Billboard #1 Hits: #186: “Respect”- Aretha Franklin- June 3, 1967- #1 for 2 weeks.
- Single: “Respect”- Aretha Franklin
- Record Company- Atlantic
- Genre: Soul
- Written by Otis Redding
- Time: 2:29
- B-side: “Dr. Feelgood”
- Album-I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You”
- Grade: A+
- Peaked at #1 for 2 weeks in Billboard Hot 100. #10 in UK Singles Chart.
“Respect” was written and first released in 1965 by the great Otis Redding. The single by Redding went to #5 on the R&B singles chart and #35 in the Billboard Hot 100 Pop chart. The Redding original and the Franklin version sound like different songs- there was some changes in the lyrics but where Redding’s song is a plea from a man desperate man who will give his woman anything she wants- Franklin makes the song a declaration from a strong and confident woman- an anthem- a landmark moment in the women’s rights movement. Franklin won two Grammy’s for “Respect” and Rolling Stone magazine lists it at #5 on their 500 Greatest Songs Ever list. Aretha Franklin had 77 Hot 100 singles in her career with 17 making the Top 10- “Respect” is the only solo hit Franklin had to reach #1.
slicethelife 
I like Aretha’s version but I like Redding’s version also.
I had heard Aretha’s version before I did Otis’s and I agree with you- two different songs by two great artists. Hard to ever find fault with Otis .
No fault with Otis.
Quite a female empowerment anthem, and there probably could not have been a better female artist than Aretha Franklin to perform. I also dig Otis Redding and his original version, though it doesn’t quite reach the intensity of Aretha’s take.
Is there anyone who doesn’t know and like this song? Much respect!