"No Respect" from Godfather?

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Fri Oct 8 00:12:02 UTC 2004


At 4:03 PM -0400 10/7/04, Wilson Gray wrote:
>>>
>>I was wondering if an alternate source of inspiration for Rodney
>>Dangerfield's line, since The Godfather (at least the movie version)
>>was clearly too late, was the popularity of the Aretha Franklin song
>>R-E-S-P-E-C-T, very often heard in the late 1960s.  (Her own
>>recording was, I believe, 1967, although Otis Redding had covered it
>>earlier.)
>>
>>Larry
>>
>
>Larry, I think you mean that "Otis Redding had [written it and]
>_recorded_ it earlier."

No, I didn't mean that, but I should have.   In fact I was thinking
it seemed odd that Aretha would have written the song and Otis would
have recorded it two years before she did.  Clearly your chronology
has the advantage of being not only more plausible but more accurate.

>  In any case, I wouldn't bet my ass on it, but I
>would bet (an extremely modest amount of) money on it that Rodney
>predated not only Aretha, but also Otis, with respect to the "respect"
>line.

Maybe so, but at least their recordings predated his use of the line
on the 1970 Ed Sullivan show, unlike the release of the Godfather
movie.

Larry



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