Aretha Franklin still rules — here’s why

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If Aretha Franklin weren’t so idiosyncratic - she doesn’t like to leave her home in Detroit, she’s afraid of flying and can’t perform with air-conditioning - she’d probably be a concert attraction on par with Tina Turner or Paul McCartney. Instead, the Queen of Soul does such memorable one-off performances as President Barack Obama’s Inauguration in Washington, D.C.

For a recluse, though, she continues to put out surprisingly strong albums (check out 2003’s “So Damn Happy”) and carry herself with dignity, befitting the woman responsible for “Think,” “Respect” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.”

Here are eight reasons she still rules.

1. The hat. In addition to everything else, it may just rescue the economy. In St. Paul, Minn., a struggling strip-mall store called Just Churchin’ It Fashions sold more than 24 replicas of Franklin’s custom-made hat in the two weeks after President Obama’s inauguration. They cost $130 apiece.

2. She’s still a perfectionist. You may have noticed her inauguration rendition of “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” was a bit ... raspy. Aretha noticed, too. The track available on iTunes is actually a rerecorded “preferred version” made in a cozy studio.

3. Appearances fit into her schedule. In 2007, Billboard asked Franklin whether she’d appear on “American Idol,” which would expose her to an audience of about 40 million viewers. “We’ve talked a number of times,” she responded. “Unfortunately, the show is on hiatus at the time I’m usually coming out to the coast.”

4. She has personal restrictions fit for a diva. Franklin has a crippling fear of flying, forcing her to drive to high-profile shows in Las Vegas and Los Angeles in 2004. She is also unwilling to put up with air-conditioning, which means she and her fellow musicians get really, really hot onstage.

5. Mary J. Blige’s mom played “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man” and “Ain’t No Way” every day. In her essay accompanying Rolling Stone’s best-singer-ever issue last year, the R&B hit maker declared: “She is the reason why women want to sing.”

6. Every diva aspires to sing like her. Nobody can. Check out “Precious Lord, Part 2,” a gospel standard Franklin recorded in the ‘50s. At one point, Aretha delivers a four-second “Whoa-OH-oh-OH-OH!” that simultaneously creates the blueprint for Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera and Celine Dion and sets the bar impossibly high.

7. We got to listen to her grow up in public. Before Franklin signed with Atlantic Records and belted the soul music that made her famous, she tinkered with pop standards - and didn’t quite ignite with the material. Famously, in the early ‘60s, Columbia Records recorded her versions of “Misty,” “What a Difference a Day Makes” and others.

8. She still has it. Stack up 2003’s “So Damn Happy” and 1998’s “A Rose Is Still a Rose” with the latest couple of records by Diana Ross, Tina Turner or even Michael Jackson (or, heck, Christina Aguilera) and you’ll find vulnerability, a willingness to experiment with new styles, an (almost) perfectly intact voice and, of course, soul.

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SONGS THAT COMMAND R-E-S-P-E-C-T

“He Will Wash You Whiter Than Snow” - It’s hard to believe Franklin was only 16 when she sang “Whiter Than Snow” and other gospel standards at the New Bethel Baptist Church on Detroit’s north end. The choir is a force, but the shockingly mature Franklin blows it over on a prolonged call-and-response from 1956.

“Lee Cross” - Franklin’s pop and jazz standards for Columbia in the early ‘60s were mostly failed experiments. But somebody got the bright idea in February 1964 to supplement her voice with a pulsating organ, R&B-style backup singers and a punchy horn section. Franklin sounds like she just got out of prison.

“Do Right Woman, Do Right Man” - Franklin recorded two of her masterpieces at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama - “Do Right Woman” and “(I Never Loved a Man) The Way I Love You,” both on Jan. 24, 1967, the beginning of her classic period.

“Ain’t No Way” - One of the lesser-known classics recorded during Franklin’s fertile 1967-68 phase, this ballad has a similar theme to more familiar hits like “Respect” and “Think.” But it eschews the toughness of those songs for a melancholy feel. “How cold and cruel is a man,” she sings, “who pay too much for what he got?”

“Respect” - “This girl, she just took this song,” Otis Redding declared onstage not long after, well, Franklin just took his song. Her signature remains a classic in feminist assertiveness and gave a crucial spelling lesson to generations of kids.

“Think” - This 1968 smash is another Franklin signature, but those of us who grew up with 1980’s “The Blues Brothers” know her best performance of it was on a very greasy diner counter. Franklin delivers her pre-song dialogue brilliantly, chastising “husband” Matt “Guitar” Murphy for deigning to accompany Jake and Elwood Blues on their mission from God. Classic line: “Don’t you ‘don’t get riled, Sugar’ me!”

“Bridge Over Troubled Water” - The Simon and Garfunkel original is better. But not by much. And neither of those guys will ever sing gospel like this.

“Spirit in the Dark” - Ray Charles attempts to steal the show, ad-libbing “I gotta find me a woman tonight” during this live, eight-minute 1971 duet, and while Aretha wisely chooses not to kick her contemporary’s butt in response, the “whoa whoa” noise she comes back with lets everybody know she’s not playing that game.

“Freeway of Love” - Aretha purists will wonder what gives this 1985 hit the right to be on the same list as “Do Right Woman.” Basically, she sounds like she’s having fun, killing the lyrics on this driving anthem up there with the Modern Lovers’ “Roadrunner.”

“A Deeper Love” - Working with Robert Clivilles and David Cole, the hitmaking ‘90s duo behind C+C Music Factory, Aretha had a comeback hit with this heavily electronic, plinking-bass 1994 gospel anthem. It was the funkiest thing she’d done in years.