onal recording stars in music, selling 250,000 copies of her first record within the firsttwo weeks of its release. Franklin rose to fame singing sungs entitled “Dr. Feelgood”, “Do RightWoman Do Right Man”, “I Never Loved a Man”, “Chain of Fools”, “Baby I Love You”, “ I Saya Little Prayer”, and “The Little House Jack Built”.In the 1960’s, at the peak of the civil rights movement, Franklin and her music was seenas a symbol of the African American community itself, reflecting the increased confidence andpride of African Americans. In 1967, Frankling produced her most famous song “Respect”,which had monumental significance. “Respect” signified what everyone wanted: the averagewoman and man on the streets, what a man wanted from a woman, what a woman wanted from aman, and what African Americans were demanding from European Americans in the CivilRights movement. In an interview with David Ritz in 1999, Franklin recalls this peroid of time inher music career; “The civil rights revolution was at its height.....some were sayin that in myvoice they heard the sound of confidence and self-assurance; they heard the proud history of apeople who had been stuggling for centuries”( Ritz113). In addition to “Respect”, ArethaFranklin’s song “Think” correlated with the civil rights movement.You better thinkThink about what you’re trying to do to meThink, that your mind gonna let you set me freeFreedom freedom freedom oh freedomFreedom yeah freedomHey, think about it. Aretha Franlin was the female revoluntionary singer of the 1960’s.African Americans today are freer thatn ever before. African Americans have traveledfrom the southern fieds at the sourth and lowing paying jobs in the north to the moon andbeyond. African Americans are CEOOs, college presidents, lawyers, artists, activists...
