The Real... Aretha Franklin

Organize your meetings, parties or free time with The Real … Aretha Franklin: The Ultimate Collection; Where you will find the best pieces of music so that all your emotions are afloat. 3 CD's that can not miss in your collection!

"Yet another 5-album box by the great Queen of Soul, which brings together her very first works. A very young Aretha but with great talent she has become the sacred monster par excellence of black music. The albums reissued for the occasion are "The gospel soul of Aretha Franklin", "Aretha with the Ray Bryant Combo", "The tender, tha moving, the swinging", "The electrifying Aretha Franklin" (which I love!) and " Laughing on the outside". Even in this case I can only confirm 5 stars."

Aretha Franklin's recordings for Atlantic in the late 1960s and early 1970s are universally acknowledged as her best, and this two-CD set draws exclusively from that era, spanning late 1966 to 1973. Aside from the B-sides "Pledging My Love/The Clock" and "Lean on Me," everything here is a demo, outtake, or alternate version - a real hoard of largely previously unheard material from the prime of one of the greatest soul singers. Franklin and Atlantic did exercise sound judgment as to what to select for release, however. So these recordings, as valuable as they'll be for soul fans to hear, are neither on par with her best official work nor revelatory insofar as uncovering hidden gems or unsuspected stylistic detours. Still, what's here is characteristic Franklin soul, which is satisfying enough…