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Respect Aretha Franklin

March 1, 2012 by · Comments Off on Respect Aretha Franklin 

Respect Aretha Franklin, Aretha Franklin has denied she was uninvited from Whitney Houston’s funeral by the late singer’s mother.

The ‘Respect’ singer had been scheduled to perform at the service, but cancelled abruptly citing a bout of leg spasms as the reason she couldn’t pay tribute to her goddaughter.

Her absence from the ceremony sparked rumours she had been told not to attend by Houston’s mother Cissy after a feud broke out between the pair, with a row erupting following comments Franklin made in an interview with the Today Show’s Al Roker.

“I think parents have to really talk to their children before they leave home … [that they] leave home prepared, really. She left home with all the right things,” Franklin told Al Roker last week.

However, Franklin has since said he quotes were taken out of context and has aimed to clarify reports in an interview with The Associated Press.

“Cissy Houston and I have been longtime friends for almost 50 years. I have four invitations and parking passes that were sent to me for the funeral,” she said. “Cissy does not need ridiculous speculation and neither do I, particularly at this time.”

She went on to add: “Knowing Cissy as well as I do, I know Whitney left home right and properly. I was generalising and it was a well-intended statement for any young adult coming into the music industry. I was not speaking of anyone specifically.”

Houston’s funeral took place at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey over the weekend (February 18) and included performances from Stevie Wonder, R Kelly and Alicia Keys.

Aretha Franklin Date Of Birth

March 1, 2012 by · Comments Off on Aretha Franklin Date Of Birth 

Aretha Franklin Date Of Birth, Aretha Louise Franklin (born March 25, 1942) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock.

Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its “100 Greatest Singers of All Time” list, as well as the ninth greatest artist of all time. She has won 18 competitive Grammys and two honorary Grammys. She has 20 No.1 singles on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart and two No.1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100: “Respect” (1967) and “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)” (1987), a duet with George Michael.

Since 1961, she has scored a total of 45 Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. Between 1967 and 1982 she had 10 No.1 R&B albums-more than any other female artist. In 1987, Franklin became the first female artist to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

First Woman Inducted Into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame

February 1, 2012 by · Comments Off on First Woman Inducted Into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame 

First Woman Inducted Into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, In 1986, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced its first group of inductees: Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, James Brown, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke and the Everly Brothers. Since then, the Hall has added a new class of inductees each year, expanding by January 2008 to 209 honorees in four categories: Performers, Non-Performers, Sidemen and Lifetime Achievers. The category in which the Hall is most conspicuously lacking, however, is women. Of the 159 total inductions in the Performers category, 135 have been of solo male performers or male groups. Only 10 solo female performers and 13 groups containing at least one female performer have been added since the Hall admitted its first woman—Aretha Franklin—on January 3, 1987.

A combination of history and Hall of Fame policy help explain the gender imbalance. To be considered for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, candidates must have released their first album at least 25 years earlier. This means that in its first ten years of existence, the Hall of Fame considered only female rock and roll figures from the 1960s and earlier, a period during which there were relatively few prominent women working in what would generally be considered rock and roll. There was Aretha, there were girl groups like the Supremes and Martha and the Vandellas (inducted in 1988 and 1995, respectively) and there was Tina Turner (inducted with Ike in 1991), but beyond those obvious choices, the Hall had to look to three women—LaVern Baker, Etta James and Ruth Brown—who were really more R&B than rock and roll.

In its second 10 years, women fared better with the Hall of Fame as artists like the Jefferson Airplane (1996), Joni Mitchell (1997), Bonnie Raitt (2000) and the Pretenders (2005) became eligible for induction. Still, considering how few female artists and groups are likely to be given serious consideration in the coming years—Heart? Joan Jett? Chaka Khan?—the Hall’s roster of honorees is a striking reflection of how much rock and roll really has been, and continues to be, a man’s world.

For the record, the solo women and groups containing women who have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as of 2008 are (in order of induction):

Aretha Franklin

The Supremes

LaVern Baker

Ike and Tina Turner

Ruth Brown

Etta James

Martha and the Vandellas

Janis Joplin

The Shirelles

Jefferson Airplane (Grace Slick)

Gladys Knight and the Pips

Joni Mitchell

The Mamas and the Papas (Cass Elliot and Michelle Phillips)

Fleetwood Mac (Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks)

The Staple Singers

Dusty Springfield

Bonnie Raitt

Talking Heads (Tina Weymouth)

Brenda Lee

The Pretenders (Chryssie Hind)

Blondie (Debbie Harry)

The Ronettes

Patti Smith

Madonna

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