Respect — Aretha Franklin (1967)

Aretha Franklin's recording of Otis Redding's composition at Atlantic Studios in New York on February 14, 1967 transformed a man's demand for respect from his wife into a declaration of universal human dignity that became the anthem of both the women's rights and civil rights movements simultaneously. The song spent 8 weeks at number one on the R&B chart and 2 weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, and Rolling Stone ranked it the greatest song ever recorded in its 2004 list.