Aretha Franklin

Aretha Louise Franklin (born March 25, 1942) is an American singer and musician. Franklin began her career singing gospel at her father, minister C. L. Franklin's church as a child. In 1960, at age 18, Franklin embarked on a secular career, recording for Columbia Records only achieving modest success. Following her signing to Atlantic Records in 1967, Franklin achieved commercial acclaim and success with songs such as "Respect", "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" and "Think". These hits and more helped her to gain the title The Queen of Soul by the end of the 1960s decade. Her family were also involved in the entertainment business, including her father C.L. Franklin as a gospel preacher and sisters Erma and Carolyn who both sang. Aretha has often been described as a great singer and musician due to "vocal flexibility, interpretive intelligence, skillful piano-playing, her ear, her experience." Franklin's voice has been described as being a "powerful mezzo-soprano voice" and has been praised for her arrangements and interpretations of other artists' hit songs. Franklin's image went through rapid changes throughout her career. During the 1960s, Franklin was known for wearing bouffant hairdos and extravagant dresses that were sometimes surrounded enveloped in either mink fur or feathers. In the 1970s, embracing her roots, Franklin briefly wore the Afro hairdo and wore Afrocentric styled clothing admired by her peers. In the mid-1970s, after dropping weight, Franklin began wearing slinkier attire. By the 1980s, she had settled on wearing nightgowns and extravagant dresses.

Links To Peel
Peel was a fan of Aretha Franklin's soul type of music from the 60's and early 70's. Aretha's cover of You'll Never Walk Alone was played on Peel's first radio show following the Hillsborough stadium disaster in April 1989, when 96 Liverpool fans died. The DJ used Franklin's rendition of the song to lead his set at the 1997 Hillsborough Justice Concert at Liverpool's Anfield ground. On 15 April 1999, he played the same version on his show again to mark the tenth anniversary of the tragedy. However Peel was not a fan of Aretha's post 70's music career and on one occasion when he was presenting Top Of The Pops on 05 February 1987 (TOTP), he sarcastically commented after her number one single duet with George Michael was played:


 * "You know, Aretha Franklin can make any old rubbish sound good, and I think she just has."

Peel has also played tracks from Aretha's father C.L. Franklin and sister Erma Franklin on his show.

Other Shows Played
(The following list was compiled only from the database of this site and Lorcan's Tracklistings Archive and is certainly incomplete. Please add further details if known.)

1972

1973
 * 25 July 1972: You’ve Got A Friend (LP – Amazing Grace) Atlantic

1982
 * 03 July 1973: Hey Now Hey (The Other Side Of The Sky) (LP – Hey Now Hey (The Other Side Of The Sky)) Atlantic

1984
 * Karl's Tape 05 - May 1982: Ain't No Way (7") Atlantic

1985
 * 27 November 1984: Rock Steady (LP - The Best Of Aretha Franklin) Atlantic
 * 05 December 1984: Save Me (LP - The Best Of Aretha Franklin) Atlantic
 * 12 December 1984: I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You) (LP – The Best Of Aretha Franklin) Atlantic

1989
 * Peel 010 (BFBS): 'Think (Compilation LP-The Blues Brothers (Original Soundtrack Recording))' (Atlantic)
 * 31 July 1985: Another Night (album - Who's Zoomin' Who?) Arista

1999
 * 17 April 1989: You'll Never Walk Alone

2000
 * 15 April 1999: You'll Never Walk Alone

2003
 * 09 August 2000: 'Save Me' (LP 'The Girls Got Soul') Kent

2004
 * 13 November 2003: 'Goin' Down Slow' (LP - 'Aratha Arrives')' (Atlantic)

Others
 * 11 November 2004 (Rob Da Bank): 'You’ll Never Walk Alone' (LP- Amazing Grace) - (Atlantic)

​
 * Jerry Wexler : Soul Man: Many tracks
 * 05 February 1987 (TOTP): I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me) (duet with George Michael)