R-E-S-P-E-C-T. What it really meant to these musical icons, Detroit’s best and brightest, was L-O-V-E. They were each other’s longest, deepest friendship, a bond that began when Aretha was five and Smokey was eight. She moved into the neighborhood from Buffalo, living in what seemed like a mansion with her father, the Reverend C. L. Franklin, and a pack of siblings. Aretha may have been a tomboy, but Smokey knew she was a queen from the beginning—this little girl could sing! When it got real, Smokey stayed in and with Motown; young Aretha went to New York. Nothing really changed. Their friendship just became long phone calls every night. There was a serendipitous one-time appearance on Soul Train in 1979. It is hard to believe these two identical spirits never recorded together. But they talked and talked and talked. It was rarely music talk. No, it was children, marriage, recipes. Family. Yes. Money. Yes. R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Yes. For communities, for the generations that followed them. At her funeral in August 2018, surrounded by choirs, actors, family, a President and First Lady, there was her longest friend. As far as Smokey is concerned, “She will always be the Queen.”