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59 free Aretha Franklin trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Aretha Franklin trivia for soul fans, gospel lovers and anyone who has ever felt the hairs stand up during 'A Natural Woman'. The quiz starts in Memphis and Detroit: her father C. L. Franklin's 'million-dollar voice', the New Bethel Baptist Church, the gospel caravan tours, the album she recorded at 14, and the DJ who crowned her Queen of Soul on a Chicago stage. From there it follows the frustrating Columbia years, the move to Atlantic, the single explosive day at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, and the run of hits that made her the most successful singer in America by 1968: 'Respect', 'Chain of Fools', 'Think', 'I Say a Little Prayer'. Later rounds cover the two-million-selling Amazing Grace, her cameo in The Blues Brothers, the Arista comeback with 'Freeway of Love' and the George Michael duet, the night she stood in for Pavarotti at the Grammys, the fur coat at the Kennedy Center Honors, and her Rock and Roll Hall of Fame first. Questions run from easy to expert and every answer was checked against a reference page and carries its source. See also our soul music and Motown quizzes.
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Q 01By what title is Aretha Franklin universally known?
the Queen of Soul
The other three belong to Bessie Smith, Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone respectively.
Q 02In which city was Aretha Franklin born in 1942?
Memphis
She was delivered at home on Lucy Avenue; the family moved to Buffalo when she was two and settled in Detroit when she was five.
Q 03C. L. Franklin was pastor of which Detroit congregation, where young Aretha first sang solos?
New Bethel Baptist Church
His emotional sermons earned him the nickname of the man with the 'million-dollar voice'.
Q 04Which gospel star, long involved with her father, was a role model to the young Aretha?
Clara Ward
Mahalia Jackson was also a regular presence, helping to look after the children after their mother died in 1952.
Q 05How old was Aretha when her first gospel album, later reissued as Songs of Faith, was recorded?
14
Jerry Wexler said the voice on it 'was not that of a child but rather of an ecstatic hierophant'.
Q 06As a teenager, Aretha spent summers on Chicago's gospel circuit staying with the family of which future soul singer?
Mavis Staples
The Staple Singers' Mavis remained a lifelong friend.
Q 07At 16, Aretha went on tour with which civil rights leader, at whose funeral she later sang?
Martin Luther King Jr.
King was a friend of her father's, and in February 1968 he presented her with the SCLC Drum Beat Award weeks before his death.
Q 08Which label signed the 18-year-old Aretha in 1960 as a 'five-percent artist'?
Columbia
Sam Cooke had tried to steer her to RCA, and Berry Gordy wanted her for Tamla, but her father judged Motown too new.
Q 09Which Detroit label boss asked Aretha and her sister Erma to sign, only for their father to refuse?
Berry Gordy
C. L. Franklin felt Tamla was not yet an established label, so the greatest voice in Detroit never recorded for Motown.
Q 10Which Chicago radio personality crowned her with her royal title at the Regal Theater?
Pervis Spann
The WVON DJ placed an actual crown on her head, and the title stuck for the rest of her life.
Q 11Which producer persuaded Aretha to move to Atlantic Records when her contract expired in 1966?
Jerry Wexler
His plan was to build on her gospel roots, which he felt Columbia had never understood.
Q 12Aretha recorded 'I Never Loved a Man' at FAME Studios in which Alabama town?
Muscle Shoals
She spent only one day there before a fight involving her husband Ted White, studio owner Rick Hall and a horn player ended the sessions.
Q 13'Respect', her signature song, was originally written and recorded by which soul singer?
Otis Redding
On hearing her version he reportedly said: 'That little girl done took my song away from me.'
Q 21In 1969 Aretha was the victim of an impersonation scheme in Florida. What tipped people off?
the impostor charged a fraction of the usual fee
The singer, Vickie Jones, had been coerced with threats; once cleared she had a brief career of her own and was herself impersonated.
Q 22In 1971 Aretha became the first R&B performer to headline which San Francisco rock venue?
the Fillmore West
The live album Aretha Live at Fillmore West followed later that year.
Q 23Her 1972 gospel album Amazing Grace was recorded live over two nights in a church in which city?
Los Angeles
Q 14According to engineer Tom Dowd, whose idea was it to spell out the title in 'Respect'?
her sister Carolyn's
Her sisters sang the backing vocals, and the reworked lyric flipped the gender of Redding's original.
Q 15In what year did 'Respect' top both the R&B and pop charts?
1967
The Library of Congress added her version to the National Recording Registry in 2002.
Q 16'(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman' was written by Goffin and King from whose idea?
Jerry Wexler
The Atlantic producer had been musing on the idea of the 'natural man'; the writers gave him a co-writing credit in thanks.
Q 17Which two 1968 albums contained 'Chain of Fools', 'Think' and 'I Say a Little Prayer'?
Lady Soul and Aretha Now
By that year Rolling Stone reckoned her 'the most successful singer in the nation'.
Q 18Aretha won the first eight Grammys ever awarded in which category (1968-1975)?
Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
She finished with 18 Grammys from 44 nominations plus Legend and Lifetime Achievement awards.
Q 19How many Grammy Awards did Aretha Franklin win in her career?
18
The haul came from 44 nominations across gospel, R&B and pop.
Q 20In June 1968 Aretha appeared on the cover of which magazine, in a portrait by Boris Chaliapin?
Time
That spring she made her first tour outside the US, and Amsterdam fans covered the Concertgebouw stage in flower petals.
The Reverend James Cleveland and the Southern California Community Choir backed her at New Temple Missionary Baptist Church.
Q 24Which Hollywood director filmed the Amazing Grace sessions, in footage that stayed unreleased until 2018?
Sydney Pollack
Sync problems and Franklin's own legal objections held it back until producer Alan Elliott finally released it after her death.
Q 25Roughly how many copies did Amazing Grace sell, making it one of the best-selling gospel albums ever?
2 million
She reinterpreted standards including Mahalia Jackson's 'How I Got Over'.
Q 26Aretha's 1976 soundtrack album Sparkle, with 'Something He Can Feel', was a collaboration with which songwriter?
Curtis Mayfield
It gave her the last top-40 pop hit of her Atlantic years; the albums that followed flopped and she left the label in 1979.
Q 27In The Blues Brothers (1980), Aretha played the proprietor of what kind of business?
a soul food restaurant
She was the wife of guitarist Matt 'Guitar' Murphy and performed 'Think' in the scene.
Q 28Which label, run by Clive Davis, revived her career after she left Atlantic in 1980?
Arista
Rolling Stone wrote that 'if anybody could rejuvenate Franklin's puzzlingly stuck career, it was Davis'.
Q 29Which rising soul star produced her 1982 comeback album Jump to It?
Luther Vandross
It was her first gold album in seven years; his follow-up Get It Right fared less well.
Q 30Her 1985 album Who's Zoomin' Who, featuring 'Freeway of Love', was produced by whom?
Narada Michael Walden
MTV exposure helped make it her first platinum album; the same year she duetted with Eurythmics on 'Sisters Are Doing It for Themselves'.