Respect For Aretha Say A Little Prayer For The Queen Of Soul

Singin’ the blues for a true legend

- Tessa Paige

Love and loss, desire and despair, defiance and determination, regret and rebellion – these are all characteristics of soul music. They also mingled in the turbulent life and sublime singing of Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, who died of pancreatic cancer on August 16 at the age of 76.

Born to musical parents – her mother was gospel singer Barbara Siggers Franklin, her father was Baptist preacher C.L. Franklin – the voice behind such classics as “Respect” and “I Say a Little Prayer” sang in church from a young age and taught herself to play the piano.

But amid rumours of C.L.’s infidelity, her parents’ marriage dissolved and Barbara left when Aretha was just six, dying of a heart attack four years later. Without a mother to watch over her as she travelled with her father’s gospel show, Aretha grew up fast.

She was said to have spent the night with soul singer Sam Cooke when she was only 12, then became pregnant by her school friend Donald Burk that same year. Their son Clarence was soon joined by a brother, Edward, when Aretha was 14. The father this time was Edward Jordan, described by her brother Cecil as “just a player”.

Aretha’s grandmother Rachel and older sister Erma took responsibility for the boys while the singer developed her extraordinary talent. Her first album, Songs of Faith, was recorded with her father’s choir and came out when she was 14. At 18, she left the family home in Detroit to make her name in New York.