We mourn the passing of Aretha Franklin this week. As we look back on her life and all her amazing accomplishments, we can not forget that she was the woman to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, in the class of 1987. She also had 44 Grammy nominations, with 18 wins. Her first number one single on Billboard’s Hot 100 was “Respect” in 1967. She had a total of 73 songs chart on the Hot 100, 17 of which were top 10 hits! She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush in 2005.
Aretha Franklin made her rounds throughout Northeast Ohio. In 1997 she performed at Akron’s Rubber Bowl as part of “The Reunion” for the Salvation Army, which benefited military members and veterans. It featured, Three Dog Night, Ringo Starr and Aretha. It rained all day and night for three days straight.
The producer of the show, Mark Cheplowitz, went to pay Aretha for her time and to his amazement, she wrote a check to Salvation Army to help off set the cost of the show, that had not sold enough tickets due to the weather. The crowd was said to be around 500, but Aretha played as if it was a full house.
In 2011, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame hosted the 16th Annual Music Masters tribute concert honoring her at Playhouse Square in Cleveland. She was not supposed to be there but surprised the crowd with a amazing performance of “A Song for You” with Ronald Isley and Dennis Edwards.