Words like “legend” and “icon” get thrown around a lot today, but there’s someone in the music industry who wasn’t only both, but also could be correctly labeled a true pioneer. That someone is Aretha Franklin. And it’s appropriate we remember her on January 3, a holiday known as Women Rock Day! Why January 3? Because it was the day in 1987 that the singer-songwriter became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Aretha Louise Franklin was born March 25, 1942, in Memphis, Tennessee, and found her voice at a young age singing gospel hymns at New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, where her father was a minister. By 1966, she had signed on with Atlantic Records and cut a run of successful albums that spawned a slew of hits like “Respect,” “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” “Chain of Fools,” and “I Say A Little Prayer.” Franklin kept playing her tunes right into the 1980s. She kicked that decade off with an appearance in the 1980 comedy film The Blues Brothers before hitting the charts with “Jump To It,” “Freeway of Love,” and duetting with George Michael in “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me).”
Franklin’s career was enmeshed in music canon by the 1990s, when her last Top 40 hit, “A Rose is Still a Rose,” played across the airwaves. All told, Franklin racked up 18 Grammy Awards and a Presidential Medal of Freedom, among many other prestigious honors, before passing away at the age of 76 in 2018.
In 2024, Franklin was depicted on a Tuvalu $1 coin containing one ounce of silver. The 2024 Tuvalu Aretha Franklin 1 Ounce Silver Dollar, struck by the Perth Mint, was a top seller with fans who love “The Queen of Soul” and many others who “R-E-S-P-E-C-T” this trailblazer of the music and entertainment world.