Rise to Fame
Six years at Columbia Records nearly buried her. Columbia had her recording jazz-inflected pop, betting she'd chart the way they'd had Billie Holiday. It didn't work. By 1966, the label had lost $90,000 on her and she owed them money. Producer Jerry Wexler signed her to Atlantic, took her to Muscle Shoals in January 1967, and gave her something Columbia never did: her own piano, her sisters for backup, and the freedom to sound like herself. 'I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)' went to number one on the R&B charts. 'Respect' came from Otis Redding. What she did with it turned a song into a statement.
In the Spotlight
Eighteen Grammys and a Presidential Medal of Freedom, but what actually set her apart was the institutional weight she carried outside the studio. She didn't separate the music from the politics. She raised money for Martin Luther King Jr.'s organization and offered to pay Angela Davis' bail in 1970, saying 'Angela Davis must go free.' She had a standing rule: cash upfront before any performance, purse on the stage within eyesight. That wasn't a quirk. It was how she made sure she was always the one walking away with the money.
Side Notes
She had two children by the time she was 15, years before the music career anyone remembers. She was entirely self-taught on piano, no formal training. A turbulence scare in a small plane in the early 1980s ended her flying for good. Every concert after that was a bus ride, however far.
Final Chapter
Stevie Wonder and Jesse Jackson were among those who visited her in her final days at home in Detroit. Obama said she 'helped define the American experience.' Thousands paid their respects during a public lying-in-repose at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. Her Homegoing Service on August 31 at Greater Grace Temple was streamed live by CNN, BET, and MSNBC.