Everybody knows that Aretha Franklin spent a lot of tough years on the road singing gospel around the country from a very young age.

What most people don’t know is how much she loved Miami, and her close relationship with the city, which developed through auditorium shows in Liberty City and Overtown, at historic high schools like Northwestern and Booker T. Washington.

Years later, she’d record in Studio A at Criteria (now the Hit Factory) to cut sides for Atlantic, but in the early days she was on the road with her father Reverend C.L. Franklin’s traveling revue and performing with acts like The Consolers from Miami, FL, and the Davis Sisters from Philadelphia.

She would have met DJs like Milton Butterball Smith from radio stations like WMBM and forged lifelong friendships.

In fact, she did.

It’s all part of the great unknown legacy of the true Miami sound. Get ready to hear all about it.