're All I Need to Get By", and many more.
  • Covered Up: "Respect" note  and "I Say a Little Prayer"note  have both become most strongly associated with Aretha Franklin rather than the original singers, though the original versions were both hits when released. The original singer of "Respect", Otis Redding, conceded himself that Aretha did the definitive take on it, and even started incorporating the "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" chant into his own version at shows. At the time of its release, it also applied to "Border Song", which charted better than the original by Elton John.
  • Growing the Beard: When she signed with Atlantic Records in 1967 and her producer Jerry Wexler let her have free rein to incorporate her gospel roots into her music.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Who'd ever have thought Aretha's song, "Who's Zoomin' Who?" would become such a pertinent question in the COVID-19 Pandemic with the rise of the online video conferencing service, Zoom?
  • Memetic Mutation:
    • The Fierce Hat has become a popular subject for humorous photoshoppery.
    • "Great gowns, beautiful gowns", a response given in a rapid-fire interview segment where she had to say the first impression that came to mind when listed various music artists. This was her response to the name Taylor Swift, which many took as Damned by Faint Praise and adopted as a way to indicate shade toward someone.
  • Old Shame: She felt this way about her 1979 disco album, La Diva. Looking back on it, she saw it as a desperate, rushed attempt to cash in on a rapidly dying genre. It probably doesn't help that it was a critical and commercial flop.
  • Refrain from Assuming: It's common for "Think" to be mistakenly referred to as "Freedom".

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