The first artist to peak at every spot on the Billboard top 10
Before recording a single note of music, most musicians harbour dreams of success. While reaching the top of the charts seems effortless for some, many bands face numerous setbacks in their quest to establish themselves. Some may only achieve limited success, with one song cracking the top ten. However, Aretha Franklin made history as the first woman to occupy all ten places on the charts during her illustrious career.
When Franklin first started, she was never concerned with being the biggest name in music. Like all the soul singers she knew growing up, Franklin started singing in church, making the kind of hymns that were more about praising her higher power than making a song that hit the charts.
Just as the British invasion started picking up steam, the Hit Factory at Motown Records became a major power play. The sound of America had officially gravitated towards soul and R&B, but Franklin had a different spin on what the soul factories of Detroit had to dish out.
Coming out on RCA Records out of the South, Franklin got her foot in the door with the song ‘Respect’, a rearrangement of an old song by Otis Redding. Though she had been a mainstay on the R&B charts, this is one of her first-ever crossover songs, appealing to the women’s movement who wanted to have their voices heard.
No one gets to be in that position to suddenly slow down, though. While many people like to think of her as a singles artist, Franklin would create spellbinding albums like Lady Soul throughout her career, featuring future classics like ‘You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman’ and ‘Chain of Fools’.
After making her first dent in the charts with the song ‘I Never Loved a Way The Way I Love You’ back in 1967, Franklin kept her streak all the way into the 1970s, eventually rounding her takeover of the top ten when the song ‘Until You Come Back To Me’ reached number three, making her the first person to nab all ten spaces in the top ten throughout her career.
Given how she started with a song about her undying love for a man, this tune is much more disturbing than where she started. As opposed to the romantic side of love, this song comes loaded with a warning to her old flame, going so far as to tap on his window in an attempt to get him to come back.
The song wasn’t just a throwaway for Franklin, either. Outside of her own version, the song would become a favourite of many of her fans, with Cyndi Lauper even covering it later on her album At Last as a tribute to the soul icon.
Franklin would also be the only person who held all top ten slots for nearly a decade before being equalled by Marvin Gaye in 1983 with the release of his final single ‘Sexual Healing’. Pop and rock and roll may have dominated the charts for years, but if you needed to reach the high end of the charts, you can never go wrong putting a bit of soul into your delivery.
