Each December in Washington DC, the Kennedy Center Honors anoints five performing artists who have contributed to American life. In 2015 one of the inductees was Carole King, to whom Janelle Monáe and James Taylor sang nicely in tribute. Then on came Aretha Franklin in a floor-dragging fur coat. She placed her handbag on the piano and broke into ‘(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman’. As the Queen of Soul hollered, howled and damn near put a hole in the roof, King went forgivably nuts and Barack Obama wiped away a tear. More than 30 million hits on YouTube confirmed that here, still, was a singer who could reach parts off limits to all others in rock and R&B’s halls of fame.
The other time Franklin had that effect was in 1972 with her album Amazing Grace. At 29, the Queen of Soul revisited her gospel roots with two consecutive performances in a Los Angeles church and sold two million records.
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