Respect - The Very Best of Aretha Franklin
Product Details | Similar Products | Customer Reviews | Artist: Aretha Franklin List Price: £10.99 Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours  |
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 | Product Details: Release Date: 03 June 2002 Record Label: Warner Bros. Rating:   Sales Rank: 2395 | | Look for similar items by category:
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| | Customer Reviews: A fine collection (12 January 2009)This is a fine selection and it IS as good as many of the other reviewers suggest! I have a copy with no audible hiss so it may be a couple of reviewers have been unlucky. Just hope you get a 'clean' one, I guess; then turn it up and enjoy it!! SO MUCH 'RESPECT' FOR ARETHA !!! (17 September 2007)The GREATEST SINGER EVER !!!! There are many great singers in this world but Aretha's in a class no one can top. My Elite List (which includes Aaron Neville and other legends) has Aretha at the TOP !!! That voice is from a place none of us will ever get to. Angels blessed Aretha's vocal chords and went back and blessed them again. This album has so many unbelievable classic songs. Aretha is one of my heroes. If I could sing like her for the day it would be a dream. An outstanding album. Listen with amazement. Enjoy every second. You will love every song. Aretha...THANK YOU SO MUCH. Your voice lifts my spirit and to be in your presence would be a dream. A Must For Soul Fans! (21 July 2007)This is a truly brilliant album by the greatest female soul singer of all time. It includes virtually all her greatest hits and a superb version of "Son Of A Preacher Man" which exceeds the Dusty Springfield verson. Aretha Franklin had the gift of making every song she sang her own. Even Otis Redding's "Respect" is immediately associated with her. A MUST HAVE (21 May 2006)This compilation makes me dance and sing along. All the best in one..of course..there are other great ones which is not in here....of course..wat can you expect? She's got loads of great songs...and 2 Cds can't contain them all, but this album is really worth every penny. Just want to ensure you guys that this album is cool....but there's just one drawback...the quality of the album was compromised...well..it's not like you can't hear the music and Aretha's soulful voice...but I realized that with today's technology..it could have been done better...Enjoy~ The Queen Of Soul (03 May 2006)Aretha Franklin, daughter of a famous Pentecostel pastor, inevitably began singing in a church choir at a very early age and it was clear then that she had the gift of a deep, raw talent where her vocal style was capable of such immense power and volume. She began her career recording secular tracks for Columbia Records, none of which really bought her much chart recognition. Signed by John Hammond at the dawn of the 1960's, he tried invain to nurture her talent effectively. By the time of 1966, all she had released a string of minor selling hits. So in 1966 she signed a new deal with Jerry Wexler (who had enjoyed enormous success with such fantastic Soul music legends as the unforgetable Ray Charles and the divine Wilson Pickett) to Atlantic Records which finally propelled her into International stardom. The label knew how to enhance her raw talent and captured her rocketing vocal style on some of the most remarkable recordings in the history of music. If anything, Aretha Franklin went on to become the female equivalent of that godfather of soul, James Brown. The music was tough, driving, earthy even stark at times yet was able to encapsulate a sensual, evocative air that was able to enjoy credibility in the more profitable white-buying market as well as firmly retaining her wide, loyal black base much in the way other black female singers had like Diana Ross. Her most important and significant era in music undoubtedly was between 1967-1969. During this relativley small period she clocked up an amazing series of soul classics that set standards today and are still as instantly recognisable as they were then with them always being constantly used as backing tracks to several T.V commercials. Aretha races along those speedy verses of Respect (origanally by Otis Redding) with such startling conviction and when she sings those lyrics you just KNOW she means every word she says. Her pronounciations and impeccable lyrical phrasing is remarkably effective on this explosive classic and Respect rates as one of her most popular classics. As well as the more urban-contemporary material, Aretha proved adept at experimenting in a number of styles and her voicesurprisingly could sound as equally compelling on the ballads. I Say A Little Prayer was one of her most passionate, heart-felt ballads. Whilst the lyrics were simplistic, Aretha could shrewdly plumb such depth with a straight-foward song such as this. Dr. Feel Good, the fabulous Think (which she would update in the movie, The Blue Brothers) and the sparse production of Chain Of Fools continued her staggering run of hits and all conveyed such an undeniably infectious quality. From the 70's onwards Aretha Franklins work became erratic, initially losing some of the fire of her famous late 60's period. She still managed to come up with the odd winner such as the exciting Rock Steady and sensational, Day Dreaming but the consistency was no longer there. The 80's and 90's saw Aretha recording only sporadically and when so was always a conciously contemporary effort which vastly met with an indifferent view from critics. She enjoyed a touching, vibrant duet with divine soul crooner George Benson on Love All The Hurt Way whilst the more upbeat Jump To It saw her collaborate with Luther Vandross as producer. The jamming Pop sounds of Who's Zoomin Who in 1985 became another notably sizeable hit to her credit as did her dynamic, explosive duet with Eurythumics singer, Annie Lennox on the catchy Sisters are Doin' It For Themselves. She also recorded one memroable duet with another one of my favourite singers, George Michael on the overly subtle and laid-back, I Knew You Were Waiting For Me where both vocal harmonies were blended beautifully together. This compilation highlights the very best of her work (including all tracks just mentioned) and so quite possibly goes down as the definitive collection of the undisputed Queen Of Soul. |
