Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin Audiobook

Quotes

• "Respect judiciously captures the conflicted life of the legendary Queen of Soul.”

  — Elle

• “A candid, far less sanitized look at the enormously gifted but demanding diva.”

  — People

• “‘Ain’t no harm to moan,’ belted out fifteen-year-old Aretha Franklin to an adoring crowd. What few know is that, at the time, she was pregnant with her second child. What else don’t you know? Find out in this revealing biography.”

  — O, The Oprah Magazine

• “It’s a comprehensive, illuminating, and unfailingly solicitous account of a life that, whatever its tribulations, conflicts, and complications, has always somehow been redeemed by Franklin’s musical calling….[Ritz has] an exceptional capacity to listen with care and sympathy to what people tell him and then render their words vividly and compassionately.”

  — USA Today

• "[Ritz’s] research—based on interviews with Franklin’s siblings and departed legends from Ahmet Ertegun to Vandross—is solid, and he vividly expresses what made her voice and albums so monumental in the sixties.”

  — Rolling Stone

• "Respect will stand as one of Ritz’s greatest and most unusual achievements: a rich, definitive portrait set in motion by a bit of unfinished business.”

  — New York Times

• "Respect is a major biography and unauthorized in the extreme. Ritz has done well to recount the life as a whole.”

  — Barnes&Noble.com, editorial review

• “The most comprehensive and accurate account of Franklin yet published.”

  — Maclean’s (Toronto)

• “An honest and genuinely respectful portrait of a true diva by a writer who feels the power of her art.”

  — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

• An honest and genuinely respectful portrait of a true diva by a writer who feels the power of her art.

  — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

• Ritz's intimate and elegant voice steps from behind the veil of the ghostwriter to tell a tale of genius, dysfunction and blind ambition, describing a world of triumph and tragedy of near mythic proportions. A great read and a really heroic work of biography -- honest, loving, no holds barred.

  — Ben Sidran, author of There Was a Fire

• The monumental biography we've been waiting for of Lady Soul, our greatest soul singer, from the also very great David Ritz, confidante to an entire generation of soul stars -- Ray, Smokey, B.B., Etta, Marvin, etcetera. He is The Man. This is The Book.

  — Joel Selvin, author of Here Comes the Night: The Dark Soul of Bert Berns and the Dirty Business of Rhythm and Blues

• This far surpasses David Ritz's landmark study of Marvin Gaye. People will be reading Respect generations from now to understand our musical culture. Ritz deserves a lifetime achievement award for "Most Soul Full Account of America's Music.

  — Charles Keil, ethnomusicologist, author of Urban Blues

• Only someone who had the complete confidence and trust of Aretha's family and the elite of the Gospel and Rhythm and Blues communities could have gotten this story. An intimate and thorough account of this phenomenal woman's talent and life as only David Ritz could capture.

  — Tommy LiPuma, Grammy-winning producer

• A bumpy and delicious ride.... Read Respect with a YouTube-playing device near at hand to experience Aretha in a hundred shades of glorious.

  — Claude Peck, Minneapolis Star Tribune