Neither of the two singles - “Tracks Of My Tears” or “Gentle On My Mind” - did particularly well, and she didn’t write any of the material. Soul ’69 is probably Aretha Franklin’s most overlooked album from her classic Atlantic era. “River’s Invitation” (from Soul ’69, 1969) Her soaring voice is the complete opposite of Question Mark’s wavering fragility, turning the song from a petulant vow of revenge to a genuine threat. Franklin’s version of Question Mark And The Mysterians’ minimalist garage-rock sneer “96 Tears” lasts only 2:22, but she and her backing vocalists inject it with real power and fury. (Her label debut, I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You, came out in March of the same year.) It feels like a lesser album than its predecessor she tries to soul-ify songs that don’t really stand up to the treatment, like “That’s Life” and Willie Nelson’s “Night Life” and the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction.” One song that should have been a weird little footnote, though, turns out to really be something. This version of Johnny Mercer’s “Drinking Again” is a powerhouse, wailing performance that features Ernie Royal’s muted, Miles Davis-esque trumpet as a vocal counterpoint, as piano and gospel-ish organ surge behind her.Īretha Arrives was Franklin’s second Atlantic album, released in August 1967. Dinah Washington died in December 1963, and Franklin entered the studio in February 1964 and recorded 10 songs associated with her, backed by a small jazz combo. Her fifth album for the label, though, was an inspired move. They mostly ignored her gospel side in favor of smooth, jazzy pop, and while her voice came through regardless, the material was mostly not a good fit. “Drinking Again” (from Unforgettable: A Tribute To Dinah Washington, 1964)īefore signing with Atlantic and becoming the Queen Of Soul, Aretha Franklin was a young singer from Detroit who Columbia Records really didn’t know what to do with. So rather than talk about the immortal hits that every sentient music fan should already know by heart, I present to you a list of 10 lesser-known studio performances, from all eras of Aretha Franklin’s career, that are still every bit as glorious as her recognized triumphs. Even in her earliest years, she was capable of making a song so thoroughly her own that fellow singers would simply stop singing them.īut she was much more than an interpreter-she wrote songs too, and while she made her fair share of poor choices in the 1980s and 1990s, her talent almost never allowed her to coast through a track. Like Chuck Berry or Bob Dylan or Elvis Presley, she changed the way people thought about what music should sound like.
The woman was a titan, with a voice that turned every room into a cathedral, and her peak years (roughly 1966-1975) are the kind of catalog you can spend a lifetime digging into. I’m not in any position to grapple with Aretha Franklin’s legacy. Part of me has regretted that decision every day since. The show was cancelled, and the make-up date was inconvenient, so I opted for a refund instead. I had tickets to see Aretha Franklin at Radio City Music Hall once, a few years ago.
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