Aretha Franklin dead at 76: Memphis roots and Nashville connections

She was born in Memphis, and during her earliest visits to Nashville, Aretha Franklin would light up the famed R&B clubs of Jefferson Street.

Half a century later, the “Queen of Soul” played her final Nashville shows in the city’s most prestigious venues and events: The Swan Ball and the Schermerhorn Symphony Center.

The epic musical journey of Aretha Franklin — who died early Thursday, according to The Associated Press — included many stops in Music City over the years. In addition to concerts and award ceremonies, she recorded a handful of country songs, and would prove to be a huge influence on some of the genre’s most celebrated vocalists.

Memphis roots

Aretha Louise Franklin was born March 25, 1942 in Memphis, Tenn. Two years later, her family would move to Detroit, where she began singing at her father’s New Bethel Baptist Church. Her childhood home in Memphis — a 1920’s “clapboard cottage” — is still standing at 406 Lucy in South Memphis.

In 1960, Franklin made the jump from Gospel to secular music, and her earliest years as an R&B included visits to Nashville’s Jefferson Street. There was even a four-night run at The New Era Club, which she recalled during a late-night interview with The Tennessean in 1971.

Reporter Jack Hurst caught up with Franklin at the King of the Road Motel, “just before she punched the button for the elevator,” he wrote.

“I like Nashville,” she said. “It’s a beautiful town. Nice climate.”

The Nashville Grammys

Two years later in 1973, when the Grammy Awards were held in Nashville for the first and only time, Franklin was among the stars in attendance.

She presented an award at the Tennessee Theater during the CBS telecast, and picked up two awards the following morning at a “Champagne Breakfast” at Municipal Auditorium. Those wins — for best female R&B vocal performance and best soul gospel performance — are a small portion of her 18 career Grammys.

Country connections

In the 1960s, Franklin put a one-of-a-kind spin on several country songs. Among them was Willie Nelson’s “Night Life,”  John Hartford’s “Gentle On My Mind” and “I May Never Get to Heaven,” penned by Bill Anderson and Buddy Killen.

A few decades later, country artists were the ones covering Franklin and claiming her as an influence. Reba McEntire rocked the boat at the 1988 CMA Awards by belting out “Respect.”

“For me, the big influence wasn’t Linda Ronstadt; it was Aretha Franklin,” Faith Hill told The Washington Post in 1996. “I’ve always listened to Aretha. When you hear the drums and bass on my records, that’s where it comes from.”

Hill and Franklin even recorded a duet for her 2011 album, “A Woman Falling Out of Love,” but the track was ultimately shelved. Last year, Hill and Tim McGraw opened their “Soul2Soul Tour” concerts with “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me).”

Gospel glory

In 2012, the Nashville-based Gospel Music Association inducted Franklin into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame .

“Aretha most certainly brought her Gospel roots into secular R&B,” the hall writes on its website, while calling her “one of the finest songwriters of all time as well as one of finest pianists in Gospel today.”

Her final Nashville performances

Also in 2012, Franklin performed at Nashville’s Swan Ball, an annual white-tie gala known as one of the South’s premier social events.

That came after two stops at the historic Ryman Auditorium in 2010 and 2011.

Her final Music City performance was a sold-out concert at Schermerhorn Symphony Center in 2015. Franklin, then 73, proudly proclaimed it was her 60th year in the music business, and treated an ecstatic crowd to a 90-minute set that featured “Chain of Fools,” “Think,” “Freeway of Love” and finally, “Respect.”

“She can still fill every inch of a concert hall with her powerful voice,” wrote The Tennesean’s Juli Thanki. 

The Detroit Free Press contributed. 

This post was originally published at Nashville Tennessean and is reposted here under a CreativeCommons, Non-Commericial 3.0 license.