Search - Aretha Franklin :: Original Album Classics

Includes the albums, The Electrifying + The Tender the Movin

Giddy Giddy Carousel | California | 03/29/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Disc: 1

1. You Made Me Love You

2. I Told You So

3. Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody

4. Nobody Like You

5. Exactly Like You

6. It's So Heartbreakin'

7. Rough Lover

8. Blue Holiday

9. Just For You

10. That Lucky Old Sun

11. I Surrender Dear

12. Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive

Disc: 2

1. Don't Cry Baby

2. Try A Little Tenderness

3. I Apologize

4. Without The One You Love

5. Look For The Silver Lining

6. I'm Sitting On Top Of The World

7. Just For A Thrill

8. God Bless The Child

9. I'm Wandering

10. How Deep Is The Ocean

11. I Don't Know You Anymore

12. Lover Come Back To Me

Disc: 3

1. Until You Were Gone

2. Follow Your Heart

3. Ol' Man River

4. Sweet Bitter Love

5. Mother's Love, A

6. Swanee

7. No No I'm Losing You

8. Take A Look

9. Can't You Just See Me

10. Cry Like A Baby

"

"...It Should Have Ended Long Ago..."

Mark Barry at Reckless Records, Lon | UK | 05/17/2010

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Released February 2010 in the UK and Europe - "3 Original Album Classics" is a mini CD box set with 3 x 5" LP card repro sleeves inside it.



Columbia/Legacy 88697618262 breaks down as follows:

Disc 1 is the album "The Electrifying Aretha Franklin" released May 1962 in the USA on Columbia Records CL 1761 (Mono) and CS 8561 (Stereo). The Stereo version is used here (12 Tracks, 31:36 minutes). The back of the box wrongly lists 13 tracks.



Disc 2 is the album "The Tender, The Moving, The Swinging Aretha Franklin" released November 1962 in the USA on Columbia Records CL 1876 (Mono) and CS 8676. (Stereo). The Stereo version is used here (70:11 minutes)



(Note: as you can see from the playing time above - a mastering error has put 22 tracks on Disc 2 - it features an uncredited whole album - Tracks 13 to 22 are the LP "Soft & Beautiful" issued April 1969 on Columbia Records CS 9776 in Stereo).



Disc 3 is the album "Soul Sister" released July 1966 in the USA on Columbia Records CL 2521 (Mono) and CS 9321 (Stereo). The Stereo version is used here (11 tracks, 30:23 minutes).



The sound quality is truly gorgeous - exceptional really - and the credits can be downloaded from Sony's website at www.musicmadesimple.info. But that's where the good news ends...



The music is mostly awful. This was her stay at the straight-laced Columbia label and not the entirely creative and sympathetic Atlantic Records. Columbia tried to put her across as a female Nat King Cole - so each song either starts with violin strings or features them somewhere in the middle - to a point where you end up getting tune after tune with these soulless crooner arrangements. The mediocrity of the song choices too is hard to believe - "Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody" and "Swanee" for God's sake! A woman with a godlike voice like this! Even Ray Charles' mighty "Just For A Thrill" - which cannot be wrecked as a song - is reduced to saccharine.



It's not all bad of course - "Only The Lonely" is lovely and features great vocal work, while her version of "Try A Little Tenderness" (later made famous by Otis Redding in 1967 on Atlantic) shows some of that magic touch. "Without The One You Love" is pretty too, even when it's drowning in syrupy strings. And you're constantly aware of that 'sound' - these are the remastered Legacy issues of a few years back and audio quality is truly breathtaking. But if you really want Aretha Franklin at her soulful best, then start with her Atlantic debut album "I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You" from 1967 and prepare to be properly blown away. Unfortunately, track after track here only convinces you that this is not Sixties Soul, but Soulless Sixties Pap.



I picked this up in a London store a few days ago - only released 3 months ago - and it's already reduced to five pounds.



Cheap or not, uncredited extra album or no, I'd advise you to hear this set first, before you buy it.



One to avoid I'm afraid...



PS: other titles in this "3" CD series include:

1. AMERIE (01/02/2010)

(All I Have/Touch/Because I Love It)

2. SHAWN COLVIN (08/02/2010)

[Steady On/Fat City/Cover Girl]

3. AGNETHA FALTSKOG [FRIDA of ABBA] (01/02/2010)

[Agnetha Faltskog/Nar En Vacker Tanke Blirsang/Elva Kvinnor I Ett Hus]

4. (PETER GREEN'S) FLEETWOOD MAC (01/02/2010)

[Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac/Mr. Wonderful/The Pious Bird of Good Omen - The Original UK Album Track Lists - No Extras]

5. JOURNEY (01/02/2010)

[Departure/Escape/Frontiers]

6. WILLIE NELSON (01/02/2010)

[Yesterday's Wine/Red Headed Stranger/Stardust]

7. DOLLY PARTON (8/02/2010)

[Eagle When She Flies/Slow Dancing With The Moon/White Limozeen]

8. (CARLOS) SANTANA (08/02/2010)

[Illuminations/Oneness/The Swing of Delight]

9. SCORPIONS (01/02/2010)

[In Trance/Virgin Killer/Taken By Force]

10. SIMON and GARFUNKEL (01/02/2010)

[Sounds Of Silence/Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme/Bookends]

11. TOTO (08/02/2010)

[Toto/Hydra/Turn Back]

12. LUTHER VANDROSS (01/02/2010)

(Never Too Much/Give Me The Reason/The Power of Love)

13. THE WALKER BROTHERS (01/02/2010)

[No Regrets/Lines/Nite Flights]"

Another side of the great Aretha Franklin

j in boston | 07/03/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I can't really argue with most of the points made by Mr. Barry regarding these specific recordings. The difference is that I think there's enough good stuff here to outweigh some of the questionable song selections and kitschy arrangements. Almost every great artist has made recordings they shouldn't have. For instance, I have a recording of Ella Fitzgerald singing Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love". Believe me when I tell you these recordings by Aretha could have been far worse than they are. As it is they are products of their time and while some of the songs hold up really well others require a certain generosity of spirit.



Is this the great Aretha that we know from her Atlantic recordings? No, but it is a valuable glimpse of the Aretha that might have been. Aretha, herself, seems to be proud of these recordings. I remember several years ago listening to a radio interview when NPR's Terry Gross made a flip, disparaging remark regarding the string arrangements on Aretha's Columbia recordings and Aretha stopped her cold to praise the arrangements and the producer. Of course, it's also worth remembering that artists are not always the best judges of their own work.



Before dismissing Aretha's Columbia recordings altogether I recommend that you seek out the two best, "Laughing On The Outside" with her remarkable version of "Skylark" and "Unforgettable, A Tribute to Dinah Washington" with the best version I've ever heard of "What a Difference a Day Made""