After the golden years of 1967 and 1968, Aretha Franklin's career walked a complex road.
"Respect," "I Never Loved a Man," "Natural Woman" — having changed the world with these songs, Aretha faced the challenge that every great artist eventually confronts: what comes after the summit. But the reason her story is not a simple narrative of glory followed by decline is that she was an artist who returned, again and again.
Chapter 2 follows the second half of the Queen of Soul's life: the trials of the 1970s, the remarkable comeback of the 1980s, and the journey to her death in 2018.
🌊 The 1970s Trials — The Late Atlantic Period and a Difficult Passage
After the explosive success of the late 1960s, Aretha's career in the 1970s moved through significant ups and downs.
The early 1970s still shone. "Don't Play That Song," "Bridge Over Troubled Water" — the recordings of the early part of the decade retained the radiance of her peak years. The 1971 Fillmore West concert, released as Aretha Live at Fillmore West, is remembered as a masterwork — a night at rock music's sanctuary where Ray Charles famously joined her onstage.
The 1972 gospel album Amazing Grace became the best-selling record of her career, as noted in Chapter 1. But shortly after that high point, things began to shift.
The divorce from Ted White in 1969, the turbulence of her personal life, and a growing creative misalignment with Atlantic Records — these combined to produce a period in the mid-to-late 1970s when critics began to say that her work lacked the urgency of what came before.
A collaboration with Curtis Mayfield on the 1976 film Sparkle attracted brief attention, but the late-decade albums Sweet Passion, Almighty Fire, and La Diva performed poorly both commercially and critically.
In 1979, Aretha left Atlantic Records. Seventeen years at the label — and then it was over. But it was not the end.
Of this difficult period, Aretha said: "I hit walls many times. But singing is all I know how to do. Continuing to sing was my answer."
💃 "Jump to It" — The Revival With Clive Davis
In 1980, Aretha signed with Arista Records and its president, Clive Davis.
Davis was one of the most significant executives in American music history — the man who had signed Janis Joplin, Bruce Springsteen, Barry Manilow, and would later discover Whitney Houston. He told Aretha he wanted to give her the chance to show the world who she truly was, one more time.
The first Arista album, Aretha (1980), was an attempt to adapt to contemporary R&B sounds, but didn't yet break through.
The true comeback arrived with 1982's Jump to It.
The producer was Luther Vandross — at that point a newly emerging solo artist, but one whose love and respect for Aretha ran deep. He gave the project everything he had.
"Jump to It" reached number one on the R&B chart. The album peaked at number 23 overall. The sound carried the polished production of 1980s contemporary R&B, but Aretha's vocal power was undiminished.
The 1983 follow-up Get It Right, again produced by Vandross, also reached number one on the R&B chart.
What the Vandross collaborations demonstrated was Aretha's ability to adapt to the sound of the era without losing the essential nature of her voice. Whatever production surrounded it, Aretha's voice remained Aretha's voice — that constancy is what made her an artist who transcended her moment.
Have you heard Aretha's music from the 1980s? There is a particular radiance that belongs to that era, distinct from the 1960s.
👑 "Who's Zoomin' Who?" — The Remarkable Comeback of 1985
The 1985 album Who's Zoomin' Who? is one of the most significant comeback albums of Aretha's career.
The production gathered the most sought-after producers of the moment — Narada Michael Walden, Keith Richards, Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics. The collaboration with Narada Michael Walden defined the album's sound.
The title track was a light, pop-R&B number that received strong MTV rotation. But the album's biggest hit was "Freeway of Love."
"Freeway of Love" — that exuberant, joy-filled horn introduction, and Aretha's declaration: "We're going riding on the freeway of love." The song reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the R&B chart, delivering Aretha's biggest pop hit since the late 1970s.
Behind the success lay a skilled adaptation to shifting times. In the MTV era, music had become visual as much as sonic. The "Freeway of Love" video — Aretha in a pink Cadillac — was a vivid image that won a new generation of fans.
That same year, Aretha collaborated with the Eurythmics' Annie Lennox on "Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves," a feminist anthem that generated significant cultural attention. Eighteen years after "Respect," Aretha was again giving voice to the feelings of an era.
Who's Zoomin' Who? won the Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance (Female), and Aretha established what might be called her second golden age.
🌍 Obama's Inauguration — The Emotion of "My Country, 'Tis of Thee"
January 20, 2009. Washington D.C., in front of the Lincoln Memorial.
