OK you got it going on so I'll keep it short. Three points only:
1. Bernard Purdie needs a mention for "Rock Steady" and "Day Dreaming" (your #1 favorite) and all that 5-year period as her music director/drummer. I was a lawyer for him once and he played often at my local jazz club in Jersey: Shanghai Jazz (ask for Tom tell him Steve sent you) but now surprisingly we both live in NC! Got to rep the homies! Lest we forget: Shout out! FAME Studios Muscle Shoals! Also, Jerry Wexler and Tom Dowd (I Never Loved a Man) her Atlantic producers.
2. My wife is her biggest fan and two of our wedding songs came from two great 1997 Flashback comps "Aretha Franklin A Natural Woman And Other Hits" "Without Love" (Hunter/Franklin); and "Aretha Franklin Respect and Other Hits" Sam Cooke's "You Send Me" half of our songs for the service at a Unitarian Church in NJ. She sings so eloquently about the meaning of endless love.
3. We will never forget seeing her live in '09 at Radio City. She was born to the craft and raised in church, but she was bawdy as hell that night in the second half no dis-Respect. Good one Matt!
Hold on, hold on, hold ON: You were a lawyer for Bernard Purdie??? Where has this anecdote been? Also, I can't imagine what it would've been like to see her live. Even towards the end, she was an incredible performer. Thanks as always, Steve!
You know it. My entertainment law days and nights are another bunch of stories, but confidentiality issues prevent me from going whole hog. I was a NYC Civil Servants Union Attorney (SEIU), so I know where some of Ghouliani's bodies are buried as well as being a worthy adversary in cases with two current cabinet members. But Law... is a much-maligned profession these days. Keeping my mouth shut. Did my time. Now putting finishing touches on lostinaustinbook.substack.com then onward to print/Kindle publication. Lots to do now that I'm no longer practicing much, focusing on acting, music, and writing. Thankfully getting lots of gigs. My latest incarnation is singing in the GSO Big Band! As an aside I do give free consultations to musicians as a public service because I care about artist abuse and advocate against the various unethical Spotify practices, a virtual monopoly in cahoots with the majors.
Pretty audacious and impressive undertaking, Matt! Nicely done! Is it me, or have you been improving by leaps and bounds since I first noticed you arriving coupla years ago?!? If I may pry, I'm curious as to how you go about auditioning each album...I'm guessing kinda over a few days.
I've envisioned doing something similar for a favorite artist whom I know I've listened to a lot, but, for a decades-long career like Aretha's, I'd find it a daunting task (for me)! Even for fave bands like Genesis and Jethro Tull (both of whose careers I lived through and enjoyed in real time, so there's that!), there was serious "drop-off" in my attention to their latter career output (from a personal listening/obtaining to their records, etc), so I feel my attention to their earlier output might unfairly weigh my perspective!
I realize you're half my age (at least), so hearing Aretha's output in real time is out of the question, but I (and maybe we) would love to hear how you go about doing a ranking like this (also, and how much popular and well-known public and critical opinions play a part)! I am curious Wednesday! Thanks, Matt! Keep up the great work!
As far as the "how," the entire project took nearly six months of part-time work. I divided the listening process into four separate chunks that coincided (more or less) with her different label stints. I gave each album two listens minimum, the first as a more high-level vibe check and the second as a slower, more "paying attention to the details" listen. Rinse and repeat for all the records included in this list. Some albums got a third listen as I tried to sort out my own feelings towards them.
I took notes for each one and didn't start writing the full-length piece until all the listening and note-taking were complete. "No cheating" was my mantra, so no skipping to the highlights before other LPs were heard in chronological order. I did my best to leave my personal baggage at the door and, to paraphrase the great Roger Ebert, give each album its day in court. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of putting this together, but it was also the hardest I've ever worked on a piece of writing in my life. I'm glad it's resonating with at least a few others.
Thanks so much for that, Matt! "The process" is something many writers hold (understandably.....at least to a degree) close to their respective vests! Your full-throated reveal of your lengthy, time-consuming process is impressive, and very much appreciated by me, and likely others!
