Not What You Think
Besides R-E-S-P-E-C-T, another repeated and popular lyric in the song Respect is, “sock it to me.” In 1999, Franklin reported that she and little sister were messing around on the piano one day when they decided to include the line. However, it’s not what you think. She referred to the line as a “cliché of the day.”
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“We didn’t just come up with it. It was really a cliché. And some of the girls were saying that to the fellows, like, ‘Sock it to me in this way’ or ‘sock it to me in the way.’ It was nonsexual, just a cliché line.” Well, this changes everything. The backup singers who beautifully sang that phrase were Erma and Carolyn, Aretha’s sisters.