Shake It Records co-owner talks about Aretha Franklin's musical legacy

NORTHSIDE, Ohio (WKRC) - Fans will always have her music: Aretha Franklin had more than 100 songs on the Billboard music charts. She was nominated for 44 Grammys and won 18, and she has sold nearly 75 million records. Jim Blase, the co-owner of Shake It Records in Northside, says Franklin's influence can be heard on performers who are on the charts now. He saw her perform at the New Orleans Jazz Festival and says everyone moved toward Franklin. "Those records from like 1967, from "Respect," from "I Never Loved a Man," all the way up through the early '70s are some of the most perfect, beautiful, important records of all time, and if she never made another record, she would be still talked of today and thought of as the most important soul singer of all time," Blase said. "You know "Respect" became an anthem for the beginning of the women's liberation movement, so, you know, it just starts from there and it goes on, so will we ever see another one of her stature? I don't know that we will." Blase describes Franklin's records made with Atlantic as "perfect pop, soul records."