As a self-avowed (and proud) label ho (😂), I really appreciate, not only your viewing her output (to whatever degree) in "label chunks," but, even the awareness and intelligence to even KNOW or care about that as a valued and necessary component in evaluating an artist's career, especially with such a ground-breaking and legendary artist as Aretha!
Each "branch" of her career tree had label stalwarts fully invested in her recorded product and how she was "handled" and presented to the public (and radio): Producer, John Hammond at Columbia in the early '60s, then, Clive Davis, starting in the mid-'60s, became more involved (of course, the two would meet again at Arista!).
The influence of Atlantic key cogs Jerry Wexler, Ahmet Ertegun, and Tom Dowd can't be underestimated in helping to create "The Queen of Soul"!
Thanks again for your candid reply, Matt! I'm game for another Tune Tag with you...your last one was last April, and I'm booked thru most of March '26 (for publication, I mean), so I'm game when you are....just drop me a tune in DMs when you can!
My pleasure, keep the conversation going, Kokomo were a really underrated band that people now recognise as a superb group, check out their credentials
Wow! This is quite an undertaking! I have to admit to only really knowing 2 of her albums: "Who's Zoomin' Who" and "Aretha." Of course, I know many of her individual songs but this post makes me want to dive into so many cuts I've never heard.
I'm glad you gave a decent ranking to "Hey Now Hey"- It's one of her more experimental pieces and shows how easily she could shift gears between genres, even between songs. But that weird cover? Psychedelic, man! She shouldn't have asked her then-boyfriend to do that....
When I saw the title of your post, I was curious where “La Diva” would land. I kind of expected it to be around No. 40, so No. 37 is actually better than I thought. I haven’t listened to the full album, just snippets here and there. I wasn’t even aware of it until I started researching my Zulema piece (she did backing vocals on the album).
I’m generally a fan of Van McCoy’s productions, although this was one of his last before he died, and it’s probably a bit of a mixed bag on that front too. The fact that the album is no longer available says a lot about how highly she rated it herself 😁
The whole reissue saga for some of these Aretha Franklin albums is worthy of a separate post. Attempts Attempts at revisionist history going on. Thanks for reading!
And of course, Aretha's worst album, as you say, is a "Ferrari idling in traffic". When the lights turn green, she's off to the horizon, having made the world a far better place. The video of an elderly Aretha singing Natural Woman is indeed tear-inducing.
The best Aretha Franklin albums (since Amazing Grace was thrown in there and that is NOT a studio album) - nothing else should even be ranked because the albums aren't even worth talking about.
1. Aretha: Live At The Filmore West
This is single handedly the best album Aretha has ever done and will ever do. Aretha came out and proved to the hippies she was done and could come out her comfort zone and killed it. there is not a single album she's done that can compare to this. It's her magnum opus.
2. I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You
Aretha just sang her ass off on this one. Snapped all the way out for her Atlantic debut with that signature Memphis/Muscle Shoals sound. "Baby Baby Baby" alone is worth the price of admission (which is the hardest cut on the album).
3. Young Gifted & Black
A flawless Aretha Franklin album. The title track is just mind blowing. "Rock Steady" & "Day Dreaming" is worth the price of admission alone. What is phenomenal is that she went so hard on the Delfonics' "Didn't I Blow Your Mind" with her own sound. "All The King's Horses" and "A Brand New Me" are sorely underrated.
4. Lady Soul
It's a fucking rockin' album that flows. You can throw it on at a party or listen to it down the road cover to cover and it NEVER LETS YOU DOWN. Not a bad song on the album, a rare feat for Aretha, but it's her coming into her own with the Atlantic sound.
5. Amazing Grace
The definitive gospel album that set the gold standard for every gospel album in existence. "How I Got Over", "Mary Don't You Weep", and "Old Landmark" STILL killing, 50 years later.
