Gather 'round to hear about the amazing, stupendous, often imitated but never, ever duplicated Aretha Franklin. She has one of the most recognizable voices in the world and in her long career has worked with many other great stars of the music industry, quite possibly eclipsing them all with her performance. Aretha I, Her Royal Majesty, the Queen of Soul.

She was born a preacher’s daughter in Memphis and grew up immersed in gospel music. With the support of family and friends, 14-year old Aretha released her first album, The Gospel Sounds of Aretha Franklin.  A few years later in 1960, the 20-year old singer crossed over the secular sounds of jazz and R&B with a contract with Columbia Records. Some of her singles reached the Top 10 and Top 40 but other than “Today I Sing the Blues” and "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody”, there weren’t any major successes. She recorded a few albums, most notable of which was Unforgettable: A Tribute to Dinah Washington, giving audiences a glimpse of what was in store for this young lady’s career.

Aretha switched labels, going from Columbia to Atlantic in the mid 60s and executive Jerry Wexler decided to bring out all of her immense talent to the surface. They traveled down to Alabama, deep in R&B country to work with musicians with a long tradition of raw, gritty style Wexler envisioned for his new star. Not too many songs came out of theses sessions and the trip had to be cut short when Aretha’s husband fought with one of the musicians. Undeterred, Wexler simply invited the Muscle Shoals Sound Rhythm Section to come to New York and continue to work with them.

In 1967, "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)"—the result of Aretha’s Alabama trip—was at the top of the R&B charts and made the Top 10 on the pop charts. And that was only the beginning. Soon enough the world famous “Respect” launched her into superstardom. It reached #1 in both R&B and pop charts and blew everyone’s socks off.  Following this monster hit were other successful singles, like “Baby I Love You”, “Natural Woman”, “Chain of Fools” and “Since You’ve Been Gone.” She received the first of a long string of Grammy awards for “Respect” and became fully recognized as the Queen of Soul. The late 60s saw some personal problems during her divorce but her music didn’t suffer too much. Aretha continued to release excellent covers of tunes like "Eleanor Rigby", Simon & Garfunkel’s "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and Ben E. King’s "Spanish Harlem”. Her voice was in top form and her music never strayed far from the Top 40.

In the early 70s, Aretha returned to her gospel roots and released Amazing Grace, a double live album that—amazingly—debuted at #7 in the Billboard charts, a feat never before seen at the time. She also experimented with disco, funk and jazz and succeeded with everything she sang. Tragedy struck in the late 70s when Aretha’s beloved father was injured and slipped into a coma for many years. This was not a high period for the queen of soul; in addition to the loss of her father, she had to contend with younger female singers coming up in the studio ranks and vying for a piece of the pie. Franklin’s releases declined in quality though her voice was as awesome as ever.

A much needed comeback for Aretha was the 1980 movie The Blues Brothers, where she sings a sassy rendition of her earlier hit “Think”. The rest of the decade brought modest successes to Aretha but there were some notable duets with Annie Lennox, George Michael and Whitney Houston. At the very least, collaborating with young artists revealed Aretha’s epic talent to a new generation that might otherwise not know the diva. She continued to record in the 90s and performed on many live occasions, including pinch-hitting for Luciano Pavarotti during the 1998 Grammy Awards where she sang the aria “Nessun Dorma” for a stunned and appreciative audience.

Sister Ree is a living legend and don’t you forget it.