Aretha Franklin – Respect

About The Song

Originally written and recorded by Otis Redding in 1965, off of the soul singer’s third album Otis Redding Sings Soul, “Respect” was never the same once Aretha Franklin rearranged the song and transformed it into an anthem of female empowerment.

In 1967, the Vietnam War was raging, and in the U.S. there were ongoing socio-political struggles with the civil rights movement and women’s movements. That year, President Lyndon Johnson first called for an end to racism and eventually signed an executive order that expanded affirmative-action legislation to cover sex discrimination.

The way Franklin spelled out R-E-S-P-E-C-T ensured the message was loud and clear. She flipped the song from a plea from a man to the woman he loves to a woman’s demand for respect. In Redding’s version there was no spelling of “R-E-S-P-E-C-T,” and no backup singers. In its original form, the song also played out as a more male-dominated relationship (i.e. show respect to your man), until Franklin called for “respect” towards women. The song became a running anthem for the feminist and civil rights movements throughout the 1970s.

In her 1999 autobiography “Aretha: From the Roots,” Franklin called the song “an ongoing blessing” in her life. “It was the need of a nation,” she said, “the need of the average man and woman in the street, the businessman, the mother, the fireman, the teacher—everyone wanted respect.”

“Respect” earned Franklin two Grammy Awards in 1968 for Best Rhythm & Blues Recording and Best Rhythm & Blues Solo Vocal Performance, Female. Franklin’s “Respect” was also inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1987. In 2002, the Library of Congress added Franklin’s version of the song to the National Recording Registry, and her “Respect” was also included in the list of “Songs of the Century” by the Recording Industry of America and the National Endowment for the Arts.

It was never in the original Redding song, but Franklin and her sisters added the trademark line sock it to me to the song. Her sisters Erma and Carolyn Franklin can be heard singing the added line. Though the term was often considered a sexual reference, Franklin denied this in an interview. “There was nothing sexual about that,” said Franklin in 2014. “It’s like if you gave me a high five.” In the 1970s, the “sock it to me” caught on as a catchphrase on the TV show Laugh-In and was also used in the 1967 Syl Johnson song “Come On Sock It To Me.”

“I felt I could do something different with it, and my sister Carolyn, who was an RCA recording artist, and I got together on the background,” said Franklin in 2016, elaborating on her added lyrics. “The term ‘Sock it to me!’ was a big, big thing in our neighborhood—all the kids were saying it. The same goes for ‘TCB,’ an acronym for ‘taking care of business.’”

Video

Lyrics

Hey, what you want
(oo) Baby, I got
(oo) What you need
(oo) Do you know I got it?
(oo) All I’m askin’
(oo) Is for a little respect when you come home (just a little bit)
Hey baby (just a little bit) when you get home
(Just a little bit) mister (just a little bit)
I ain’t gonna do you wrong while you’re gone
Ain’t gonna do you wrong (oo) ’cause I don’t wanna (oo)
All I’m askin’ (oo)
Is for a little respect when you come home (just a little bit)
Baby (just a little bit) when you get home (just a little bit)
Yeah (just a little bit)
I’m about to give you all of my money
And all I’m askin’ in return, honey
Is to give me my profits
When you get home (just a, just a, just a, just a)
Yeah baby (just a, just a, just a, just a)
When you get home (just a little bit)
Yeah (just a little bit) Do it for me now, just a little bit
Ooo, your kisses (oo)
Sweeter than honey (oo)
And guess what? (oo)
So is my money (oo)
All I want you to do (oo) for me
Is give it to me when you get home (re, re, re, re)
Yeah baby (re, re, re, re)
Whip it to me (respect, just a little bit)
When you get home, now (just a little bit)
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Find out what it means to me
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Take care, TCB
Oh (sock it to me, sock it to me
Sock it to me, sock it to me)
A little respect (sock it to me, sock it to me
Sock it to me, sock it to me)
Whoa, babe (just a little bit)
A little respect (just a little bit)
I get tired (just a little bit)
Keep on tryin’ (just a little bit)
You’re runnin’ out of foolin’ (just a little bit)
And I ain’t lyin’ (just a little bit)
‘spect
When you come home (re, re, re, re)
Or you might walk in (respect, just a little bit)
And find out I’m gone (just a little bit)
I got to have (just a little bit)
A little respect (just a little bit)