Who recorded it first

Respect

Not an Aretha original — a 1965 Otis Redding song

This is the unusual case where the cover is arguably the better and better-known record, yet still a cover. Almost everyone takes ‘Respect’ for an Aretha Franklin original, but Franklin’s 1967 version is a cover. The song was written and first recorded by Otis Redding in 1965 on Volt Records. Franklin picked it up two years later, rebuilt the arrangement, and turned it into a landmark.

The record

Who recorded it first

Original recording
Otis Redding, 1965
Written by
Otis Redding
First released
August 1965 (Volt Records) — No. 35 pop, No. 4 R&B
Made famous by
Aretha Franklin, 1967 (US No. 1)

How we traced it

The song was written by Otis Redding and first recorded by him in August 1965 for the Volt label, on his album Otis Blue Wikipedia ↗.

Redding’s original was a modest hit — No. 35 on the pop chart — and framed the plea for respect from the point of view of a working man coming home. It was a good record, not yet an anthem.

Aretha Franklin recorded her version on 14 February 1967 and released it that April on Atlantic; it went to No. 1 and eclipsed the original so thoroughly that most listeners now assume she wrote it SecondHandSongs ↗.

SecondHandSongs — the original and every cover
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Fact-check

The attribution problem

This is an unusually generous kind of misattribution: Aretha Franklin’s record really is a masterpiece, and arguably the definitive one. The only error is believing she originated the song — a 1967 cover mistaken for the source.

The beliefcover, not original

‘It’s an Aretha Franklin song’

Franklin’s 1967 version is a cover. Otis Redding wrote the song and recorded it first, two years earlier, in 1965 the history ↗.

The originalwrote it and recorded it first

Otis Redding, 1965

Redding’s Volt single reached No. 35 on the pop chart — a real hit, but far short of Franklin’s cultural reach, which is exactly why the cover could overshadow it.

The transformationrebuilt, not just re-sung

Aretha Franklin, 1967

Franklin and her sisters added the spelled-out title hook and the call-and-response backing, changing the song’s meaning as well as its sound. The performance is so decisive that authorship gets quietly reassigned to the performer.

Written and first recorded by Otis Redding in 1965, and made famous — but not originated — by Aretha Franklin in 1967 the record ↗.

Context

Why the cover ate the original

Most cover-eclipses happen because the original was obscure. ‘Respect’ is different: Otis Redding’s 1965 version was a genuine hit, yet it still lost the song. Aretha Franklin’s 1967 cover was not merely more popular — it reinterpreted the material so forcefully that it became the reading, and the earlier one receded into a footnote.

The irony is that Franklin earned the confusion honestly. She and her sisters rebuilt the arrangement, and in doing so turned a man’s domestic plea into a demand for dignity that resonated with the civil rights and feminist movements. When a cover changes what a song means, listeners stop hearing it as someone else’s song.

The two records, in order
  • Otis Redding writes ‘Respect’ and records it first (August 1965, Volt).
  • The original reaches No. 35 pop and No. 4 R&B — a hit, but not an anthem.
  • Aretha Franklin records her version, 14 February 1967, at Atlantic.
  • Franklin adds the spelled-out title hook and call-and-response backing, reshaping the meaning.
  • Released April 1967 → US No. 1; it becomes the definitive version, and the original fades from public memory.
The rare case where the cover is arguably the better record — yet it is still a cover.

The writer and original recording artist

Otis Redding

1941–1967 · American soul singer and songwriter

Otis Redding (1941–1967) was a defining voice of Southern soul who both wrote ‘Respect’ and recorded it first, in 1965 for Volt Records. His original was a plea from a tired working man for a little respect at home; it was a solid hit but not yet a landmark. He died in a plane crash in December 1967, months after Aretha Franklin’s cover had turned his song into something bigger than either of them — and he reportedly acknowledged that she had taken it from him.

Popularly credited as the original

Aretha Franklin

1942–2018 · American soul and gospel singer

Aretha Franklin (1942–2018) recorded ‘Respect’ on 14 February 1967 and released it that April, and her version so completely redefined the song that it is now hers in the public mind. She and her sisters restructured Redding’s arrangement — adding the now-famous spelled-out title hook and the call-and-response backing vocals — and flipped its meaning into an anthem of demand and dignity. This is the rare misattribution where the cover is arguably the greater record; the only error is forgetting it was a cover at all.