Aretha Franklin – Respect (Live)

“Respect” Single by Aretha Franklin from the album I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You
B-side “Dr. Feelgood”
Released April 10, 1967
Recorded February 14, 1967
Studio Atlantic, New York City
Label Atlantic
Songwriter Otis Redding
Producer Jerry Wexler
Charted No.1 in US; No.10 in UK; No.3 in Canada; No. 19 in Scotland; No.14 in Australia.

“Respect” is a song written and performed by American soul singer-songwriter Otis Redding, and later rearranged by Aretha Franklin.

The producer Jerry Wexler booked Franklin for a series of recording dates in January–February 1967, starting with “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)”, recorded in Alabama at FAME Studios by the engineer Tom Dowd. After an altercation between the studio owner and Franklin’s husband and manager, Ted White, the sessions continued ten days later in New York without White, recording “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man”, using the same engineer and the same musicians, the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, affectionately known as the “Swampers”, as in Alabama.

During the following week, they recorded “Respect”, which Franklin had been performing in her live shows for several years. Her version of the song flipped the gender of the lyrics, as worked out by Franklin with her sisters, Erma and Carolyn. Franklin instructed the rhythm section how to perform her established arrangement of the “stop-and-stutter” syncopation, and in the studio she worked out new parts for the backing singers.[ “Respect” was recorded on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1967.

Franklin had just signed with Atlantic Records, and when her single “I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)” became a hit, Atlantic quickly arranged the sessions that produced “Respect” so she could put out an album to accompany the single. Aretha went on to release her biggest hits with Atlantic and earn the title “Queen of Soul.”

Before Aretha broke through and became the Queen of Soul, Etta James was the more popular singer. After “Respect” was released, James tried to resurrect her career by releasing her own cover of an Otis Redding song. She did a version of Redding’s “Security,” but it got little attention.