The day Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States. Aretha Franklin sang at the ceremony.
The song was "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" — an American patriotic hymn. But when Aretha sang it, it was not simply a patriotic song.
The moment she began, the National Mall — where an estimated two million people stood — went still. When the first phrase ended, a wave of response spread through the crowd.
To understand the meaning of this moment requires looking back at history. The America Aretha was born into in 1942 was a country where Black Americans could not eat in the same places as white Americans or attend the same schools. The 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott, the 1963 Birmingham campaign, the 1965 Selma marches — Aretha had lived through all of that history.
And in 2009, at the inauguration of a Black president, she sang.
The lyric of "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" contains the line "Land where my fathers died." When sung in Aretha's voice — a Black woman's voice — the "fathers who died" resonated with the history of slavery and the civil rights movement in a way that summoned emotions beyond what words can describe.
Millions watching on television wept — not simply at the beauty of the singing, but at the feeling of "look how far we have come" as a country and as a people.
Aretha's hat attracted its own attention — a large grey felt hat with a bow that became an instantly iconic image. It was later donated to and displayed at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. The voice and the hat both became part of history.
📸 The Blues Brothers — Aretha on Screen
In 1980, Aretha appeared in the film The Blues Brothers.
The movie follows Jake and Elwood Blues, played by John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, as they reunite their band to save an orphanage — a comedy featuring cameo appearances by Ray Charles, James Brown, Cab Calloway, and other legends of soul and blues.
Aretha played Mrs. Murphy, the wife of musician Matt Murphy, whose anger at her husband rejoining the band — expressed through a full performance of "Think" while chasing him through the diner — became one of the film's most celebrated sequences.
"Think" was a song Aretha had written herself in 1968 (co-written with Jerry Wexler). The word "Freedom" runs through it like a refrain. Watching Aretha deliver it in full force in a comedy film context, it is impossible to mistake: what's happening is not a movie scene. It is real soul music, happening to occur inside a movie.
Aretha reflected on this later: "I just sang. Inside the movie or outside it, singing is all I can do."
The Blues Brothers became a cult film, and Aretha's scene is counted among the memorable moments in cinema. For younger audiences, the film has served as a gateway — discovering Aretha through "Think," then going back to "Respect," then to "Natural Woman."
Have you seen The Blues Brothers? The "Think" scene is extraordinary.
🏆 Eighteen Grammy Awards — A Record Built Over a Lifetime
Aretha Franklin's Grammy Award record belongs in the category of music history.
Eighteen Grammy Awards in total (some counts reach twenty). Among these, she won Best R&B Vocal Performance (Female) for eleven consecutive years — a consecutive-win record that has never been broken.
In 1987, she became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In 1994, she received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 2005, President George W. Bush awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the highest honor that can be given to an American civilian.
But Aretha's most significant "award" was not any of these formal honors. It was the reverence given to her by musicians across the world.
Paul McCartney, Elton John, Mick Jagger, Carole King — artists at the highest levels, across all genres, have described Aretha as "the presence that changed my musical life." Beyoncé sang Aretha's songs at Grammy ceremonies to honor her. Adele has repeatedly said "Aretha is my vocal role model."
Aretha's influence extends beyond "influence on the next generation of singers." Pop, R&B, gospel, jazz, rock — musicians across every genre learned something from Aretha. Not vocal technique — but the method of delivering the soul through the voice. This is her greatest legacy.
Rolling Stone's list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time has consistently placed Aretha at number one. The 2021 revised edition is the same. The reason this ranking seems unlikely to change is that Aretha's singing demonstrates not "the summit of technique" but "the deepest place a human voice can reach."
🎵 A Late Career Masterwork — "Natural Woman" at the Kennedy Center
December 6, 2015. The Kennedy Center, Washington D.C.
At the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony for Carole King, Aretha came to pay tribute to her friend — and sang "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman."
This performance is spoken of as one of the most moving in music history.
The arrangement was simpler than the 1968 original. But the moment Aretha began to sing, the atmosphere in the hall changed. Carole King, wiping tears, rose from her seat in the audience. President Barack Obama, restraining his tears, eventually stood as well. The entire hall rose.
The climax — "You make me feel like a natural woman!" — the moment Aretha cast off her coat and delivered the phrase with her entire body — was an overwhelming performance that gave no sense of a 73-year-old woman's age.
The footage of the coat being dropped was shared across social media around the world. "The Queen shed her coat and brought the house down" was the response that flooded in.
