She began her singing career as a child in the church her father pastored singing gospel music. in 1960, when she was eighteen years old, Aretha Louise Franklin set out on a secular career recording for Columbia Records. Unfortunately, with Columbia, her success was very moderate. It was after signing to Atlantic Records in 1966 that she achieved commercial acclaim and success with songs such as Respect, Chain of Fools, Think, (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman, Don’t Play That Song (You Lied), and Spanish Harlem.
Ms. Aretha is called The Queen of Soul because of great albums she recorded such as I Never Loved a Man the Way I love You (1967), Lady Soul (1968), Young, Gifted, and Black (1972), and Amazing Grace (1972). Amazing Grace is the third live album released on June 1, 1972 and sold over two million copies in the United States alone, earning a double platinum certification. This still stands today as the biggest selling disc of Franklin’s entire fifty-plus year recording career as well as the highest selling live gospel music album of all time. In 1973, Ms. Aretha received a Grammy Award for Best Soul Gospel Performance.
Accolades of all sorts have been given to Ms. Aretha. Many can be listed but there are so many websites that have all that she accomplished in her life. On August 16, 2018, at the age of 76-years-old, Ms. Aretha was reported to be gravely ill at her home in Riverfront Towers, Detroit, Michigan. She had been under hospice care and surrounded by friends and family. Stevie Wonder, Jesse Jackson, and exhausted ex-husband Glynn Turman, among others, visited her on her deathbed. She died at her home on that day. The cause was reported to be pancreatic neuroendocrine cancer. It truly is one of the saddest days in history, August 16, 2018, the day that her voice was silenced.
D.J. Gorena 
