Aretha

Aretha Franklin was six years into a hit-free career when Dan Penn wrote her a song that would go on to become a classic, synonymous with her name. “Aretha walks in and she’s got this aura around her,” says Penn of the recording session, which took place at the legendary Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama. “The girl was special, that was obvious. I sang her Do Right Woman, Do Right Man, accompanied by just a little drumbeat and an organ.”It was 1967 and Do Right Woman, Do Right Man – which Penn co-wrote with Chips…

Editor’s note: Aretha Franklin, the preacher’s daughter who became the Queen of Soul and forged the template of the larger-than-life pop diva with her exuberant, gospel-rooted singing, died Thursday at age 76. In 1998, Franklin called The Times to help clarify the lyrics to her hit song “Respect.” This article was originally published on March 9, 1998. What the Heck Is TCP?: In our last episode of blooper lyrics in great songs, we left you hanging about a mysterious verse in Aretha Franklin’s 1967 classic,…

Pete Davidson dropped his third hourlong stand-up special (and second for Netflix) in the early hours of Jan. 9. Titled Pete Davidson: Turbo Fonzarelli, it’s far and away his most confident, assured, and hilarious one yet, featuring rapid-fire jokes about everything from a Make-A-Wish scenario gone awry and navigating his stalker to a confusing childhood crush on Titanic-era Leonardo DiCaprio. Early on in the special, directed by Jason Orley in stark black and white, the former Saturday Night Live cast member…

A Michigan judge has awarded the late Aretha Franklin’s sons the legendary singer’s real estate, pointing to a handwritten 2014 will that was found in Franklin’s couch after her 2018 death. The ruling came more than four months after a Michigan jury decided that the will, which was sandwiched between couch cushions in Franklin’s home, was valid. The 2014 document overruled a 2010 will found inside a cabinet in Franklin’s home. Both wills were found around the same time in 2019. The judge decided that Franklin’s son…

A judge awarded Aretha Franklin‘s sons the singer’s real estate after reviewing a handwritten 2014 will that was found between couch cushions, Associated Press reports. The new decision comes four months after a jury decided that the document was valid despite being hard to read. The will was signed with the letter “A” and a smiley face. The handwritten document overrides a will from 2010 that was found in 2019. The decision was a major victory for Franklin’s youngest son, Kecalf, who had been arguing in…

A document handwritten by singer Aretha Franklin and found in her couch after her 2018 death is a valid Michigan will, a jury said Tuesday, a critical turn in a dispute that has turned her sons against each other. It’s a victory for Kecalf Franklin and Edward Franklin whose lawyers had argued that papers dated 2014 should override a 2010 will that was discovered around the same time in a locked cabinet at the Queen of Soul’s home in suburban Detroit. The jury deliberated less than an hour after a…

A Michigan jury decided Tuesday that a handwritten will found between couch cushions in Aretha Franklin’s home after her death in 2018 is valid, according to reports. The soul music legend had left behind two handwritten wills that were found inside her Detroit home after her death from pancreatic cancer at age 76. The wills disagreed on which family members would control her estate, estimated at more than $80 million, prompting turmoil among Franklin’s children. A legal battle amounted to a trial at an Oakland County…

A jury is to determine which of two handwritten wills found at Aretha Franklin’s home in Detroit, Michigan, is the late musician’s valid last testament, as disputed by her sons.One was found in a cabinet, dated June 2010, which Ted White II, Franklin’s third son, claims is her true will and lists him as co-executor. Kecalf Franklin and Edward Franklin, her second and fourth sons, say a will discovered in a spiral notebook under a cushion, dated March 2014, is in fact the primary will. In the latter, Kecalf is the…

When Aretha Franklin died in 2018 at 76 of pancreatic cancer, she left behind a genre-defining legacy and an estate worth an estimated $80 million.It was believed that Franklin had died without a will, meaning that her four sons were expected to evenly share her assets. But several months after her death, the family discovered two handwritten wills at her Detroit home — one found inside a cabinet and another in a notebook, sandwiched beneath cushions.The dueling wills agree on one thing: All four of her sons will share…

The mark that Aretha Franklin left on music is undeniable. Dubbed ‘The Queen of Soul’, Franklin enjoyed a lengthy career starting in 1960 and ending in 2017, shortly before her death in 2018. When most people think of Franklin, they bring her biggest hits to mind such as ‘Respect’, ‘Think’ or ‘Chain of Fools’ but she recorded, and released, a lot of music before those songs transformed her into the icon we remember her as. ‘The Queen in Waiting’ is a compilation that spans 1960 to 1965, the very beginning of Franklin’s…