Letter: Aretha's no softie

Aretha's no softie

Sir: Your report on motorists' top 10 favourite tunes ("Drivers at ease with middle-of-the-road melodies" 3 March) fails to comment on the No 10 entry - Aretha Franklin's "Respect".

Far from being "easy-listening music", Ms Franklin's transformation of the Otis Redding number into an anthem of feminine self-assertion is far more of a "cutting-edge melody", despite its age, than anything Oasis or their counterparts have produced.

Could it be that female drivers favour "Respect" because that's exactly what they want (and so seldom get) from the sizeable number of male drivers who regard their car as a virility symbol?

STEVE PILKINGTON

Stockport, Cheshire