Aretha

Don't Play That Song (You Lied) was recorded in 1970, actually.

Try Dr. Feelgood, OP, one of my faves.

Checking it as I type, R2. Thanks.

I'm learning, too much Aretha can really dampen my mood.

R2, that's exactly what I'm looking for.

Thanks again!

One Step Ahead ...very obscure song I heard for the first time in Moonlight. But very moving and restrained for Aretha.

Oh, beautiful, R5.

If you want to be uplifted try Louis Armstrong. It's hard to be bummed out when his music is playing - impossible really.

Well, OP, you need to include the hits like Chain of Fools, Think and R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

But my favorite obscure number by Aretha Franklin is Rock Steady, baby.

I have quite a few playlist, R7. For different moods, cities, weather....

I'll save that as a separate one.

Love it, R8, but it may break the playlist's mood.

Angel

Just found another one: Drown in my own tears.

Wow.

I know there are Aretha fans here. Any more suggestions?

Aretha from 1986! Jimmy lee and jumpin jack flash were my jams as a kid.

Get off Spotify and get back to work!

Wonderful talent. Horrible person.

Definitely "Angel."

Her Sparkle album is pretty great. Much better than Neely O'Hara's.

Spirit in the Dark is my favorite getting ready in the morning song.

One she wrote herself: Day Dreaming

Good to Me As I Am to You

Pullin'

Dark End of the Street

Son of a Preacher Man

Don't Let Me Lose This Dream

First Snow in Kokomo

Don't Play That Song for Me

I Say a Little Prayer

Spirit in the Dark

Angel

Ain't No Way

Until You Come Back to Me

I have all of Aretha Franklin's hit singles, as in "Think", the first record I bought by her in 1968 when I was a kid growing up. Yes she is Lady Soul BUT she has done too many remakes of other songs and gets a little lazy and sloppy, period. Still one of the greats and will be 75 this year.

As much as my lesbian self loves Dusty Springfield, I must say that Aretha's rendition of "Son of a Preacher Man" is tremendous. She brings the whole song to church fearlessly and effortlessly.

OP, if you haven't watched Got 2B Real on YouTube, you should search it out. It's hysterical.

[quote] Get off Spotify and get back to work!

It's a holiday.

Great suggestions all. Thanks.

OK, I will, R27.

I am feeling melancholy today. Don't know why. I do know why. I want to be in love.

Aretha suits me.

"Baby, I Love You" is my favorite Aretha song. I ain't lyin'.

Her cover of Border Song. - Amazing, Her cover of Bridge over Troubled Water - Ridiculously amazing.

Naughty lyrics, R30.

Well, OP, If you're looking for an outrageously funny comedy based on impersonations of RnB diva's of a certain age ripping each other to shreds to lighten your mood. That is it.

Should've been a single off Who's Zoomin' Who?

Anything on her first compilation is great. Skip "Skylark" and all her "I'm so great" overblown bullshit self-congratulation pieces. Aretha lost her sense, soul, humanity and humility by the early 1970s. She needed psychiatric help and didn't get it, and turned into an egomaniacal Jabba of music. Ugh.

But her earliest work is matchless.

[quote]Anything on her first compilation is great.

Which one? I was going to get the four CD set I linked below.

Skylark is one of my favorite songs, but Aretha's recording of it is not. You gotta get out more, OP.

The one I showed, from 1967. A full set is fine. I was mainly making the point that Aretha may have remained (or should I say re-mained, for anyone into it) commercial, splashy and hot all through her career, but for me, following her career through the years, it's only the earliest work that touches that authentic, raw, half-crazy-pained-but-strong-and-seeking quality that made her in the first place. Part gospel, part blues, and with an unusually savvy way to connect 60s rock and folk to her home stance.

She got rich, fat, lazy, stupid and proud. That gets little r-e-s-p-e-c-t from me, except in the way that I'd hear late Elvis or late Billie Holiday and respect what came before it.

