Aretha Franklin

INCLUDES FREE MP3 FREE ALBUM DOWNLOAD PLUS 2 BONUS TRACKS

This quintessential edition includes Aretha’s third album, The Tender, the Moving, the Swinging Aretha Franklin, originally released by Columbia in 1962, and long unavailable on vinyl. Here the producer Robert Mersey dips into a jazz bag on the opening cut. Franklin still didn’t have all of the skills in her arsenal to turn a song like “Just for a Thrill” upside down, as she would “I Say a Little Prayer,” “Respect” or “Let It Be” in later years. Despite her distinctive voice, perhaps some of the other ingredients just weren’t in place yet, but that doesn’t make these recordings any less worthwhile. The composers Gary Geld and Peter Udell (of “Sealed with a Kiss,” “Hurting Each Other” and the musical Shenandoah) contribute “I Don’t Know You Anymore,” which is stylistically of a piece with the other jazz and blues material. Aretha also takes an early swing at Berry Gordy’s “I’m Wandering,” written for Jackie Wilson, showing that Columbia’s A&R staff was branching out in finding material suited for the singer. This set lives up to its title. She’s tender on “I Apologize”, as well as her own composition “Without the One You Love,” which shows her to be a skilled songwriter even at the age of 20. Aretha moves us with the quiet but firm “Try a Little Tenderness,” as well as her testimonial version of “How Deep Is the Ocean.” And man, does she ever swing on “I’m Sitting on Top of the World” and “Lover Come Back to Me.” In addition to the original masterpiece, this WaxTime release includes 2 bonus tracks from the same period: “Trouble in Mind” and the endearing “It’s So Heartbreakin’.”Here’s the definitive female soul singer of the Sixties – a diva who fused the gospel music she grew up on with the sensuality of R&B, the innovation of jazz, and the precision of pop. Here is a woman who has fulfilled every professional expectation that has been had of her since she was a teenage prodigy in her father’s choir loft; a woman for whom the word “legend” can be applied without grade inflation. And also a woman who no one can copy. Aretha is all alone in her greatness.

PERSONNEL:

ARETHA FRANKLIN, lead vocals

Unidentified personnel on all tracks.

Recorded at Columbia Records Studio, New York, between April 27 and May 11, 1962.

SIDE A

01. Don´t Cry, Baby
02. Try A Little Tenderness
03. I Apologiza
04. Without the One You Love
05. Look For the Silver Linnig
06. I'm Sitting on Top of the World
07. Trouble In Mind (*)

SIDE B

01. Just For A Thrill
02. God Bless the Child
03. I'm Wandering
04. How Deep Is The Ocean
05. I Don't Know You Anymore
06. Lover Come Back to Me
07. It's So Heartbreakin' (*)

(*) Bonus tracks