How Aretha Franklin’s ‘Respect’ became an anthem for civil rights and feminism

Related Link Aretha Franklin: sublime soul diva whose voice inspired the civil rights movement

It was Valentine’s Day 1967 when Aretha Franklin sat down at a piano in the Atlantic Records studio in New York and recorded “Respect.”

The Queen of Soul, who died Thursday at 76 her home in Detroit, took the song written and first recorded by Otis Redding and made it her own, transforming it into what would become an anthem for the civil rights movement and for the women’s movement.

“Respect” became a soundtrack for the 1960s. Franklin, then just 24 years old, infused it with a soulful and revolutionary demand, a declaration of independence that was unapologetic, uncompromising and unflinching.