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This week’s instalment of Music Monday is Respect by Otis Redding from their 1965 album, Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul. The Aretha Franklin version is from their 1967 album, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You.

Redding wrote and recorded the song in 1965, framing it as a man’s demand for respect from his partner. Franklin flipped the power dynamic entirely, rearranging the music, rewriting the phrasing, and adding the iconic spelling-out of R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Her version reached number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the R&B chart, won two Grammys in 1968, and became a feminist anthem. Redding reportedly heard it shortly before his death and said Franklin had stolen the song from him.