Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin, Paperback/David Ritz

"A remarkably complex portrait of Aretha Franklin's music and her tumultuous life." -- Rolling Stone Aretha Franklin began life as the golden daughter of a progressive and promiscuous Baptist preacher. Raised without her mother, she was a gospel prodigy who gave birth to two sons in her teens and left them--and her native Detroit--for New York, where she struggled to find her true voice. After fame and fortune finally came via "Respect," and a rapid-fire string of hits, she has evolved ever since, amidst personal tragedy, surprise Grammy performances, and career reinventions. Aretha's hold on her crown is tenacious, and in RESPECT David Ritz gives us the decisive and definitive study of one of the greatest American talents of the twentieth century. About the Author: David Ritz is a Grammy Award winner and the only four-time winner of the Gleason Music Book Award. He won the 2013 ASCAP Timothy White Award for outstanding musical biography for When I Left Home, written with Buddy Guy. He has collaborated with Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye, B.B. King, Etta James, and Smokey Robinson. Ritz lives in Los Angeles with his wife.