“For many years, I've wanted to do one, and I've always mentioned it to the chieftains, and they would say things like, 'Oh well. Christmas albums don't sell,' and things like that. But that's not the point. Christmas albums are important. The music is important. The season is important.”

American singer-songwriter and pianist

Aretha Franklin was an American singer-songwriter and pianist. Active in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, she was widely known as the “Queen of Soul.” Her voice made her one of the defining figures in popular music, and Rolling Stone twice named her the greatest singer of all time. She was also a pianist, and her work is closely associated with soul music and the performance style that made her famous.