Other people disagree. I just don't like her smugness after 1975 at the latest. And the "opera" and "standards" (like "Skylark" and "Nessun Dorma") are phony.

Anyone wanting to hear the definitive late-career musings possible with "Skylark" should consult the sublime recording Abbey Lincoln did of it in 2003's "It's Me." It shows how a chestnut singers pass through without authenticity is still capable of revelation, and at a time when a voice is less than perfect. Glorious.

Some discographical nitpicking:

The comp pictured at R35 is actually from 1986, but covers 1967-1974. Which I would agree is her golden period.

Sweet Bitter Love

If Ever I would Leave You

Til you come back to me

One Step is a favorite.

Here. Sweet Bitter Love.

Always makes me cry.

Oh me, Oh my..

Aretha Franklin - This Bitter Earth (Columbia Records 1964)

This is Aretha as you have never heard her. With Strings. So expressive. Beautiful.

If Ever I would Leave You.

Here's a Datalounge fav:

Another from the spectacular (To Be) Young Gifted & Black album:

Aretha and too many remakes: During the early 1990's she did a remake of Sly and the Family Stone's biggest hit "Everyday People". Their version was stupendous, a classic. Her remake was a piece of musical(?)shit that went nowhere fast. Horrid.

That's amazing R46.

I have that one, R47. It's one of my favorites.

[quote]Sweet Bitter Love

Breaks my little heart, R40. Thanks.

here's another beauty remastered for her Laughing On the Outside album....

Make Someone Happy....

go and do likewise.......

Beautiful, R52.

Love it, R42.

I'm saving all these. Thank you all.

Produced by Luther Vandross:

I second the recommendation of "Sparkle" (the album); on it, she had to work with tracks that were largely pre-recorded, and that controlled her tendency to over-sing. Also not to be missed: her cover of Sam Cooke's "Good Times" (from her first Atlantic album, "I Never Loved A Man"), and absolutely anything from her second Atlantic album, "Aretha Arrives." It's filled with some of the strangest covers imaginable, but it all somehow works. For example, she takes the utterly innocuous "You Are My Sunshine" and turns it, in classic Aretha fashion, into something dark, wrenching and apocalyptic.

Duet With Michael McDonald:

I love this rendition of Bridge Over Troubled Water. Sad and hopeful.

R39, thanks. You're probably partly right. The photo was associated with her first Capitol 1967 compilation but doesn't match my own copy. She put out quite a few greatest hits albums early on (as she should have). But I can abide anything on any of them prior to her head went boojie while her pretense stayed "fight the power." Poor Re.

People hear what they hear and what they want to hear. No one needs to argue against personal pleasure. Perhaps we know too much about performers and it gets in the way, although I do wonder how anyone can miss the lazy smugness that seems so pervasive in mature-Franklin attempts.

I'm listening to the album now, R58.

There are so many albums to listen to, but I don't know how many I'd actually like to own. That's why I was looking into getting the 4CD compilation.

Individual Aretha albums I like a lot (I've by no means heard all of them): I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You, Spirit in the Dark, Young Gifted & Black, and the Live at Fillmore West album - in the latter she was playing to a hippie crowd and thus did a lot of rock covers, but somehow it works. In general, I think the stuff she did at Atlantic with Jerry Wexler was best.

I am really liking Sparkle too, R63.

Scrolling through her discography on Spotify can be intimidating. So much to listen to.

I've never actually listened to Sparkle...but it's Curtis Mayfield, so I would expect it to be pretty solid.

Poor Curtis Mayfield. Never truly got his props. So many people think Barry Gordy and Smokey were the only game in town but Curtis was amazing. He died a terrible death.

R63, I bought Spirit in the Dark on CD and I'm tempted to buy the vinyl. I understand it's one of her less known or appreciated albums, but, boy, I love it.

One of my all time favorites. Living evidence of the full, sonic power of the human voice. Could listen to her on a 24 hour loop.

[quote]One Step Ahead ...very obscure song I heard for the first time in Moonlight. But very moving and restrained for Aretha.

