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Aretha Franklin

ARETHA FRANKLIN
 
 
Aretha Franklin  (born March 25, 1942) is an American singer and musician.  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 1960’s decade.  Franklin has won a total of 18 Grammy Awards and is one of the best-selling female artists of all time, having sold over 75 million records worldwide.  Franklin is listed in at least two all-time lists on Rolling Stone magazine, including the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, in which she placed number 9, and the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time in which she placed number 1.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
“Enough” by Bohemian Vendetta got some local radio play and even had a spot on Dick Clark’s “Rate-a-Record” on American Bandstand.  This was, er, enough to get the band some better gigs; they opened for Vanilla Fudge and also another Long Island band the Vagrants.  (The Vagrants had a regional hit song with Otis Redding’s “Respect” before Aretha Franklin’s version of “Respect” propelled them from the charts; bandmembers included Leslie West, later a member of the hard rock band Mountain).
 
(April 2011)
 
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Felix Pappalardi, who produced Cream’s second through fourth albums and became almost a fourth member of the band, is actually from New York.  A classically trained musician, Pappalardi had previously worked with a Long Island garage rock band called the Vagrants and had them signed to Atco Records.  Their third single in 1967, “Respect” became a hit on the East Coast, until Aretha Franklin released her version of the song, and that was the end of that. 

 

(May 2014)