"The Aretha Franklin who emerges from 'Respect' is not someone you want to spend time with. Reading about how Franklin insisted on turning down Mavis Staples's voice so that it was barely audible in a recording of their gospel duets, I was reminded of Otis Redding's response to Aretha’s version of 'Respect.' Ritz quotes Jerry Wexler's account: 'He broke out into this wide smile, and said, "The girl has taken that song from me. Ain't no longer my song. From now on, it belongs to her."' Franklin does not display that kind of generosity."
Elsa Dixler in The New York Times reviews David Ritz's Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin.
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