"It was Aretha Franklin’s first No. 1 hit, the cry of empowerment that has defined her for generations: “Respect.”
But for the roughly seven million times the song has been played on American radio stations, she was paid nothing.
When Ms. Franklin died on Thursday
at age 76, fans celebrated the song all over again as a theme for the
women’s rights movement. But in the music industry, “Respect” has also
played a symbolic role in a long fight over copyright issues that,
advocates say, have deprived artists like Ms. Franklin of fair royalty
payments...
[Aretha Franklin] also added what became the song’s signature line: “R-E-S-P-E-C-T / Find out what it means to me.”
Ms.
Franklin’s reinvention of Mr. Redding’s song has continued to fascinate
critics. Peter Guralnick, the author of books like “Sweet Soul Music:
Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom,” noted that she
transformed the original meaning “not so much by changing the lyrics, as
by the feeling that she imparted on the song — so that ‘Respect’ became
a proclamation of freedom, a proclamation of feminism, a proclamation
of an independent spirit.”"
