The 50 most essential Aretha Franklin songs by on Aug 21, 2018, 9:43 AM Advertisement
 - Aretha Franklin's recording career spanned nearly 60 years.
- Franklin's music crossed multiple genres, which is a testament to her versatility, and shows that the music world was hugely impacted by her.
- Here are 50 essential songs from the greatest voice pop music has ever produced.
The following article was written by David Browne, Elias Leight, Brittany Spanos, Mosi Reeves, Richard Gehr, Maura Johnston, Joe Levy, and Will Hermes at Rolling Stone: "American history wells up when Aretha sings," said no less an authority than President Barack Obama. The vocal achievements of Aretha Franklin have informed much of modern soul, gospel, R&B, dance music, and especially rock. Beyoncé considers Franklin's voice "one of God's blessings." Said Mary J. Blige, "When it comes to expressing yourself through song, there is no one who can touch her. She is the reason why women want to sing." Patti Labelle described Franklin simply as "the best singer in the world." Franklin's powerful instrument can be heard across a recording career that spans nearly 60 years. On the Columbia sides of the early Sixties, she laid into standards like then-current stars Sinatra or Nat King Cole, rivaling her backing orchestras for sheer power. Her classic Sixties and Seventies sides soundtracked the Civil Rights Movement, an object lesson in how a singer can embody and define her time. As poet Nikki Giovanni wrote, Franklin "lifted her voice in question and complaint and why not and we're going to and voiced the needs of a generation." 
From there, Franklin found homes across genres: not just a testament to the versatility of her music, but to how the world had been shaped by it. Early Eighties collaborations with Luther Vandross were a smooth slide into funk-pop and quiet storm, a mid-Eighties New Wave makeover made her an MTV star and a Eurythmics collaborator, hip-hop groups like EPMD and Gang Starr mined her funky Seventies work for beats, 1994's "A Deeper Love" made her a chart-topping modern house diva, a collaboration with Lauryn Hill linked her neo-soul and by 2014 she gracefully covered Adele. Here's just 50 essential songs from the greatest voice pop music has ever produced. SEE ALSO: Aretha Franklin's voice was 'singing for its life,' and no voice had a greater impact on me than hers SEE ALSO: 13 of Aretha Franklin's most inspirational quotes on music, respect, and love SEE ALSO: Here's why Aretha Franklin always carried her purse on stage 50. 'Jump to It' (1982) Youtube Embed:
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Height: 528px The title track of Franklin's 1982 LP paired her with Luther Vandross just as he was rocketing into position as one of the premier singer-songwriter/producers of the 1980s. Add her old background singer Cissy Houston to the mix along with bass ace Marcus Miller (a regular Vandross sideman who also spent time with Miles Davis) and the result is one of Franklin's grooviest singles. She rips through a "shab-a-doo-da-dwee-da" ad-lib with enough force to make the Gap Band's Charlie Wilson jealous, while Miller's viscous bassline scoots the whole track forward. "I played the bassline with my bass guitar and then I'd get a synthesizer and I'd overdub the same thing, so you had two types of basses playing the same bassline at the same time," he told the Red Bull Music Academy in 2015. Franklin had decided to seek out Vandross after hearing his peerless rendition of "A House Is Not a Home" in 1981. "I was working on [a version of the same song] at home," she said. "I said, ‘Aha, he beat you to the punch!' … Coupled with the fact that there was a relatedness and a similarity in stylings, I said, ‘Why not [have him produce]? He obviously knows what he's doing!'"
49. 'Try a Little Tenderness' (1962) Youtube Embed:
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Height: 528px This reading of the Otis Redding signature pre-dates his by four years and Sam Cooke's version (from his beloved At the Copa) by two. There's little doubt both men had taken note of Aretha Franklin's smoldering version. The recording recalls the Platters' 1958 Number One hit version of "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" in an arrangement by Robert Mersey, "who surrounded me with the finest musicians in the city," Franklin told biographer David Ritz. "His charts were extremely lush, and I liked that." Aretha sang it in her first TV appearance, on the teen-targeted American Bandstand. It wasn't a hit, but she was on her way.
48. 'Rolling in the Deep (The Aretha Version)' (2014) Youtube Embed:
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Height: 528px On Franklin's 41st and final album, Aretha Franklin Sings the Great Diva Classics, the legend returned for one last lesson to the current generation of vocal powerhouses. Franklin covered everyone from the Supremes to Alicia Keys on her 2014 LP, but it was her take on Adele's star-making hit "Rolling in the Deep" that captured everyone's attention, turning into a Number One Dance hit and letting the world know that her reign wasn't over. Franklin had nothing but love for the younger diva: "She's a really good writer with very heavy, deep lyrics," she told Rolling Stone. "She's got something to say and says it a little differently than the norm." And while "Deep" was Adele's first Number One hit, it was special for Franklin too: her 100th single to chart on the Billboard R&B charts.
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