Franklin was one of the transcendent cultural figures of the 20th Century. Raised on an eclectic musical diet of gospel, R&B, classical and jazz, she blossomed out of her father's Detroit church to become the most distinguished female black artist of all time.

She was a traumatized child, a teenage mother, a gospel prodigy and a civil-rights champion. She channeled a world of pain into a sound all her own, but till the end, the greatest singer of her generation remained a mystery.

Her music has been sung at marches and political rallies, heard in churches and on chain restaurant jukeboxes. Everything popular music can be is there in the songs of Aretha Franklin.

The "Queen of Soul" who sang songs of both faith and passion was a living manifestation of pride, but there was always something unknowable in Aretha Franklin, says VH1's Bill Flanagan, who reviews the career of the greatest popular singer of the rock era, who died this week at age 76.

The spirit, fire, and audacity behind one of the greatest voices in history.

She was America’s voice, but her blackness and womanhood made her songs transcend music.

The Queen of Soul took the song written and first recorded by Otis Redding and made it her own.

Has it got soul? Man, that's the question of the hour. If it has soul, then it's tough, beautiful, out of sight. It passes the test of with-itness. It has the authenticity of collard greens boiling on the stove, the sassy style of the boogaloo in a hip discotheque, the solidarity signified by "Soul Brother" scrawled on a ghetto storefront. (Originally published June 28, 1968.)

"Amazing Grace" is more a great Aretha Franklin album than a great gospel album. She plays havoc with the traditional styles but she sings like never before on record. The liberation and abandon she has always implied in her greatest moments are now fully and consistently achieved. (Originally published Aug. 3, 1972.)

At the time of the interview reprinted below, Franklin was the best-selling female artist ever. Alas, Franklin has since been dislodged by Madonna, mentioned in this interview with regards to “Papa Don’t Preach,” a delicate subject for Franklin, who had her first child at fourteen. Don’t worry, Aretha, you were never overtaken in our hearts. (Originally published in December 1986.)

In 1990, Franklin spoke with 60 Minutes' Ed Bradley, but Bradley admitted the singer had a hard time baring her soul. He said of Franklin at the time, "Whatever you learn from Aretha when you sit down and talk to her, you've got to watch her onstage if you really want to know what she thinks and feels and agonizes about.”

The Queen of Soul, who recently brought down the house at the Kennedy Center with the hit "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman," spoke to Fresh Air's Terry Gross about her life and music in 1999.

The ascent and influence of the greatest singer in the history of postwar popular music.

Essential moments from pop music’s greatest voice.

“(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” best captures the effect the Queen of Soul had on audiences worldwide.

Franklin was the queen not only of soul music but of soul as a concept, because her great subject was the exceeding of limits.

For decades, America has taken Aretha Franklin for granted, heard and loved and danced to her music without a second thought. Now’s the time to think again.

It’s both an affirmation of self-love and an offering of forgiveness.

The Queen of Soul's rendition of "Respect" is one of the most influential recordings in pop music history and one of the most indelible songs.

“Genius is who she is, how everything is filtered through her consciousness,” legendary music producer says of Franklin and her celebrated classic. (Originally published April 15, 2004.)

With only 20 minutes notice, Franklin replaced an ailing Luciano Pavarotti and, unrehearsed, stopped the show singing opera. The story behind the legendary performance.

Aretha Franklin performed at the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors this year, paying tribute to Carole King, who helped co-write the song she performed "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman."

Aretha Franklin performed "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman," a song she must have sung thousands of times since first recording it in 1967, at a ceremony honoring the track's writers, Gerry Goffin and Carole King, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Aretha Franklin’s gospel classic-and the still-unreleased documentary about it-are a skeleton key to our connection to her.

In 2014, the Queen of Soul made a playlist of music that meant the most to her - and provided rare insight into her personal life.

Even if she’d been born without a voice, she would have made a killer session musician.

Moving congregations to holy dances at age 10 and President Obama to tears over 60 years later, Franklin influenced decades of American life, nourishing the civil rights and feminist movements, seeding hip-hop and dance music and modeling quiet strength -- when she wasn’t outperforming every other singer alive.

"Black people will be free"

Black Power, black leadership and the black church all converged in the city of Aretha Franklin's youth. Once she had the means, she resolved to bring Detroit's potential with her.

Her music scored the civil rights movement, and later symbolized national virtue.

The artist was unrivaled in her ability to shape her own work and image without bending to constraints.

To become the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin first had to travel through Muscle Shoals, Alabama. In her memory, we talk to Spooner Oldham and David Hood, who played on the 1967 landmark album that made her a superstar.

Patterson Hood’s father played with the late Aretha Franklin for years. Today, he remembers the great power she had in his family and on his life.

An all too brief selection of Aretha Franklin in performance, a way to get the melancholy day started.

In a career spanning more than 60 years, Aretha Franklin was a pop revolution.

Remembering the Queen of Soul, who has died at 76.

Until she came along, we swayed on the sidelines. Then, suddenly, we were enraptured and empowered, says the writer and film-maker Candace Allen.

Franklin's music was about much more than entertainment.

"I celebrate having been a witness to her life, and mourn her passing because she was special, and we may not see her equal again."

In Aretha Franklin's gospel work, black life is sacred and to feel is to invent.

Following the passing of the legend, Steven Hyden remembers Aretha at her very best.

Including the funkiest version of “Eleanor Rigby” you can imagine.

For more than six decades, the Queen of Soul felt far bigger than music. In honor of her passing, The Ringer remembers her most iconic songs and performances.

You damn right, we wanted some respect. And we still do.

“Genius” is a title Aretha deserves, without question. That we have often failed to give it to her (and other black women) shows only our own biases.

The most satisfying approach to Aretha Franklin's monumental body of work is chronological. Of course, that doesn't mean you can't jump ahead and cherry-pick any song you like. They're all good. They're all inspiring. They all display her astounding virtuosity.

Biographer David Ritz tells the story of the five years he spent with Aretha, getting to know the famously guarded Queen of Soul and trying to understand the pain behind her genius.

Plans for a new album, powerful live performances and more: Friends and colleagues remember Queen of Soul’s unstoppable spirit to the very end.

The eternal challenge is to answer grief with something that resembles love. To choose not to just sit around decrying hardship and injustice but to instead uncurl your fists and approach sorrow with grace, power, and, most incredibly, gratitude--not for the hurt itself but for the whole miraculous mess of being alive, this strange endowment of breath and blood.