It’s hard to find new ways to lavish praise on Aretha Franklin. The performer—who died of pancreatic cancer on Thursday—has been heralded for decades as the best singer of all time, a gifted artist who possessed not only dazzling voice but spirited piano skills as well. Her influence traversed genres: gospel, R&B, rock. Every new performance challenged audiences to pick their jaws off the floor—and search for newer, even more exclamatory ways to declare her the all-time great. She was the Queen of Soul and, thus, knew exactly how to command ours.
There have been many indelible Aretha Franklin performances over the years. Let’s journey back to a handful.
In 1964, then-newcomer Franklin made one of her first television appearances on The Steve Allen Show, performing a jaunty version of “Won’t Be Long.” The confidence and budding diva-spirit is present early on, a knowing smirk etched on her face the entire time. And her voice. Her voice! It’s clear and high, indicating a singer in full control, veering on the edge of true stardom.
Franklin’s bedrock was the church. Raised by a reverend (who himself was nicknamed “the man with the million-dollar voice”), she cut her teeth among choirs and focused on gospel music at the start of her career. Though she eventually veered into secular music, the church was still a major part of her identity—and she paid homage to it in 1972 with the release of the gospel album Amazing Grace. Franklin’s unrestrained, soaring rendition of that staple, with Rev. James Cleveland on the piano, is still the definitive version.
Franklin was an active civil-rights activist, performing for her comrades and declaring in her contract that she would never play to segregated audiences. When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whom Franklin knew personally, died in 1968, she was tapped to perform at his funeral. She sang a passionate rendition of “Precious Lord, Take My Hand,” a gospel classic and a favorite of King’s. He would often ask the gospel great Mahalia Jackson to perform that song at civil-rights rallies; when Jackson died in 1972, Franklin performed it at her funeral as well.
One of the most illustrative examples of Franklin’s finely honed skill and genre prowess came when she performed “Nessun Dorma” at the 40th Grammys on Feb. 25, 1998. That year, opera great Luciano Pavarotti was supposed to perform the Puccini number, but he tapped out about 20 minutes before the ceremony due to a sore throat. Franklin was whisked in instead, asked to master the song in a pinch and make it her own. She eschewed the straightforward pattern of classic opera performances, instead dancing her voice up and down the scales, opting for ceiling-scraping highs and guttural lows—to an overall electrifying effect. She performed the song several more times afterward, including during a 2015 festival for Pope Francis, seen above.
In 2015, Franklin performed at the Kennedy Center Honors as a tribute to Carole King, performing her classic “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.” She walked out on the stage, clad in a fur coat and holding a sparkling clutch, and sat down at the piano. King, clearly not expecting Franklin to sing and play the piano, ecstatically dropped her jaw and left it there for the rest of the performance. Franklin, a self-taught player, then launched into a lovely rendition of a song she’d sung so many times before, delighting her audience—including a teary-eyed Barack and Michelle Obama. Then, the 74-year-old rose and stepped center stage, stunning her public with a round of vocal runs. She shrugged her fur coat to the floor, a dramatic flourish she picked up from gospel greats like Clara Ward and made thoroughly her own. The coat acted like a switch: as it fell, the audience rose, jumping to their feet to give Franklin a standing ovation.
