Franklin and her sisters, Erma and Carolyn, began singing in the choir at their father's church at very young ages. Their early participation was not just preparation for their careers as musicians, but for show business in general. Erma was a renowned singer in her own right, though her career produced little popular success. Carolyn became an accomplished songwriter, composing some of Aretha's hits, such as "Ain't No Way" (1968) and "Angel" (1973) (Helander 200).
Reverend Franklin was an extremely popular preacher, "with no less than seventy LPs of his sermons to document his persuasive oratory," and a popular evangelical gospel tour (Pleasants 325). Aretha Franklin began singing in her father's church when she was 8. A live recording of the 14-year-old Aretha, was released by Chess Records in 1956. On this very first recording, "her singing was informed with her genius," and "the voice is not that of a child," but of a worshipper totally caught up in what she is singing about (Wexler and Ritz 203). Transferring this gospel intensity to popular music was a difficult and unusual step.
Traditionally, after the early blues era, African American women singers "stayed, like Mahalia Jackson, in church" (Pleasants 325). There were exceptions in the case of a few jazz and popular artists, such as Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and Dinah Washington. S
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