Aretha Franklin is an American icon who has created an incredible legacy that will live long beyond the 21st century. Whether she’s singing gospel or belting out one of her R&B hits, Franklin’s voice is one of the music industry’s most powerful. Ask most music fans, and they’ll easily be able to name one of Franklin’s many hits, among them “Respect,” “Think,” and “Baby I Love You.”

The daughter of a Detroit minister, Franklin honed her voice singing at church with her two sisters, both of whom would go on to become accomplished musicians in their own right. When she was only 14, Franklin recorded her first gospel album, but it wasn’t for several years until she signed with Columbia Records in the early 1960s.

Franklin had modest success with Columbia, releasing such singles as “Rock-a-bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody,” “Soulville,” and “Lee Cross.” It wasn’t until Franklin left Columbia for Atlantic Records that the world began to hear the powerful voice it would quickly come to love.

Franklin kicked off her partnership with Atlantic Records with the hit single, “I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You),” and in the two years following (1967 to 1968), Franklin amassed hit after hit, bagging a stunning ten singles in the Top Ten during that brief period. Franklin would also record and release the albums “Lady Soul” (1968), “Aretha Now” (1968), “Soul 69” (1969), and “Spirit in the Dark” (1970).

By the dawn of the 1970s, Franklin was an international superstar, and Aretha Franklin concert tickets were the hottest ticket in every town in which she played. She kicked off the new decade with hit singles such as “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” “Day Dreaming,” and “Spanish Harlem.”

As she got older and the years passed, Franklin’s attention began to turn to the pop genre, and she recorded such popular singles as “Jump To It,” and “Who’s Zooming Who.”

More than four decades have passed since Franklin’s emergence onto the music scene, and she’s released dozens of albums, securing her a permanent spot in America’s music history. She continues to release albums, particularly compilation albums – such as “The Essentials” (2005), and “Covered by Aretha” (2006) – that feature some of her greatest hits.