Happy Birthday Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin, born March 25, 1942, is the gospel-soul singer all others are compared with. She is the mold. Declared the “Queen of Soul” in the 1960s, she has sung for princes and presidents. She demands (and gets) the “respect” she famously sang about. Like many R&B singers, she started out singing in church. But unlike other R&B singers, she did so in the church or her father, Baptist minister and civil rights activist C.L. Franklin.

From observing her career overall, we learn that Aretha can sing anything. Lullaby? Sure. The blues?It comes easy. Opera? Challenge accepted. Does Aretha Franklin want to be your friend, entertain your foolishness, praise your Auto-Tuned artistry? No, she does not. But she’ll be nice about it. She did say Taylor Swift had “great gowns” that one time someone asked for her assessment of the “Shake It Off” ex-country singer-songwriter.