Elle:

On Valentine’s Day in 1967, when feminism was sorely needed but had not yet ripened into a movement, a trim, dignified 25-year-old African American woman named Aretha Franklin walked into a New York City recording studio. Franklin’s idea was to take “Respect,” a song Otis Redding had released two years earlier as a man’s strident plea to his lover, and transform it into a woman’s sexy exhortation for human dignity. Pounding the piano righteously, with the legendary Muscle Shoals rhythm section (flown to New York for the session) behind her, Franklin sang the hell out of the song, and she spelled out its titular demand—letter by letter by letter.

I’m not usually a fan of remakes but Franklin’s incredible version of the song blows away the original.