Biography
Erma Franklin's achievements as a performer have always been eclipsed by the towering success of her younger sister Aretha, a disparity reinforced by her own infrequent recording activity across the 1960s. In her own right she is remembered above all for cutting the first version of "Piece of My Heart," a song Janis Joplin would later transform into one of her signature pieces through an entirely different arrangement. Born March 13, 1938, in Shelby, MS, Franklin moved with her family first to Memphis, then to Buffalo—where she made her singing debut at age five in her father's church—and finally to Detroit. She sang alongside sisters Aretha and Carolyn in the church choir and, while still in high school, performed with the vocal group the Cleo-Patrettes, which won a state talent contest and released material on the small Detroit label JVB. After the Cleo-Patrettes disbanded following graduation, she spent two years touring with her father's gospel ensemble; although she received offers to record for Chess and to join Motown's early roster, she honored her father's insistence that she complete college before pursuing a singing career. Franklin secured a contract with Epic in 1961 after a successful audition and relocated to New York to begin recording. At the time Aretha was signed to the parent label Columbia, and Epic displayed the same uncertainty in handling pure R&B that Columbia had shown with her sister. Her debut album, Her Name Is Erma, appeared in 1962 and mixed jazz and pop standards with R&B selections; one of several singles that failed to chart was "Abracadabra," written by Van McCoy before his later fame with "The Hustle." Frustrated by the label's choices, she waited out her contract while working from 1961 to 1966 as a featured vocalist in the revue of New Orleans R&B legend Lloyd Price. Following Aretha's sudden breakthrough at Atlantic, Franklin signed with producer and songwriter Bert Berns' Shout Records in 1967. "Piece of My Heart," co-written by Berns and Jerry Ragovoy, became her first Top Ten R&B hit later that year. Before she could begin work on a full album, however, Berns died suddenly of a heart attack, throwing the company into turmoil. In the interim Franklin supplied backing vocals on numerous Atlantic recordings by her sister and toured the United States and Europe behind "Piece of My Heart." She moved to Brunswick in 1969, where she scored a minor R&B hit with "Gotta Find Me a Lover (24 Hours a Day)" and released her second album, Soul Sister. Once again she found herself with a label unsure how to present her, and after Brunswick rejected a proposed session produced by Aretha, she fulfilled her contract and returned to Detroit in 1972 to work at a public relations firm. She performed intermittently with Aretha through the 1980s and 1990s while holding an upper-level position at the Boysville children's charity. Her original recording of "Piece of My Heart" enjoyed renewed attention in Europe during the early 1990s when it appeared in a jeans commercial. Franklin passed away on September 7, 2002, after a battle with cancer.
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