Command 21 George Washington

Unforgettable: A Tribute to Dinah Washington is the sixth studio album by American singer Aretha Franklin. Released on February 18, 1964, by Columbia Records, The album is a tribute dedicated to the recently deceased singer Dinah Washington. The sessions were recorded in New York. A few tunes were cut with strings in order to bring out the essential ballad character of the songs (with the help of Bob Mersey's arranging); most of the tracks, though, were made with the assistance of a small and sympathetic accompanying group for which Mersey supplied minimal written guidance.

Unforgettable: A Tribute to Dinah Washington is the fifth studio album by American singer Aretha Franklin. Released on February 18, 1964, by Columbia Records, The album is a tribute dedicated to the recently deceased singer Dinah Washington. The sessions were recorded in New York. A few tunes were cut with strings in order to bring out the essential ballad character of the songs (with the help of Bob Mersey's arranging); most of the tracks, though, were made with the assistance of a small and sympathetic accompanying group for which Mersey supplied minimal written guidance. Reissue by Legacy's Rhythm & Soul Series in 1995 included "Lee Cross". This song was recorded at the same time as the other tunes and is the only song not released on the original album. It was first released several years later on Take It Like You Give It and became one of Franklin's biggest hits on Columbia.

Since her youth Franklin had admired Dinah Washington, and it's a safe bet that the level of emotional commitment Washington brought to her work was a major influence on the blossoming style of Aretha, not to mention Washington's effortless sense of swing. Shortly before she died, Washington took appreciate notice of her acolyte as well. So Aretha's tribute to Washington is as logical as it is satisfying. Recorded when Aretha was just 21, Unforgettable is somewhat of a departure from her more R&B-oriented early work.

This is the story of a country in which immigrants of the late 19th and early 20th centuries huddled in cramped tenement apartments lit by hazardous kerosene lamps. And a country that, little more than a half-century later, renowned economist John Kenneth Galbraith described as "The Affluent Society."