I LOVE Aretha but I think this is a better version.

>>>>

"its my turn" by aretha is soooo amazing

This is my thread. Thanks for resurrecting it, R71.

"Don't Play That Song" IS Aretha, OP. Everything else is superfluous.

Daydreaming, if it hasn't already been posted.

Love it, R74.

The very underrated ‘Baby, Baby, Baby’. Tears at your soul.

The reason we don’t have great singers nowadays is because someone that looks like Aretha would never become a star today. Let’s face it most of the most intrinsically talented singers living in the world probably don’t look like supermodels. Of course there are some exceptions like, say, a Whitney Houston, who had both the gift and the looks, but extremely rare as she was a once in a generation type of star.

I was listening to "Spirit in the dark" the other day. What a great record. There is a song for every mood.

Her "Say A Little Prayer" is the laziest effort by any artist. The backup singers do all the heavy lifting and Ree just chimes in as she's reaching for another BBQ rib.

Her cover of "The Weight", featuring Duane Allman on guitar.

She did a great duet with Levi Stubbs called I 'Want to Make it up to You', produced by Luther Vandross. Luther produced two albums for her and they're both worth checking out.

Her album 'Love all the Hurt away' is also a real gemn.

Hey Now Hey (The Other Side Of The Sky)

That album contains "Angel" on of my favorites.

One of the great voices and singers- of all time.

Exactly.

I love so much of her stuff, OP, and have a lot of it on vinyl.

But I have to say, her version of "Somewhere" just wrecks me.

I said WRECKS. ME.

The part after the jazzy interlude, the part at the end - so filled with pain and longing. It makes me cry, every time.

OT but in r1 she looks like jennifer lawrence

Any good Spotify compilations?

I'm listening to "This girl's in love with you". I love albums that are supposed to be listened LOUD.

Aretha's piano is TO DIE FOR.

Who was it that referred to her as an arrogant coon? Anderson Cooper? I'm black and couldn't stop laughing my ass off because my uncle would say the same thing. Same words. A message from the dead?

I’m in love

"That's The Way I Feel About Cha"

Skylark is a great standard. Bit Aretha's cover is mediocre, OP.

Trailer for Aretha's finally released 1972 "Amazing Grace" concert film:

For five long years

I thought you were my man

But I found out

I'm just a link in your chain...

Thank you for this thread to remind me of some faves I haven't listened to in a while

Mentioned twice already but Bridge Over Troubled Water will blow you away.

This morning I went to see Amazing Grace.

It really is one of the most incredible film experiences I have ever seen. Aretha was at her absolute best. I even got teary-eyed when she sang the title song because it reminded me of how great she was, that she's gone, and there will never ever be another singer like her.

If you are an Aretha fan, you must see it.

R97 I really enjoyed it too! I cant wait to see Amazing Grace again.

Thanks, R97. I want to see it. Does anyone here have the album recorded during those performances?

Another great one from her years at Columbia Records was her heartbreaking version of 'Try a Little Tenderness' .

@ R79 . You could not be more wrong about Aretha's take on 'I Say a Little Prayer' . It's one of her best. She brought her own back-up singers (including her sister) when she was recording for Atlantic and they no doubt worked out the vocal arrangement together. If you can't tell that Aretha is setting the pace then you need new ears. She elevates everything. The drummer in particular (Roger Hawkins) is awesome on that tune.

R99 I recommend Aretha Franklin's Amazing Grace: The Complete Recordings.

Thanks, R101. I found it on Spotify. I'll give it a listen tonight.

Early 80s, duet with George Benson. Excellent.

Mid 70s gem

Pre-Atlantic

Congratulations, 'Re!

Classical Aretha.

Aretha may not have been known for her looks, but with her presence, confidence, visual and vocal style and arrangements, she could sometimes exude a sexiness far prettier women couldn’t.

R106 I didnt realize people could receive Pulitzers for their music artistry posthumously. Very well deserved.