School of HONK charts are here.
School of HONK performance with Providence’s Big Nazo alien puppets
Blues Brothers version
Original recording by Aretha Franklin
Respect was originally written and recorded by Otis Redding, a funky, melancholy ballad about a downtrodden man returning home to a woman “sweet as honey” and rewarding her with “all his money.” Aretha and her sister/backup singer Carolyn came up with the signature “R-E-S-P-E-C-T” and “sock-it-to-me” phrasing, and she flipped the script, making it about a woman demanding respect from her man when he gets home. She recorded her version on Valentine’s Day 1967, and it would become an anthem of second-wave feminism, and then all civil and human rights around the world. It’s in the Grammy Hall of Fame and has been inducted into the U.S. National Registry. Our arrangement stays pretty true to the original, including the verse call and response, the layered calls in the bridge, and the call and response of the chorus.
Aretha Franklin reigned as the undisputed “Queen of Soul” for more than half a century, bequeathing countless hit recordings and unforgettable performances that brought millions of fans to their feet and their senses, brought a pope across the ocean, and brought a president to tears. From her family’s gospel roots, she went on to make a home in blues, jazz, rock, soul, funk and disco. She combined a rock steady sense of rhythm and time, a natural talent for phrasing and narrative, and a singularly rich and powerful mezzo-soprano to express and revere nearly every conceivable emotion, from a lover’s softest whisper to a lion’s loudest roar, telling tales of dreamy infatuation, righteous anger, unbreakable faith, quintessential self-respect and human solidarity, often all in the same song. She taught herself to play a piano by ear, refusing ever to learn how to read music, and she developed an endless font of lyrical stylings and revolutionary arrangements for brass, strings and backing vocals. She sold seventy-five million records, and was the first woman inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, winning eighteen Grammy Awards including a Lifetime Achievement Award. She made the cover of TIME Magazine at age 20, went on to sing at three presidential inaugurals, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She was notorious for dressing to the nines, demanding cash up front, and dismissing more than a dozen producers and record labels to get what she wanted. She was equally proud and generous in her support for Black, indigenous, women’s’ and gay rights, as well as funding animal rights, medical research and environmental justice organizations, at home and abroad. Click here to catch some of her most memorable performances, and click here to hear another four hours of her best recordings.
