Track Listing

1. Respect
2. Drown In My Own Tears
3. I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)
4. Soul Serenade
5. Don't Let Me Lose This Dream
6. Baby Baby Baby
7. Dr Feelgood (Love Is A Serious Business)
8. Good Times
9. Do Right Woman Do Right Man
10. Save Me
11. Change Is Gonna Come
12. Respect
13. I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)
14. Do Right Woman Do Right Man

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26724 in Music
• Released on: 1999-06-14
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
This is the album on which Aretha finds her voice. She'd previously recorded for another label, but this Atlantic debut created the sound that has come to define her. The tracks read like a greatest hits collection: "Respect", "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man", "Dr. Feelgood", "Baby, Baby, Baby", "A Change Is Gonna Come", and the title track. She's alternately pumped full of soul or scraping her inner being to find more. A classic. --Robert Gordon

CD Description
After the end of Aretha Franklin's five year stint on Columbia Records (who tried marketing her as a jazz vocalist), she signed on with Atlantic Records. Produced by music biz veteran Jerry Wexler, Franklin's Atlantic debut found her flexing creative muscle and making music that forever altered thecourse of pop and soul. Accompanying herself on piano throughout, Franklin's powerful and passionate vocals garnered comparisons to Ray Charles, while her blend of R&B, gospel andjazz rightfully earned her the moniker "Queen Of Soul".

Customer Reviews

Jam-packed full of classics, a very classy album
This is a stunning album. Aretha is amazing and her voice is simply sublime.

This album is full of classic soul tracks sung to perfection. I think each version is THE genre-defining version. I don't think you can help but be moved by Aretha's power, control and sheer soulfullness.

If you want to discover Aretha Franklin just buy this album. Simple.

Absolutely stunning Soul music as it should be!
On first listens i was a little disappointed as i'd recently been listening to a Raw Soul compilation i'd got free with a magazine and this album was not quite as upbeat in comparison.

In a few listens time though, i got it... and yes i got it really bad!

There is SO much soul in this record and she means it, she's felt the losing and the pain, unlike so many modern soul artists who's voices are pathetic in comparison.

The opener Respect, is instantly recognisable where she beats Otis (Redding) at his own song and adds her own bit to it too (the R-E-S-P-E-C-T!). The closer too is a cover of Sam Cooke's A Change is Gonna Come, which Otis also covered, however, Aretha's version just had so much more power and feeling than his, the opening "i was bo-or-or-orn by the river" and many other phrases within the song and so memorable for the amount of feeling packed into so few words.

In between these tracks are soulful gems of love and loss. My personal favourite has to be Don't Lose This Dream, it starts deceptively as a polite jazz inflected number but soon Aretha and her backing singers have reached the chorus and blown us away with their unique blend of soul/pop.

The album 'Aretha: Lady Soul' is often raved about but i think personally that this album far supersedes it. It sticks to the same genre throughout rather than flitting all over the place. Its one of those albums you love listening to and when its not on you long to hear it again.

From the opening to the closing note you'll be enthralled. Buy with confidence.

a gorgeous work of art and testament to the power of music.
this is totally wonderful stuff. there's power, there's soul, there's beauty. she never sounded better. the only thing you should be buying instead of this is the 'best of the atlantic years' box set. now there's a birthday present for someone you love...