May 31, 2026

The Greatest Cover Songs of All-time: 2. Aretha Franklin - "Respect"

The Greatest Cover Songs of All-time: 2. Aretha Franklin - "Respect"

Otis Redding wrote "Respect" in 1965 from male perspective—working man demanding respect from his woman when he comes home. Classic Stax sound, modest hit (#35 US, #4 R&B). 1967: Aretha Franklin signed Atlantic Records, producer Jerry Wexler suggested "Respect." Aretha changed it completely. Female perspective—woman demanding respect from her man. Added R-E-S-P-E-C-T spelling (not in Otis's version), "sock it to me" ad-libs, sisters Erma and Carolyn on backup vocals. April 1967: released, #1 two weeks, #1 R&B eight weeks. Became civil rights AND feminist anthem simultaneously. 1967 timing crucial—movements needed anthems. Otis acknowledged: "song a girl took away from me." Two Grammys 1968. Rolling Stone ranked #1 all-time 2021. Garrett Fisher explores cultural transformation and dual anthem power.

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Kalaroga Shark Media. I'm Garrett Fisher and this is the

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Hit Maker Chronicles. We're at number two on our countdown

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of the top ten best cover songs of all time,

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as voted by the staff at Calaroga Shark Media. We're

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one week away from revealing the greatest cover song of

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all time, and this week we're looking at a cover

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that transcended music entirely. A cover that became a civil

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rights anthem, a feminist declaration, and a cultural watershed moment

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all at once. A cover so transformative that it changed

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not just the song but the person who sang it,

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making her an icon forever. Respect by Aretha Franklin. Those

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opening piano chords, that voice demanding what she's owed, the

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backing vocals spelling it out are eespect, making it impossible

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to misunderstand. The horn hits, the groove, the power. It's

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one of the most important recordings in American music history,

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and it was originally written and recorded by Otis Redding

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in nineteen sixty five as a song about a man

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coming home from work and asking his woman for a

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little respect. This is the story of how Aretha Franklin

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took a song about traditional gender roles and turned it

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into a revolution. Let's start in Memphis in nineteen sixty five,

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Otis Redding was twenty three years old and one of

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the rising stars of Southern soul music. He was signed

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to Volt Records, a subsidiary of Stacks, and he was

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known for his raw, powerful voice and his ability to

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pour emotion into every line he sang. Otis wrote Respect

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from his own perspective as a working man. The song

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was about coming home after a hard day's work and

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wanting his woman to give him some respect, to appreciate

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what he was doing to provide for the household. It

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wasn't mean spirited or demanding in an ugly way. Otis

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sang it with a kind of weariness, like he was

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asking for something basic that he felt he'd earned. The

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arrangement was classic Stacks, tight horn section, steady rhythm guitar

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that Memphis soul groove. Otis's voice was front and center,

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pleading and insisting at the same time. The song worked.

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It had a good hook, a solid groove, and Otis's

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vocal performance sold the emotion. Respect was released as a

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single in August nineteen sixty five. It went to number

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thirty five on the Billboard Hot one hundred and number

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four on the R and B charts. That was a

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legitimate hit for Otis. It helped establish him as more

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than just a regional soul singer. It proved he could

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write songs that connected with audiences beyond the South. But

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the song was still clearly from a male perspective. It

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was about a man's needs, a man's expectations, a man

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asking for something from a woman. That perspective was typical

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for nineteen six. That's how a lot of soul and

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R and B songs worked. Men singing about what they

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wanted from women. Women singing about trying to please their

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men or dealing with heartbreak. Respect fit neatly into that framework.

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It was a good song, but it wasn't revolutionary. And

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then two years later, Aretha Franklin heard it. Aretha was

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twenty five years old in nineteen sixty seven and at

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a turning point in her career. She'd been singing professionally

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since she was a teenager, had released several albums on

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Columbia Records that showcased her incredible voice, but never quite

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found the right commercial direction. She was talented, obviously, talented,

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but she hadn't broken through. In late nineteen sixty six,

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she signed with Atlantic Records. Producer Jerry Wexler brought her

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down to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to record with the best

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session musicians in the South. They were looking for material

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that would showcase Aretha's voice, her range, her power, her

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ability to make you feel every emotion she was singing about.

