Aretha Franklin: a life of heartbreak, heroism and hope

The queen of soul’s fraught personal life informed songs that will endure in the hearts of people all over the worldIn January 1967, Aretha Franklin, 24 years old and newly signed to Atlantic Records, left Detroit, her home city, for the small town of Muscle Shoals in Alabama. She had gone there to record at the remote Fame Studio at her producer Jerry Wexler’s insistence. “These cats are really greasy,” he told her. “You’re going to love it.”She foun...

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