What this performance demonstrated was that Aretha's voice, at 73, had preserved its essential power. And simultaneously, the universality of the song Carole King wrote in 1968 — the fact that the same song could produce the same depth of feeling in 2015, forty-seven years later.
Have you seen the Kennedy Center "Natural Woman" footage? If not, please watch it today. There is an experience there that goes beyond words.
🎗️ The Illness — August 16, 2018, the Final Day
Around 2010, Aretha's health problems began to surface publicly.
In 2011, she underwent surgery for a pancreatic tumor. Details were not disclosed, but after recovery she said "God's grace brought me through," and continued her musical activity.
From around 2017, her health deteriorated more noticeably. Concert cancellations became more frequent; public appearances became rarer. But Aretha did not release her music.
In November 2017, she appeared at Elton John's AIDS Foundation Gala in New York and sang while playing piano — this performance was the last live singing many fans would see from her.
In August 2018, Aretha was receiving hospice care at her home in Detroit.
At 9:50 AM on August 16, Aretha Louise Franklin died. She was seventy-six years old.
The cause of death was pancreatic cancer.
As the news spread across the world, spontaneous memorials began in Detroit. In front of New Bethel Baptist Church — where Aretha had sung as a child, where her father C.L. Franklin had preached — people began to gather with flowers.
President Donald Trump, former President Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton — across political lines, every leader offered words of tribute. Obama wrote: "Aretha's voice was a gift from God and a blessing for our nation."
Radio stations around the world began playing "Respect" simultaneously. On street corners, in cars, in shops — "Respect" was playing. That day, the play count for "Respect" across global platforms registered record-breaking numbers.
🏛️ The Funeral as National Ceremony — The Day Detroit Wept
August 31, 2018. Greater Grace Temple, Detroit.
The funeral of Aretha Franklin became a ceremony of six hours.
More than 700 people attended — former President Bill Clinton, former First Lady Hillary Clinton, Stevie Wonder, Reverend Jesse Jackson, Pharrell Williams, Jennifer Hudson, and countless musicians and citizens.
Jennifer Hudson sang "Amazing Grace." Stevie Wonder sang "The Lord's Prayer." Ariana Grande sang "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" — her short dress generated separate conversation, but the singing itself was genuinely moving.
The words that stayed with me most from the service came from Reverend Al Sharpton: "Aretha Franklin rewrote American history through music. She changed laws with song. She advocated for rights through song. She united people through song."
The coffin was carried through the streets of Detroit in a gold Cadillac-style hearse. Tens of thousands of citizens lined the route, watching through tears.
The reason this funeral became a national ceremony is that Aretha was not simply "a great singer." She was a symbol of America's civil rights movement, a voice for women's rights, a living embodiment of Black pride. That scale of meaning transformed a private farewell into a public act of mourning.
⭐ What Aretha Left Behind — The Enduring Legacy of the Queen of Soul
If what Aretha Franklin left the world is to be expressed in a single phrase: the greatest proof ever made of what a voice is capable of.
"Respect" continues to play around the world today. When workplace equality, gender rights, and racial dignity are discussed, "Respect" is always referenced. More than half a century after the song was born, the power of its words has not diminished by a single degree.
"Natural Woman" is known in the world more through Aretha's version than through Carole King's original — this demonstrates how powerful Aretha's interpretive force was.
As a legacy within the music industry: Aretha remains one of the most-streamed artists on Spotify among female R&B artists, and the numbers have continued to grow since her death in 2018.
As a legacy for the next generation: Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, Mary J. Blige, Jennifer Hudson — the women who define today's R&B scene all name Aretha as "the first great inspiration."
But the most important legacy is something that cannot be expressed in numbers or names.
When listening to Aretha sing, every listener — without exception — feels "she is singing about me." In joy, in grief, in anger — Aretha's voice reaches you. Not because she was technically perfect, but because she was honest as a human being.
The girl who began singing in church as the daughter of Reverend C.L. Franklin — who passed through six years of unrecognized talent at Columbia, who found her true self at Atlantic Records, who spent half a century making music worthy of the name Queen of Soul.
On the morning of August 16, 2018, Aretha departed quietly in Detroit. But the voice saying "What you want, baby I got it" is still playing around the world today.
The soul does not die — Aretha's music is the proof. 🎤
https://toshiyu03.blog/let-me-have-my-say-%f0%9f%8e%b5-the-music-memories-corner/
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