Best Aretha Franklin Quotes & Sayings

Music does a lot of things for a lot of people. It's transporting, for sure. It can take you right back, years back, to the very moment certain things happened in your life. It's uplifting, it's encouraging, it's strengthening. — Aretha Franklin

I always felt rock and roll was very, very wholesome music. — Aretha Franklin

As a child I always wanted to be a singer. The music my mother played in the house moved me - Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Mahalia Jackson. It was truly spiritual. It made you understand what God was. We are all spirits. We get depressed. But music makes you want to live. I know my music has saved my life. — Mary J. Blige

I think the important thing to understand first and foremost about Michael Jackson is that he was the international emblem of the African American blues spiritual impulse that goes back through slavery - Jim Crow, Jane Crow, up to the present moment, through a Louis Armstrong, through a Ma Rainey, through a Bessie Smith, all the way to John Coltrane, Aretha Franklin and Nina Simone. — Cornel West

You knew the difference between Barbra Streisand and Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles, straight away. Now everyone sounds like each other, and I don't think that's right. — Bobby Womack

Gospel goes with me wherever I go. Gospel is a constant with me. — Aretha Franklin

I've never recorded anything I didn't like. — Aretha Franklin

I've always felt that rock & roll was very, very wholesome. — Aretha Franklin

The people at large absolutely gave James Brown respect. He was an original like a Rembrandt or a Picasso — Aretha Franklin

I'm a big woman. I need big hair. — Aretha Franklin

I remember singing around the house to records that were playing. All kinds of music. And the great James Cleveland was often in our house, and I grew up with his sound as well. — Aretha Franklin

I saw the Supremes when they were still singing in little black skirts and white blouses. — Aretha Franklin

Contrary to popular opinion, manners are not a luxury good that's interesting only to those who can afford to think about them. The essence of good manners is not exclusivity, nor exclusion of any kind, but sensitivity. To practice good manners is to confer upon others not just consideration but esteem; it's to bathe others in a commodity best described by noted speller Aretha Franklin. — Henry Alford

I think the best singers in the world, historically, are American. Britain's got its fair share, as well, but some of the greatest singers, ever, whether you're talking about Whitney [Houston] or Mariah [Carey] or Aretha Franklin, are from the legacy here. — Simon Cowell

I am doing what I love to do, and you cannot beat that, especially when the audience appreciates what you prepare for them. It's very, very gratifying. — Aretha Franklin

I'm never tired of going to the studio. I enjoy recording and documenting everything and trying new things. — Aretha Franklin

The milk of kindness flows through my body, I shall follow Jesus to the Taco Bell and give thanks. — Aretha Franklin

She's got her God and she's got good wine, Aretha Franklin, and Patsy Cline. — Trisha Yearwood

My mom actually had a band called Six Pack - even though there were seven of them - who went around Chicago performing popular songs. Her voice was like Gladys Knight mixed with Aretha Franklin. — R. Kelly

I know I'm not going to sing like Aretha Franklin or Elvis Presley or any of those people. — George Thorogood

Growing up in Cleveland, I learned about singing from my mother, who had once sung professionally and who admired Mahalia Jackson and Aretha Franklin. — Tracy Chapman

I'm telling the story, and if I can't tell the story, I'm not going to sing it. And if I don't agree with the story, and if I got to sing something that portrays me as something I'm not, then I'm not going to sing it either. I didn't even want to sing Aretha Franklin's 'Chain of Fools.' — Sharon Jones

As a kid, I was listening to Aretha Franklin, Etta James and hip-hop as well as music my parents were listening to, like Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. — Alanis Morissette

The man who gets me is getting one hell of a woman. — Aretha Franklin

I love to sing. It's just a natural thing for me. — Aretha Franklin

With the '60s era and Motown, my grandparents actually introduced us to that when I was younger, so I grew up listening to the Jackson Five, Aretha Franklin, The Temptations, The Supremes and Diana Ross' solo stuff. I just loved it. — Jordin Sparks

I sing to the realists; people who accept it like it is. — Aretha Franklin

I've been getting into different gospel artists; Aretha Franklin is someone I've been listening to a lot of. — Jonny Lang

Now, occasionally I will still have that quarter pounder because I love fast food, but you have to keep it to a minimum. — Aretha Franklin

And I was booked once to go on 'Ed Sullivan' and I got bumped and ran out the back door crying. — Aretha Franklin

I grew up in the church not being able to listen to anything but gospel. So, while [other] people grew up with their parents listening to Marvin Gaye and Aretha Franklin, I never knew they existed until I was able to listen to what I wanted to. — Rahki

You know what we pride ourselves on that - although I wouldn't mind if my backside was a little smaller. But look at the original divas ... take Aretha Franklin for example - I've seen her live in the States and she was mammoth, but she had that crowd under control and they doted on every movement she made! We're not little midgets but the music industry is not about that, it's about loving the music and respecting what you do. — Kate DeAraugo

I like Beyonce's music - some of it, not all of it. — Aretha Franklin

Women have broken through the glass ceiling, and they're now more and more in the power seats. — Aretha Franklin