Talk:Aretha Franklin

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[edit] Vocal Range

What's her vocal range

It seems to me that her range is recorded correctly but her, belt, as it is called here, or chest voice rather is extremely short changed. C6, or a soprano C is where I have heard her get to a number or times. Most notably on her "Live at Filmore West" album during her version of "Reach out and Touch Somebody's Hand" she then continues to D6 in her falsetto. The author of this bio, has a clear bias towards Aretha's acclaime. Her voice is "rumored" to be four octaves: just listen to her recordings and say what it is don't insinuate otherwise. Her voice has lowered over the 40 years that she has been recording, she acknowledges this as well, but at her prime she undoubtedly had a four octave range and that is why she has recieved so much praise. Listen to "Sit Down and Cry" and you can clearly hear that an F5 as her top chest voice note is absurd.

Her Voice has not lowered that much in the Ultimate Diva Concert She hit And sustained a A5 and a strained B5 in the Chest

Mezzo-soprano is the correct classification. Mezzos aren't defined by their upper limit, but by their ability to project lower notes. Female singers can hit C6 or D6 and still easily be regarded as mezzo-sopranos due to their lower reaches. We all know how great and soulful Aretha's lower reaches are, and of course she can extend her high notes into easily the soprano range. Therefore there really is no more appropriate classification than mezzo-soprano. OettingerCroat (talk) 23:43, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] "Ms. Franklin"

"Ms. Franklin has won eighteen competitive Grammys." Why not simply "Franklin" or "Aretha Franklin", or even "Aretha"? The "Ms." seems out of place.

--213.196.5.160 18:46, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

Music reviews in the NY Times generally use a system like this, i.e: Iggy Pop will be called "Mr. Pop", which seems kind of silly at first, but it's not unheard of. 65.66.152.54 01:08, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Not at all! Iggy has said to an interviewer once that he may call him anything but NOT Mr. Osterberg. "Because that is private." -andy 23:19, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Meager

This is surprisingly meager considering how significant she is to music.--T. Anthony 20:36, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Considering that Aretha is 'The Queen of soul' why is this article so lacking. She deserves more much more than this.

[edit] How bout Ahmet?

Considering the importance Aretha attaches to the late Ahmet Ertegun in her career (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6636365), shouldn't he be included here?

[edit] Biography?

I find it difficult to classify this as a biography entry, because it contains almost no biographical information at all. --Dandelions 00:12, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

where is she living now?

The whole thing on her voice being named a natural resource, while funny, needs to be cited or removed.

[edit] VH1 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll

Aretha was named the #1 greatest woman of rock. This should surely be included as an achievement.

from yo gil leiya murphy 216.124.93.39 (talk) 16:17, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

What has Aretha Franklin got to do with Rock and Roll? People should not be given credits they don't deserve! 196.36.133.35 (talk) 08:14, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Opera citation

I'm removing the "citation needed" for the reference to opera in the list of styles Franklin has sung in, as the reference to her performance of Nessum Dorma in the trivia section clearly backs-up the statement. 24.65.142.164 04:53, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Cruft

she no's lots about rock and roll aretha is a very smart person and no's what she is doing and she is a very kind person and at one of her shows she erned 10,000,000 dolars and she gave half of it to the home less people and the save the rain forest commpany User:206.77.200.2 (talk) 03:12, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

Can someone report this? I don't know how, and after reading the talk page for this IP... it appears more vandalism is occurring?--24.131.209.180 (talk) 20:13, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Natural Resource

The natural resource fact in the introduction needs to be removed or cited because thats obviously absurd. 72.83.91.27 10:01, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

Removed uncited 'natural resource' reference Rockcriedout 02:27, 22 June 2007 (UTC)rockcriedout 22 June 2007

[edit] A bit of Soul

I have an Aretha Franklin Cd named 'A bit of soul', and i was wondering about it. Its not on the discography for Aretha, and I was looking for well, the cd cover. But still, i would like to know about it, and i was wondering if anyone has found any information. thanks. 70.65.178.61 02:38, 10 August 2007 (UTC)Phantasmigorical

[edit] "early life and career" section

"Teenage pregnancies derailed Franklin's gospel career when she gave birth to the first fried chicken restaraunt in the southern United States."

Hmm. Could we see some documentation? And what did she name her fried chicken restaraunt? 4.224.66.117 (talk) 05:06, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Opening sentence is extremely POV

Someone keeps re-inserting this pitiful line: "She is generally regarded as one of the greatest vocalists ever due to her ability to inject whatever she may be singing about with passion, soul and sheer conviction thanks to a massive vocal range and effortless power." WTF? This has no place in a Wikipedia article. Yes, some people may regard her as the best vocalist ever... but jeez... ever is a long time. This sentence needs to stay out of this article. Monitorer 09:59, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Acknowledged. This is wikipedia, not advertising sh*t -andy 23:19, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

I don't even understand what that sentence is supposed to mean. 70.3.50.126 (talk) 18:05, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Picture

I think the picture should be of during her peak years. Not when she's old and ugly. If you look at an encyclopedia, they show singers at their most famous periods, same with a museum. Something from the 60s or 70s should be used. Shoop85 (talk • contribs) 16:19, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] BLP removal

I have removed material from this article that does not comply with our policy on the biographies of living persons. Biographical material must always be referenced from reliable sources, especially negative material. Negative material that does not comply with that must be immediately removed. Note that the removal does not imply that the information is either true or false.

Please do not reinsert this material unless you can provide reliable citations, and can ensure it is written in a neutral tone. Please review the relevant policies before editing in this regard. Editors should note that failure to follow this policy may result in the removal of editing privileges.--Doc^g 23:36, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Personal life

Aretha's personal life is barely covered here except for a brief mention of her teenage pregnancies. No mention of her marriages or her other 2 children. I don't expect a detailed saga, but a paragraph or two would be a good idea. Rodparkes 04:59, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Album entry linked to wrong album

So Damn Happy is also a title of a Loudon Wainwright III album. As this links to the wrong album and not Aretha's, I had to remove this. -andy 84.149.70.253 23:15, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

As a result of a request from an anonymous reader, I have created a So Damn Happy (Aretha Franklin album) page and attempted to disambiguate all "So Damn Happy" references (of which, I was surprised to find, there are quite a few!). Pdfpdf (talk) 02:40, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] picture?

i don't want to be rude or anything. but i wouldn't say that her picture is very representative... an older one perhaps? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.0.84.202 (talk) 20:49, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Date of Birth

There is currently a mismatch between the main article and the box on the right in terms of what year she was born in - anyone know whether she was born in '42 or '45? 99.231.203.159 (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 02:45, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Awards and achievements

While it doesn't seem very positive, Franklin was given this award so I think your deletion of it should be reverted. Bob98133 (talk) 19:39, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Coloratura Mezzo-Soprano

How appropriate is it to use this term from classical music to describe Franklin's voice? 82.110.248.146 (talk) 16:33, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

Quite; that what her voice is. Besides, in the info box, it just says mezzo-soprano, which is ideal. OettingerCroat (talk) 06:00, 2 May 2008 (UTC)