What is the name of the 1967 single by Aretha Franklin that became her first Gold Record?

What is the name of the 1967 single by Aretha Franklin that became her first Gold Record? The answer is “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You).”

Released by Atlantic Records on February 10, 1967, the single marked Aretha Franklin’s commercial breakthrough after several comparatively unsuccessful albums for Columbia Records. It became her first major hit and the title track of her first Atlantic album.

Franklin recorded the song at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, with producer Jerry Wexler and members of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. Her piano playing and gospel-rooted vocal gave the performance its intense, bluesy character. The song was written by Ronnie Shannon, not by Franklin herself.

The record reached number one on the Billboard R&B chart and number nine on the Hot 100. It is often overshadowed in popular memory by “Respect,” Franklin’s later 1967 smash, but “I Never Loved a Man” came first and established the sound and momentum of her Atlantic years. Its B-side was “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man.”