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Jerry Wexler suggested respect. He knew Otis's version, he thought

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Aretha could do something interesting with it. But Aretha didn't

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just sing Otis's song. She completely reimagined it. First, she

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changed the perspective. Where Otis was asking for respect, Aretha

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was demanding it. She wasn't pleading, she wasn't hoping. She

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was telling you that she deserved respect and she expected

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to get it. Second, she added new elements that Otis's

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version didn't have. The most famous edition was the spelling

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section rspect, where the backing vocals spelled out the word,

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making it impossible to miss, making it a declaration, a demand,

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a statement that couldn't be ignored. She also added the

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socket to me backing vocals, which became one of the

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most iconic elements of the song. That phrase repeated over

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and over added urgency and energy that turned the song

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into something you couldn't just listen to passively. You had

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to respond to it. Third, she changed the arrangement. The

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tempo was slightly faster, the piano was more prominent, the

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horns were sharper, more insistent, and Aretha's voice, that incredible instrument,

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commanded the entire production in a way that made every

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other element serve her vocal. Aretha recorded Respect at Atlantic

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Studios in New York in February nineteen sixty seven. Her

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sisters Carolyn and Irma sang backing vocals. The muscle shoals

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rhythm section laid down that groove, and when Aretha sang,

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something magical happened. She wasn't just singing a song. She

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was making a statement about gender, about race, about power,

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about dignity, about what it meant to be a black

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woman in America in nineteen sixty seven, demanding to be

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treated with the respect she deserved. Respect was released as

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a single in April nineteen sixty seven. It went to

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number one on both the Billboard Hot one hundred and

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the R and B charts. It stayed at number one

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for two weeks on the pop chart and eight weeks

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on the R and B chart. It became the biggest

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hit of Aretha's career up to that point, and one

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of the biggest hits of nineteen sixty seven, and it

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became something more than a hit song. It became an anthem.

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The civil rights movement adopted it immediately. Here was a

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song about demanding respect, sung by a black woman with

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power and authority and zero willingness to compromise. At a

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moment when black Americans were fighting for basic civil rights,

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when they were being told to wait, to be patient,

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to accept less than they deserved, here was Aretha Franklin

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spelling it out rspect. The Women's movement adopted it too.

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Here was a song where a woman wasn't asking for

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permission or hoping a man would treat her well. She

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was demanding respect as a right. In nineteen sixty seven,

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that was radical. Women were still fighting for basic equality,

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equal pay, equal opportunities, the right to control their own lives,

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and here was Aretha saying, I deserve respect, not because

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you're generous enough to give it to me, because I've

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earned it. The song transcended both movements and became something

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even bigger. It became about human dignity, about self worth,

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about refusing to accept less than you deserve from anyone ever.

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Otis Redding's response to Aretha's version was remarkably gracious. He

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acknowledged publicly that the song had become hers, that she'd

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found something in it that he hadn't fully realized when

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he wrote it. He said that when he heard her version,

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he understood that she'd taken his song and made it

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into something more important than he'd ever imagined. That takes humility,

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that takes artistic integrity. Otis could have been defensive about it,

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could have insisted on performing his version as the original,

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could have resented hit Aretha's success with his composition. Instead,

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he acknowledged the truth. She'd made it better, she'd made

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it matter more. Tragically, Otis Redding died in a plane

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crash in December nineteen sixty seven, just eight months after

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Aretha's version of Respect became a hit. He was twenty

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six years old. He never got to see the full

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impact of what Aretha had done with his song, never

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got to see it become one of the defining recordings

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of the civil rights and feminist movements. But before he died,

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he'd acknowledged that the song belonged to Aretha. Now and

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history has proven him right. We'll be right back. So

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what made Aretha's version so much more powerful than Otis's.

