Respect (song)
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| "Respect" | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Single by Otis Redding | ||
| from the album Otis Blue | ||
| B-side(s) | "Old Man Trouble" | |
| Released | August 1965 | |
| Format | 7" single | |
| Recorded | 1965 | |
| Genre | Soul | |
| Length | 2:08 | |
| Label | Volt Records | |
| Producer(s) | Steve Cropper Yves Beauvais |
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| Chart positions | ||
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| Otis Redding singles chronology | ||
| "I've Been Loving You Too Long" (1965) |
"Respect" (1965) |
"That's How Strong My Love Is" (1965) |
| "Respect" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
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| Single by Aretha Franklin | ||
| from the album I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You | ||
| B-side(s) | "Dr. Feelgood" | |
| Released | April 1967 | |
| Format | 7" single | |
| Recorded | February 14, 1967 | |
| Genre | Soul | |
| Length | 2:26 | |
| Label | Atlantic Records | |
| Producer(s) | Jerry Wexler | |
| Chart positions | ||
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| Aretha Franklin singles chronology | ||
| "I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)" (1967) |
"Respect" (1967) |
"Baby, I Love You" (1967) |
"Respect" is a 1967 hit and the signature song of the R&B singer Aretha Franklin, written and originally released by Volt recording artist Otis Redding in 1965. While Redding wrote the song as a man's plea for respect and recognition from a woman, the roles were reversed for Franklin's version. Aretha Franklin's cover was a landmark for the feminist movement, and is often considered as one of the best songs of the Rock & Roll era.
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[edit] Origins
Otis Redding wrote and recorded "Respect" as a blues tune in the studio while finishing his third album, Otis Blue. The album became widely successful, even outside of his largely R&B and blues fanbase. When released in the summer of 1965, the song reached the top five on Billboard's Black Singles Chart. The song even crossed over to pop radio's white audience, peaking at number thirty-five there. At the time, the song became Redding's second largest crossover hit (after "I've Been Loving You Too Long") and paved the way to future presence at American radio.
[edit] Making of a hit
Producer Jerry Wexler had come across Redding's song and brought it to Franklin's attention. While Redding's version was popular among his core R&B audience, Wexler thought the song had potential to be a crossover hit and demonstrate Franklin's vocal ability. Together with Aretha's sisters, Carolyn and Erma, singing backup "Respect" was recorded on Valentine's Day of 1967.
During the recording process, a bridge was added to Redding's original composition. Another addition was King Curtis' tenor saxophone and the slicker production of Wexler and co-producer Arif Mardin. The resulting song was featured on Franklin's Atlantic Records debut album, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You. As the title track became a hit at both R&B and pop radio, Atlantic Records arranged for the release of the "Respect."
Franklin's rendition found even greater success than the original, spending two weeks atop the Billboard Pop Singles chart, and for eight weeks on the Billboard Black Singles chart. It also became a hit internationally, reaching number ten in the United Kingdom, and helping to transform Franklin from a domestic star into an international one. Even Otis Redding himself was impressed with the performance of the song, and at the Monterey Pop Festival in the summer of the cover's release, he was quoted playfully describing "Respect" as "a song a girl took away from me".
[edit] What did she say?
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 . . . TCB
The last line is often misquoted as "Take out, TCP", or something similar, and indeed most published music sheets which include the lyrics have this incorrect line in them. The confusion seems to have arisen from the fact that the entire sequence was an ad-lib by Franklin, not present in Redding's original song.[1] Thus, for that sequence, there were no official written lyrics to quote, and those transcribing the lyrics would have had to take their "best guess" as to the words being sung.
"TCB" is an abbreviation that was commonly in used in the 1960's and 1970's, meaning "Taking Care of Business", and it was particularly widely used in African-American culture. However, it was somewhat less well-known outside of that culture[2], yielding a possible explanation as to why it was not recognized by those who transcribed Franklin's words for music sheets.
[edit] Legacy
"Respect" is one of several songs considered to have defined the 1960s. It has appeared in dozens of films, and still receives consistent play on oldies radio stations. In the 1970s, Franklin's version of the song came to exemplify the feminist movement. Although she had numerous hits after "Respect", and several before its release, the song has became Franklin's signature song and her best-known recording.
I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You was ranked eighty-third in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All-Time in 2002. Two years later, "Respect" was fifth in the magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All-Time. The song "Respect" is part of the The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll list.[3]
Ann Arbor blue-eyed soul band The Rationals covered the Otis Redding version before Aretha Franklin cut hers. It is speculated that she may have gotten the idea of having the background vocals stand in for the horns from the Rationals' version.
The Vagrants have a version of the song, which is included on the first disc of the Nuggets box set.
Despite being greatly overshadowed, Redding's version is still considered a soul classic, and highly regarded by fans of Stax-Volt and southern soul recordings.
The song was covered by the Basque fusion-rock band Negu Gorriak, translated as "Errespetua" (respect in euskara) for their 1996 cover album Salam, agur. After the band's split, singer Fermin Muguruza continued to perform his version of the song in some of his solo projects' concerts, and it appeared as the final track on his live album Kontrabanda - Barcelona, Apolo 2004-I-21.
[edit] Chart performance
[edit] Otis Redding version
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1965 | Black Singles Chart | #4 |
| 1965 | Pop Singles Chart | #35 |
| 1965 | Italian Singles Chart | #60 |
[edit] Aretha Franklin version
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1967 | Black Singles Chart | #1 (8wks) |
| 1967 | Pop Singles Chart | #1 (2wks) |
| 1967 | Canadian Singles Chart | #2 |
| 1967 | Italian Singles Chart | #7 |
| 1967 | UK Singles Chart | #10 |
[edit] Credits
- Written by Otis Redding.
[edit] Otis Redding version
- Produced by Steve Cropper and Yves Beauvais.
- Instrumentation by Steve Cropper (guitar), Isaac Hayes (keyboards), Al Jackson, Jr. (drums), Andrew Love (sax), Gene Miller (trumpet), Floyd Newman (sax).
- Background vocals by William Bell and Earl Sims.
[edit] Aretha Franklin version
- Produced by Jerry Wexler and Arif Mardin.
- Engineering by Tom Dowd.
- Instrumentation by Willie Bridges (sax), Charles Chalmers (sax), Gene Chrisman (drums), Tommy Cogbill (bass), Dewey Oldham (keyboards), and Curtis Ousley (sax).
- Background vocals by Carolyn Franklin and Erma Franklin.
| Preceded by "Groovin'" by The Young Rascals |
Billboard Hot 100 number one single (Aretha Franklin version) June 3, 1967 |
Succeeded by "Windy" by The Association |
[edit] References
- The Very Best of Otis Redding. Rhino/Atlantic Recording Corporation, 1992. Los Angeles, CA.
- I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You. Atlantic Recording Corporation, 1967. Los Angeles, CA.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Redding, Otis. "Respect", 1965, Volt Records
- ^ Landy, Eugene E. The Underground Dictionary, New York: Simon and Schuster (1971), ISBN 0671210122
