Aretha Franklin, known universally as the “Queen of Soul” and one of America’s greatest performers, died on Thursday at her home in Detroit. She was 76, and the cause was pancreatic cancer.
Franklin had a widely celebrated and successful career. She had more than 100 singles in the Billboard charts, including 17 Top 10 pop singles and 20 No. 1 R&B hits. She received 18 Grammy Awards, and with a lifetime achievement award in 1994. She was the first woman to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, in only it’s second year of existence. She sang at Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009, at pre-inauguration concerts for Jimmy Carter in 1977 and Bill Clinton in 1993, and at both the Democratic National Convention and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s funeral in 1968.
In her biggest hits from the 60s, Franklin brought the “righteous fervor of gospel music to secular songs that were about much more than romance. Hits like ‘Do Right Woman — Do Right Man,’ ‘Think,’ ‘(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman’ and ‘Chain of Fools’ defined a modern female archetype: sensual and strong, long-suffering but ultimately indomitable, loving but not to be taken for granted.”
