Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin (49 page)

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Authors: David Ritz

Tags: #Famous, #Autobiography / Women, #Biography &, #Biography &, #Autobiography / Composers &, #Autobiography / Rich &, #Autobiography / Entertainment &, #Musicians, #Biography &, #Performing Arts, #Biography &

The Siblings

Erma Franklin, 1960s (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

Carolyn Franklin, 1970s (Gilles Petard/Redferns/Getty Images)

With Cecil Franklin in
Jet,
1976 (David Ritz Collection)

The
Amazing Grace
sessions, January 1972

Aretha in the pulpit (Alan Elliott)

Reverend C. L. Franklin, with James Cleveland looking on (Alan Elliott)

Reverend James Cleveland (Alan Elliott)

Clara Ward, seated next to C. L. Franklin (Alan Elliott)

Father wiping his daughter’s brow (Alan Elliott)

The Arista Years

With Luther Vandross, 1980 (Afro Newspaper/Gado/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

Narada Michael Walden, Aretha, and Whitney Houston, 1989 (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

With Clive Davis, 1990 (Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection/Getty Images)

With Luciano Pavarotti, 1998 (HENNY RAY ABRAMS/AFP/Getty Images)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Roberta Ritz and Aaron Cohen toiled mightily to provide critical research. I am deeply grateful to them both.

Gratitude to Michael Pietsch, my superb editor John Parsley, my superb agent David Vigliano, Malin von Euler-Hogan, my many interviewees—especially Earline Franklin, Brenda Corbett, and Sabrina Owens—as well as Dick Alen and Alan Elliott.

Much love to my family—Roberta, Alison, Jessica, Charlotte, the Nins, James, Isaac, Henry, Jim, Esther, Elizabeth, and all nieces and nephews.

Much love to my dear friends Alan Eisenstock, Harry Weinger, Herb Powell, and everyone in the Tuesday-morning crew.

Thanks to David Freeland, whose work with Ruth Bowen greatly deepened my understanding of her complex and brilliant personality.

Thank you, Jesus.

ALSO BY DAVID RITZ
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Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Final Year
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Autobiography

Brother Ray
(cowritten with Ray Charles)

Inside My Life
(cowritten with Smokey Robinson)

Blues All Around Me
(cowritten with B.B. King)

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(cowritten with Etta James)

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Rhythm and the Blues
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(cowritten with Aretha Franklin)

Howling at the Moon
(cowritten with Walter Yetnikoff)

Guillaume: A Life
(cowritten with Robert Guillaume)

Reach!
(cowritten with Laila Ali)

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(cowritten with Gary Sheffield)

Grace After Midnight
(cowritten with Felicia “Snoop” Pearson)

Journey of a Thousand Miles
(cowritten with Lang Lang)

Rickles’ Book
(cowritten with Don Rickles)

Rickles’ Letters
(cowritten with Don Rickles)

Hound Dog
(cowritten with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller)

We’ll Be Here for the Rest of Our Lives
(cowritten with Paul Shaffer)

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(cowritten with Grandmaster Flash)

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(cowritten with Tavis Smiley)

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(cowritten with Cornel West)

I Was Born This Way
(cowritten with Carl Bean)

Love Brought Me Back
(cowritten with Natalie Cole)

True You
(cowritten with Janet Jackson)

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(cowritten with Scott Weiland)

A Moment in Time
(cowritten with Ralph Branca)

Soulacoaster
(cowritten with R. Kelly)

A Woman Like Me
(cowritten with Bettye LaVette)

Sinner’s Creed
(cowritten with Scott Stapp)

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(cowritten with Buddy Guy)

Balance
(cowritten with Nik Wallenda)

Glow
(cowritten with Rick James)

Rocks
(cowritten with Joe Perry)

Fiction

Search for Happiness

The Man Who Brought the Dodgers Back to Brooklyn

Blues Notes Under a Green Felt Hat

Barbells and Saxophones

Family Blood

Take It Off! Take It All Off!

Passion Flowers

Sanctified Blues
(cowritten with Mable John)

Stay Out of the Kitchen
(cowritten with Mable John)

Love Tornado
(cowritten with Mable John)

Power and Beauty
(cowritten with T. I. Harris)

Trouble and Triumph
(cowritten with T. I. Harris)

Inspirational

Messengers: African American Ministers and Gospel Singers Speak

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