Aretha Franklin

The day Aretha Franklin found her sound – and a bunch of men nearly killed it

In Muscle Shoals in 1967, the Queen of Soul recorded her first hit – despite swirling clouds of drink, jealousy and masculine competition

David Taylor
Sunday 19 August 2018

 The album cover for I Never Loved A Man The Way I Loved You, released in 1967 by Atlantic Records. Photograph: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

I

t was the tumultuous recording session in which Aretha Franklin found her voice – and a controlling bunch of men almost screwed it up.

The consequences would help define modern music, not only launching Franklin but sparking a feud in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, which started a wave of creativity that helped define music in the 1970s, bringing a stream of superstars to the cluster of four towns on the banks of the Tennessee river.

But first, there was a bottle of vodka.