Happy Birthday To Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin

Happy Birthday to the Queen of Soul, Miss Aretha Franklin. The iconic singer who is a once in a lifetime voice turns 74 today. She was born in Memphis, but raised in Detroit and was pivotal in the 1960's when she received the Queen title for making hits such as as "Respect", "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" and "Think".

Franklin eventually recorded a total of 112 charted singles on Billboard, including 77 Hot 100 entries, 17 top ten pop singles, 100 R&B entries and twenty number-one R&B singles, becoming the most charted female artist in the chart's history.

In 1998, Franklin returned to the top 40 with the Lauryn Hill-produced song, "A Rose Is Still a Rose", later issuing the album of the same name, which went gold. She also inspired other hip hop era legends such as Mary J. Blige who did a remake of "Natural Woman" below.

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Franklin performed The Star Spangled Banner with Aaron Neville and Dr. John for Super Bowl XL, held in her hometown of Detroit in February 2006. She later made international headlines for performing "My Country 'Tis of Thee" at President Barack Obama's inaugural ceremony with her church hat becoming a popular topic online.

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