Aretha Franklin had been recording albums for more than a decade when she sat down at the piano in a Muscle Shoals recording studio in Alabama on Jan. 27, 1967.

She'd had some hits and been recognized as a powerful singer, yet she'd never really found her niche. Atlantic Records producer Jerry Wexler had an idea: Rather than try to shoehorn her into a particular format, why not just let Aretha be Aretha?

Franklin agreed. She stepped into the recording booth, took in a breath, paused and let loose from the very bottom of her soul.

After all those lost, frustrating years recording pop and jazz, it was like a dam burst. Two hours into her first Atlantic session, Franklin had recorded the soul masterpiece "I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)."

Wexler was stunned when he heard the recording. "I couldn't believe it was that good. I said, 'That's my first record with her, and it can't be this good,' " he said, according to Mark Bego's "Aretha Franklin: Queen of Soul."

But it was — and it was no fluke. In the following years, Franklin dominated the music world like few women before or since, racking up one classic hit after another and earning the title "The Queen of Soul." Regarded as one of the top vocalists ever, she's had 17 top 10 pop hits, 12 gold records and five multiplatinum records. She's also won 18 Grammy Awards, more than any other female artist.

Franklin realized she'd struggled to make her mark because others were calling the shots. Only after she decided to follow her instincts did she come into her own.

After "I Never Loved a Man," "she remained the central orchestrator of her own sound, the essential contributor and final arbiter of what fit or did not fit her musical persona," Wexler said in his memoir, "Rhythm and the Blues."

Music came naturally to Franklin. She had a magnificent voice, and she grew up in a world saturated with the best of gospel and soul music.

Her excellence came from her ability to absorb the best of what she saw and heard. Franklin was born on March 25, 1942, in Memphis, Tenn. Her family moved shortly after that to Detroit. Her father, C.L. Franklin, a Baptist minister, took over a congregation in a hard-hit urban area. The church soon rocked to the sounds of heavenly testifying.

Franklin listened to her father and memorized the cadences and rhythms he used when he preached and sang. She applied them when she sang.

"Most of what I learned vocally came from him. He gave me a sense of timing in music," Franklin said of her father, according to Phil Garland's "The Sound of Soul." "Timing is important in everything."

Learning From the Best

His wasn't the only influence. The Franklin household could count as family friends a who's who of musical greats. Gospel legends James Cleveland and Mahalia Jackson, jazz master Art Tatum, soul legend Sam Cooke and numerous Motown stars-to-be such as Smokey Robinson, Otis Williams of the Temptations, and Diana Ross and Mary Wilson of the Supremes regularly dropped by. Franklin made a careful study of all of them.

Franklin's sisters were talented musicians in their own right. Erma Franklin recorded the original version of the soul classic "Piece of My Heart," later a hit for Janis Joplin. Carolyn Franklin wrote several of Aretha's songs. Both sang backup on several of Aretha's classic recordings.

Studying wasn't enough, however; Franklin had to practice what she heard. She taught herself the piano at age 10 so she could imitate the notes more accurately. She learned tunes by copying the houseguests and adding her own flourishes.

Her father tried to get Franklin to take piano and voice lessons, but she was intimidated. She hid whenever the teacher came by, preferring to learn instinctively.

"We'd poke our heads into the music room and (be) amazed," recalled Smokey Robinson in his memoir, "Smokey: Inside My Life." "Seated behind the baby grand was a baby herself, singing like an angel."

Franklin learned about live performance firsthand. She began spending her summer vacations traveling with her father's gospel choir. On the road, Franklin watched the older singers and mimicked their movements. If a move felt unnatural to her, she dropped it.

In 1956, at the age of 13, she recorded her first album of gospel music, "Songs of Faith," for Chicago's Chess Records.

A few years later the prodigy was signed to Columbia Records by legendary talent scout John Hammond, whose other discoveries include Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.

But Columbia didn't know what to do with Franklin. "I was being classified as a jazz singer, and I never, ever felt I was a jazz singer," Franklin was quoted in Bego's book.

Still, she tried to fit the mold. She sang every way she was instructed, but the sound was never quite right. After seven frustrating years in which she recorded jazz, pop, show tunes and blues, Columbia let her contract lapse. Atlantic Records then picked her up.

By then, the 25-year-old diva was considered almost a washout.

Franklin vowed to prove everyone wrong. She carefully chose songs that suited her voice. When she couldn't find them, she wrote them herself.

In every song, Franklin searched for an emotional connection with the lyrics. If she understood the emotion expressed, she could infuse the sound with the feeling and translate it to listeners.

"I sing to the realist, people who accept it like it is," Franklin said in Craig Werner's history of soul music, "Higher Ground." "There are tears when it's sad and smiles when it's happy. It seems simple to me, but for some people I guess feeling takes courage."

Ready To Go

Knowing preparation would make her recording sessions smoother, Franklin worked out all the arrangements for her songs herself before she entered the studio. She made sure she knew exactly what she wanted and how to get it.

Once Franklin walked into the studio, she explained to each musician exactly how his or her part should sound. She did the same with the backing vocalists. To ensure they all understood, she sang their parts for them in the run-throughs.

Recognizing that music often narrates people's lives, Franklin chose her lyrics carefully. Many of her songs carry an uplifting message.

"Those records were so damn good because she took care of business at home," Wexler said in his memoir.

She kept her success in perspective and was careful never to move too far away from the sources of her inspiration. At the height of her early fame in 1972 she recorded "Amazing Grace," a live album of gospel music that's widely regarded by critics and fans as one of her finest efforts.

Her influence has radiated to every form of music. It even touched the political sphere. Much of her gutsy, determined music served as a soundtrack for the civil rights era. As Werner noted:

"Aretha's voice illuminated the gospel vision that sustained the foot soldiers of the movement, the ordinary people whose tears, sweat and — far too often — blood changed America in ways that seemed impossible . . . a generation before."