Aretha: a playlist

Playing Aretha Franklin tracks on shuffle on the iPod has made me realise how much of her output I have and like, ever since those late '60s. I may have been 13 in 1959 (subject of my last post below), but 10 years later I was 23, sharing that large maisonette with 2 friends in South London. Stan introduced me to Aretha in 1967, and I introduced him and Joe to that young Joni Mitchell in '69 .. We had seen Aretha live in London in 1968, and then again in 1970 - when she must have been at her considerable peak, before she stopped flying to Europe. (Stan was agog at her '68 show as he was sitting behind her brother, and was able to eavesdrop on the family). This then, for Stan, is a random selection of my favourites - 20 or more. 

Thats Why I Sing The Blues

Good to me As I Am To You - with Eric Clapton on guitar, from LADY SOUL.

Ain't No Way

A Deeper Love - all those remixes 

Night Time Is The Right Time

Dr Feelgood

Do Right Woman Do Right Man

Drown In My Own Tears

Today I Sing The Blues

Running Out Of Fools

Spirit in the Dark

A Natural Woman

I Never Loved A Man (the way I love you)

Chain of Fools

Don't Play That Song

Border Song - She makes Elton's song sound even better, as she did with The Band's The Weight and The Beatles' Let It Be.

See Saw

Until You Come Back To Me

Share Your Love With Me
Pledging My Love/The Clock

Dark End Of The Street

Sit Down and Cry

The Thrill is Gone

Pulling

Sweet Bitter Love

That LIVE AT THE FILLIMORE album with Ray Charles is a terrific sample of her at her best. 

It was fun too seeing Aretha back with a bang in the disco 80s, with those hits produced by Michael Narada Walden: 

Who's Zooming Who?

Freeway of Love

and those later albums. It would be terrific if, after those health scares and weight problems, she stunned us all with some more terrific songs and vocals. Looking at her discography and album covers there is so much out there, various compilations from those Columbia, Atlantic, Arista years. Those Atlantic recordings at Muscle Shoals, Alabama may be her peak recordings, but those early Captiol years had nuggets as well, even when she was recording showtunes and standards, with songs like "Won't Be Long", "Soulville" and "Until You Were Gone".

There is not that much Aretha on film availabile, apart from those '80s hit videos with Annie Lennox and George Michael; luckily I recorded that 1993 tv show where Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman introduced her, and where Elton, Rod and Smokey played her back-up group "The Aretha-aires" (as per previous post, see Aretha label), and that Divas concert on VH1 which was spine-tingling when Aretha and Carole King sang King's "Natural Woman" with Mariah, Celine, Shania and Gloria Estefan on backing vocals ...her 2 gospel albums are essential as well. 

Aretha, and Barbra and Joni must surely be the top female vocalists of the last 50 years or so, not ignoring Ella or Sarah or Nancy Wilson and of course Dusty Springfield or Joan Armatrading, thats a top 5 then ...