Respect: How Aretha Franklin Turned a Man’s Song Into an Anthem

By Dan Cohen · Published 2026-06-27

Respect was written and first recorded by Otis Redding in 1965, as a tired man’s request to his partner. Two years later Aretha Franklin recorded it — and didn’t just cover it, she transformed it so completely that most people forget it was ever anyone else’s. Her 1967 version is one of the clearest cases of an interpreter rewriting the meaning of a song without rewriting the song.

The flip

Franklin and her sister rearranged it from the ground up, turning a man’s plea into a woman’s unbending demand. She added the now-iconic spelled-out refrain of the title and a call-and-response with her backing singers, sharpening the whole thing into something fierce, joyful and non-negotiable. What had been a domestic request became a public declaration.

An anthem for two movements

Arriving in 1967, it was instantly adopted as an anthem — of the civil-rights struggle and of the women’s movement both. It gave a single, danceable word the weight of a demand for dignity, and it became inseparable from Franklin herself: the Queen of Soul, stating her terms. Redding himself reportedly acknowledged she had taken the song from him for good.

What it measures like

On our measurements it’s bright, driving and full of force — an up-tempo, horn-powered groove that never once sounds like it’s asking. It commands. Full profile on its song page.

Respect was written and first recorded by Otis Redding (1965); Aretha Franklin’s transformative version was released in 1967 and became an anthem of the civil-rights and feminist movements. This history is a matter of public record. No lyrics are reproduced.