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Why did her cover become a cultural touchstone while his

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original remained a solid soul hit but nothing more. Part

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of it is the performance. Aretha's voice is one of

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the greatest instruments in the history of recorded music. She

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could do things with her voice that almost nobody else could.

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The power, the control, the ability to shift from gentle

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to overwhelming in a single phrase. When Aretha demanded respect,

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you believed her, You felt it, You understood that this

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wasn't negotiable. Part of it is the arrangement. The additions

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Aretha made, The spelling section, the backing vocals, the sharper horns,

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the more insistent rhythm, transformed the song from a personal

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plea into a universal declaration. Those elements made it anthemic

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in a way that Otis's version wasn't. But the biggest

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part of it is the context and the perspective shift.

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In nineteen sixty five, a black man asking for respect

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from his woman was a personal story in nineteen sixty seven,

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a black woman demanding respect from everyone was a political statement.

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Aretha's version arrived at exactly the right moment. The civil

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rights movement was at a crucial point. The women's movement

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was beginning to organize and demand change, and here was

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this song that spoke to both movements simultaneously, that said

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what millions of people were feeling but hadn't quite been

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able to articulate. When Aretha sang respect, black Americans heard

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a demand for civil rights, women heard a demand for equality,

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and everyone heard someone refusing to accept being treated as

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less than they deserved. That's not just a great cover,

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that's a cultural earthquake. The impact of Aretha's Respect extended

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far beyond nineteen sixty seven. The song won two Grammy

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Awards that year, Best R and B Recording and Best

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R and B Solo Vocal Performance Female. It was inducted

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into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Rolling Stone magazine ranked

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it as one of the greatest songs of all time.

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The Library of Congress added it to the National Recording

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Registry as culturally significant. Aretha performed Respect thousands of times

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over her career. It became her signature song, the song

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everyone wanted to hear, the song that defined her public identity.

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She was the Queen of soul, and respect was her crown.

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The song also became inseparable from the movements it had

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come to represent. When people fought for civil rights, they

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sang respect. When women marched for equality, they sang respect.

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When anyone stood up and demanded to be treated with dignity,

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respect was there. Aretha Franklin passed away in August twenty

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eighteen at age seventy six. The tributes that poured in

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all mentioned respect. The song was played at memorials, funerals,

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celebrations of her life. It was the song that everyone

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agreed to find, not just her career, but her impact

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on American culture. And when people think of respect today,

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they don't think of Otis Redding. They think of Aretha Franklin.

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They think of that voice, that demand, that real fusal

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to accept anything less than what she deserved. Otis wrote

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a great song. Aretha made it immortal. Respect is number

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two on our countdown because it represents the absolute pinnacle

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of what a cover can achieve socially and culturally. Yes

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it was a number one hit, Yes it won Grammys. Yes,

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it made Aretha Franklin a superstar. But more importantly, it

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became a rallying cry. It became a statement of principle.

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It became proof that a song could change how people

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thought about themselves and what they deserved. It's number two

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because Aretha Franklin took a song about a man wanting

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respect from his woman and turned it into a song

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about everyone, black people, women, anyone who'd ever been treated

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as less than they were, demanding respect from a world

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that had denied it to them for too long. It's

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number two because the spelling section our Espect became one

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of the most recognizable moments in popular music, a moment

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where the song literally spelled out what it was demanding,

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so there could be no confusion, no misunderstanding, no way

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to pretend you didn't hear. And it's number two because

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when Otis reading himself acknowledged that Aretha had taken his

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song and made it hers, he was acknowledging something profound

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that the best covers don't just reinterpret a song, they

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complete it. They find what was always there waiting to

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be discovered and bring it into the light. Otis Redding

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wrote respect about what a working man deserved at home.

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Aretha Franklin made it about what every human being deserves. Everywhere,

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same word, same title, completely different meaning, and the whole

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world listen. This is Garrett Fisher and this is the

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hit Maker. Chronicles join us next Sunday, June seventh for

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number one on our countdown of the top ten best

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cover songs of all time. The greatest cover song ever

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record did