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Genre: '60s Oldies,
Christian/Gospel, Gospel, Oldies, Rock/Pop, Soul, Soul/R&B
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More
than any other Soul performer (or such Jazz-Blues belters
as Dinah Washington), Aretha Franklin brought impassioned Gospel singing to
American popular music. Never as subdued as the subtler Sam Cooke, Franklin belts out profane R&B songs with enough sacred lung
power to send the sound waves all the way up to the heavens. Franklin doesn't
go over the top, though, always staying in the realm of good taste and
sensitive delivery. As she proved during her greatest period, the late '60
Atlantic Recordings, Franklin blows the roof off your house with so much
class that you don't want her to stop until she has reduced your love shack
to a pile of splinters. Who else could outdo Otis Redding and turn
"Respect" into an eternal anthem of racial and sexual pride that
even middle-class white men embrace? Franklin's voice has weathered the decades very well but her
arrangements and material are often beneath her. You can't go wrong with any
of her recent Gospel recordings and 1998's A Rose is Still A Rose
embraced hip-hop production with great success. Aretha Franklin remains a
vital part of the modern music scene
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