Aretha Franklin spent the first six years of her
secular recording career under
Columbia Records in between the ages of 18 and 24. None of her albums or singles under the label ever made the top ten of the major
record charts, including
Billboard and
Cashbox, with only a cover of "
Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody", becoming a moderate top 40 hit on the pop charts. By November 1966, her contract with the label expired despite the struggling performer owing the label money. Still, her contract was sold off to
Atlantic Records that same month. Not too long after Franklin signed, Atlantic began booking studio time for the singer. Noting that Franklin was being vocally held back on her Columbia recordings, producer
Jerry Wexler stated his intention of having Franklin record more
blues and
gospel-inflected R&B music, which was by then was given the name "
soul music". Franklin's first recording sessions were booked at
FAME Studios in Alabama, recorded by engineer
Tom Dowd beginning in January 1967. Despite the successful session, the recording of the
B-side, "
Do Right Woman, Do Right Man", was abruptly canceled after Franklin's then-husband and manager
Ted White got into a physical altercation with the studio's owner, resulting in Franklin and White abruptly returning to New York. According to Wexler, it took ten business days before Franklin called Wexler and asked to book a new session at
Atlantic Recording Studios, instead of FAME. Wexler agreed and with Dowd and the Muscle Shoals musicians, in addition to her sisters
Erma and
Carolyn, Franklin recorded "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man". Not too long afterwards, Atlantic issued "I Never Loved a Man" as a single that February. It became Franklin's breakthrough hit on both the pop and R&B charts, reaching number nine on the
Billboard Hot 100 and peaking at number one on the
Top Selling R&B Singles chart, becoming her first of what would become 20 number one hits on the latter chart. The b-side, "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man", was received so well by R&B radio that it appeared on the chart, peaking at number 37. Franklin entered Atlantic Recording Studios on
Valentine's Day, February 14, 1967 to record yet another session on a song she had requested to cover called "
Respect", a song that had originally been a hit for fellow soul singer
Otis Redding back in 1965. Franklin had been a fan of the song and performed the song during live shows for a couple of years. Franklin had decided to flip the gender of the lyrics, with help from her sisters Erma and Carolyn. For the song's bridge,
King Curtis'
tenor saxophone soloed over the chords from
Sam & Dave's song "
When Something Is Wrong with My Baby".
Analysis and subtext {{listen According to Dobkin, Franklin's version was refashioned as a declaration from a strong, confident woman, who believes she has everything her man wants and does not wrong him, while demanding his "respect" – in the form of appropriate levels of physical attention. The repeated "sock it to me" line, sung by Franklin's sisters, was an idea that Carolyn and Aretha had worked out together; spelling out "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" was (according to engineer Tom Dowd) Carolyn's idea. The phrase "sock it to me" became a household expression. In an interview with WHYY's
Fresh Air in 1999, Aretha said, "Some of the girls were saying that to the fellas, like 'sock it to me' in this way or 'sock it to me' in that way. It's not sexual. It was nonsexual, just a cliché line." Franklin's version of the song contains the famous lines (as printed in the lyrics included in the 1985 compilation album
Atlantic Soul Classics): :
R-E-S-P-E-C-T :
Find out what it means to me :
R-E-S-P-E-C-T :
Take care of... TCB "TCB" is an abbreviation, commonly used in the 1960s and 1970s, meaning "taking care of business", African-American slang for pleasing one's partner. "TCB in a flash" later became
Elvis Presley's motto and signature. "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" and "TCB" are not present in Redding's 1965 version, but he incorporated Franklin's ideas in his later performances with the
Bar-Kays. According to
Detroit Free Press critic Brian McCollum, "Franklin's song has been dissected in books and academic papers, held up as a groundbreaking feminist and civil rights statement in an era when such declarations weren't always easy to make." When asked about her audacious stance amidst the feminist and Civil Rights Movement, Franklin told the
Detroit Free Press, "I don't think it's bold at all. I think it's quite natural that we all want respect—and should get it." ==Release==