Born: 25 March 1942
Died: 16 August 2018 (aged 76)
Real name: Aretha Louise Franklin
Aretha was born in Memphis, Tennessee but the family moved to New York when she was 2 and then on to Detroit by the time she was 5. Her father was a Baptist minister and Aretha would sing in the church and soon after this her father took her on the road to perform at various churches where he was preaching. She would be in her early teens when she was signed to J.V.B. records and released her first single, ‘Never Grow Old’, in 1959. Over the next few years she released a number of gospel songs and would meet Martin Luther King Jr, Sam Sooke, Ray Charles and Marvin Gaye, all of whom would have an influence on her. When she turned 18 she moved to New York and changed from pure gospel music to a more pop oriented career. She signed to Columbia Records and her first single for them, ‘Today I Sing The Blues’, would get to 10 on the US R&B chart. Her next hit was ‘Won’t Be Long’ which was released in December 1960 and would become the first of 73 Hot 100 hits she would see in the US as it went to number 76. But it wasn’t until 1967 when she moved to Atlantic Records that she first hit the top 10 (with ‘I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You) (#9)) and then number 1 with ‘Respect’. She would have to wait till 1987 before she hit the number 1 spot again (with her duet with George Michael, ‘I Knew You Were Waiting’) and the gap of 1036 weeks between number 1 hits was the biggest gap any act had seen to that date. Subsequently she has dropped to 3rd with The Beach Boys (1143 weeks) and Cher (1303 weeks) going past her. In the UK she would see 35 hits with only ‘I Knew You Were Waiting’ hitting the top spot.
| Date of entry | Song | Peak (weeks at 1) | Weeks |
| 15-Nov-1968 | I Say A Little Prayer | 11 | 4 |
| 15-Feb-1987 | I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me) | 10 | 21 |
| Total hits | 2 | ||
| Total weeks | 25 |
| Biggest climber awards | 0 |
| Star rater climbs | 3 |
| Biggest fallers | 1 |
| Weeks with oldest in the charts | 0 |
| Longest run in the charts (weeks) | 21 |
| Weeks with more than 1 in the charts | 0 |
| Biggest gap between hits (weeks) | 948 |
| Top 30 points ranking | =470 |
| Top 20 points ranking | =642 |
| Top 30 points | 364 |
| Top 20 points | 129 |
The gap of 949 weeks between Aretha’s 2 hits mentioned above was, at the time, the biggest gap any act had seen. It was beaten only by the gap of 1214 weeks that Chubby Checker saw.
SA Singles Charts 