Aretha Franklin

August 16, 2018 7 Comments
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Aretha Franklin died today.

I am married to the greatest singer I will ever know or even meet, and Darleen summed up Aretha Franklin by saying simply, “She was the greatest voice ever.”

Not “a great voice,” or “one of the greatest;” just the greatest.

On the news they showed her singing “Think;” not the version from The Blues Brothers, but in concert somewhere, and if you can watch that without grinning and your body moving, you might want to inquire about your local undertaker’s schedule.

And then Darleen found the YouTube video of Ms. Franklin filling in at the last moment for an ailing Pavarotti at the 1998 Grammy Awards ceremony. Think about it for a moment: filling in for Pavarotti with only a few hours to prepare, singing an aria from Puccini’s Turandot, arguably one of the most difficult of all arias, singing it in both Italian and English, in front of an auditorium of professional singers and musicians every one of whom was probably, rightly, just as sensitive to and critical of their art form as my bride is, and Ms. Franklin blew them out of their seats. If you can watch that performance and not weep, you have no soul within you.

She did it all and she did it all better than anyone else.

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7 thoughts on “Aretha Franklin”

  1. I have loved Aretha Franklin since I was a bitty girl. I remember hearing RESPECT for the first time and my little whitest of white girl legs could not help but move. And growing up Baptist she was taboo and so was dancing.

    We lost a great lady today.

    Ginny

  2. She definitely is The Queen of Soul… she will be missed…what is sad is that we are losing all the “Greats” and there aren’t many to replace them.

    Nancy Gallinger

    2. … hier noch ein Anhang, den ich fand … viele Grüße Manuela …

      Sie ist nun frei
      und unsere Tränen
      wünschen ihr Glück.

      Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 – 1832)

  3. Aretha Franklin était une chanteuse exceptionnelle !!! Lorsqu’on l’écoutait on ne pouvait pas s’empêcher de bouger. Un ami m’a dit aujourd’hui qu’elle avait accompagné notre jeunesse. Je lui ai répondu qu’elle accompagnait aussi notre vieillesse !!! C’était une artiste intemporelle qui a su traverser tous les genres de musique sans jamais nous lasser.
    Ma seule satisfaction, c’est de penser que lorsque j’irai là-haut, de grandes voix m’accueilleront !!
    Anita

  4. No offense to Darleen because I respect her greatly but I think Karen Carpenter beats out Aretha Franklin’s voice. No offense to any Aretha Franklin fan either it’s just between her and Karen Carpenter I have always thought the best of the two was KC.

    Nancy Darlene

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