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Aretha Franklin
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The daughter of a prominent Baptist minister, Aretha Franklin not surprisingly was given her earliest opportunities to develop her talents through gospel music, singing in the choir of the New Bethel Baptist Church with her two sisters. By the age of twelve she was out in front of the choir as a featured soloist, and by 14 she had started her recording career with the album The Gospel Sound of Aretha Franklin, released on the Checker label in 1956. The next year... both her education and her singing ambitions were interrupted by her first pregnancy; within two years Franklin found herself the single mother of two boys, and making little progress establishing herself in the music industry. Finally, at the age of eighteen, she was able to get her future back on track when her grandmother took the children under her care and put the promising young singer on a train bound for New York City.
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Aretha Franklin