Post #149152 by freddiefreelance on Fri, Mar 25, 2005 7:32 AM

Aretha Franklin was born March 25th, 1942, in Memphis, Tn., is one of the giants of soul music, and indeed of American pop as a whole. Her family moved to Detroit, Mi, where Aretha grew up singing with her sisters Carolyn & Erma in her father's (the Rev. C.L. Franklin) famous Bethel Baptist Church. In fact, she made her first recordings as a gospel artist at the age of 14, and was soon signed to Columbia by legendary talent scout John Hammond.

In the early 1960s, Franklin had a few popular songs, most notably "Rock-a-bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody." However Columbia really wanted her as a jazz singer and the results never gave full rein to Franklin's talents, although there's a reasonable amount of fine items to be found on the Columbia sides, including the occasional song ("Lee Cross," "Soulville") where she belts out soul with real gusto. However her greatest and most innovative work was yet to come.

After leaving Columbia for Atlantic in the mid-'60s producer Jerry Wexler had her record her first single, "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)," at Muscle Shoals in Alabama with the famous Muscle Shoals Sound Rhythm Section, with whom she'd continue to record through out the rest of the '60s. She produced 2 of her greatest albums, "Live at the Filmore West" & "Amazing Grace," a double album of live Gospel recored with James Cleveland, the Southern California Community Choir & her Dad (one of my all time favorite records), but she began drifting toward less inspired pop-oriented material as the '70s wore on.

After her Atlantic contract ended at the end of the 1970s, she's managed to get intermittent hits, "Who's Zooming Who" and "Jump to It" are among the most famous, without remaining anything like the superstar she was at her peak. She's also stedfastly refused to tour, espescially since she's deathly afraid of flying, and continues to live & record music in her hometown of Detroit.

Other Historical Highlights for today:

• Today is Annunciation - this is nine months before Christmas day.
• One of the four Irish Quarter days in the Irish calendar. Also known as Lady Day in England, this was the tradional British & Scottish New Years Day on which servants were hired, and rents and rates were due. The British tax year still starts on 'Old' Lady Day (6 April under the Gregorian calendar corresponded to 25 March under the Julian calendar).
• 1306 - Robert the Bruce becomes King of Scotland.
• Greek Independence Day. in 1821 Greece declared its independence from the Ottoman Empire, beginning the Greek War of Independence.
• 1881 - Béla Bartók, composer, is Born(d. 1945)
• 1908 - David Lean, film director ("The Bridge on the River Kwai," "Lawrence of Arabia," "Doctor Zhivago"), is Born(d. 1991)
• 1911 - Jack Ruby, killer of Lee Harvey Oswald, is Born(d. 1967)
• 1918 - Howard Cosell, attorney, lecturer, sports journalist, is Born(d. 1995)
• 1918 - Claude Debussy, composer, Died (b. 1862)
• 1921 - Simone Signoret, actress, is Born in Wiesbaden, Germany (same as me!)(d. 1985)
• 1942 - Richard O'Brien, actor, writer (he wrote the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and it's songs, and played Riff-Raff) is Born
• 1947 - Sir Elton John, musician, is Born
• 1957 - United States Customs seizes Allen Ginsberg's Howl as obscene. The susequent obscenety trial of Lawrence Ferlingetti & the City Lights bookstore found the work had 'redeeming social importance' and was a watershed for freedom of speech & the American Civil Liberties Union.
• 1965 - Civil rights activists led by Martin Luther King, Jr. complete successfully their 4 day 50 mile march from Selma to the capitol in Montgomery.
• 2004 - Air Holland files for bankruptcy due to unproven allegations of marijuana abuse by the their pilots (Now, who would ever think the Dutch were Potheads?).