How Aretha Franklin Turned '(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ Into a Soul Anthem — and What Mick Jagger Said

Aretha Franklin’s 1967 cover of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” didn’t just reinterpret the song — it repossessed it. She stripped the Rolling Stones’ original of its distorted guitar and snarling frustration, slowed the tempo, and rebuilt it around her own gospel piano, a horn section, and a vocal performance that turned Jagger’s complaint into a declaration of independence. Where the Stones sang about a man irritated by advertising and a girl who won’t put out, Franklin sang about a woman who has had enough of being used. She changed the line “trying to make some girl” to “trying to make me girl,” and