A biography for Aretha Franklinhasn’t been written yet.
“'Rocking With Leroy' used to come on when I would come in from school. It was a very, very big R&B broadcast of the day when I was a young girl. And I would come in and put my books down, lie down on the floor, and listen to 'Rocking With Leroy.'”
“Intermittently in my concert format, I sing a little jazz, a little scatting.”
“I loved going to church. I enjoyed being a part of the choir and just doing things in and around the church. But as a young girl, I certainly enjoyed watching and listening to my dad.”
“Parents have to really talk to their children before they leave home.”
“I'm really an old-fashioned girl - I like to be romanced.”
“Columbia was a wonderful label for me. Wonderful. The records I made there garnered me an audience. I won a number of polls during the years that I was at Columbia. The Downbeat Jazz Poll. Leonard Feather, who was a huge critic back in the day, different polls that he had. The Playboy poll, a number of polls. So the music was great.”
“Music does a lot of things for a lot of people. It's transporting, for sure. It can take you right back, years back, to the very moment certain things happened in your life. It's uplifting, it's encouraging, it's strengthening.”
“It's very satisfying. To perform the way you want to. And the way you know that you can.”
“I go to the healthier foods that are less chemically treated. I am drinking lots of water to get rid of the toxins in my body. It's a natural flushing. Water flushes your system and is also very good for your skin.”
“My faith always has been and always will be important to me.”
“Art Tatum was a genius.”
“You could call my piano my trademark, or one of my trademarks.”
“Don't say Aretha is making a comeback, because I've never been away!”
“I donate heavily to the church and various churches in the Detroit community and food banks.”
“When God loves you, what can be better than that?”
“Everybody wants respect. In their own way, three-year-olds would like respect, and acknowledgment, in their terms.”
“I am doing what I love to do, and you cannot beat that, especially when the audience appreciates what you prepare for them. It's very, very gratifying.”
“I really don't have any shelf music.”
“I know people I feel are extremely talented, but I don't know that I've ever heard any geniuses.”
“Beyonce is a very hard-working woman. Astrologically, for whatever it's worth, she's a Virgo - like Michael Jackson, a hard worker.”