6. Jump To It
This is the beginning of her Arista success. Luther Vandross pretty much took the album Cheryl Lynn was supposed to do and gave it to Aretha. Outside of the mid-tempo funky track, it's a fuck album. "Jump To It" still banging, as is, "Love Me Right", "If She Don't Want Your Lovin", "It's Just Your Love", "This Is For Real".
7. This Girl's In Love With You
The prelude to "Live At The Filmmore West". Aretha's a grown ass woman looking for her sound with this one, playing with different genres and it just fucking worked. It's more on the country funk side with "Son Of A Preacher Man" & Eleanor Rigby, playful with the NY backbeat with "Share Your Love With Me", experimental gospel with "Let It Be" and just Aretha R&B with the title track.
8. Let Me In Your Life
The "Lost The Weight" album, where Aretha was singing sultry and getting into more adult making love type albums. Orchestration is beautiful, especially on "I'm In Love", "Until You Come Back To Me", "Ain't Nothin' Like The Real Thing".
9. Get It Right
Another Luther Vandross/Marcus Miller produced Arista album as Aretha redefined her sound. Some might call it Jump To It Part 2 but c'mon, "Pretender" is worth it for the price of admission. It's a funky mid-tempo early 80s jam for half the album and for Aretha fans that like her slow ballads, that's the other half. Standouts are the title track, "Pretender", "When You Love Me Like That", "Every Guy Wants My Girl".
10. Hey Now Hey The Other Side Of The Sky
Aretha jumping out of her R&B Atlantic sound and trying her hand at prog. It is the R&B version of "Bitches Brew" by Miles Davis. Aretha is showing she's mastered the piano and vocals and is being playful doing untraditional rhythms/beats and trying to do an album of sound, not songs. Honestly, it's a masterpiece and worth it just for "Master of Eyes" and the title track.
11. One Love, One Faith, One Baptism
Aretha's Arista gospel album, and one that does feature Mavis Staples. Both women are at mid roads in their careers, have different voices/ranges than in the 1970s, and bringing it back to basics in the church. While not the powerhouse of Amazing Grace, this album can hold it's own against the Hawkins Family, the Winans Family, and anything James Cleveland was doing at the time.
12. Aretha
Another Arista banger that got a lot of video rotation. Aretha was proving at this point she could hang with her contemporaries in the late 1980s. "Jimmy Lee" and "Jumping Jack Flash" is the hot track, but "I Knew You Were Waiting For Me" and "Rock A Lott" ain't short stopping if you like that late 80s Rockish R&B that kept you on the dance floor.
13. Spirit In The Dark
The definitive divorce blues album, since Aretha was going through marital woes at the time and somehow that pain translated into this very darkish album. It's a very misunderstood album because it didn't generate the radio hits like Atlantic wanted but it was a solid album with solid production of Aretha starting to take chances and do things not expected of her in different genres, all backed by her incredible piano playing.
14. Sweet Passion
This is a funky ass album that gets no credit. Title track just fucking is IT (thank Lamont Dozier for that). Also, she KILLED this live. Go ask some gay guys about "Touch Me Up". Still banging on the dance floor 45 years later.
15. La Diva
The last Atlantic album. Ladies Only is Aretha's take on copying Diana Ross' layout of Love Hangover, and it's a good song once you get past that. "I Was Made To Love You" is pure Aretha, and a duet with Eric Robinson that is the standout on the album. Zulema Cusseaux also comes through and produces quite a few songs, like Half A Love and Things Are Going To Get A Bit Better. For the definitive Aretha Fan THIS is the crossover departure album to hold up until Jump To It.
Special shout out to Runnin' Out Of Fools
The album that every hip-hop head goes to because of the sampling that came out of it.
Sparkle
The definitive Aretha clawing for hits but Curtis Mayfield's production is unmatched. The issue people had with this album was not that it wasn't solid but that the girls from Sparkle didn't do it, and it was weird to have Aretha oversinging essentially what is a teenagerish soundtrack to a period piece with 1970s production. Having said that, this is Mayfield's magnum opus era with producing soundtracks (as Claudine, Let's Do It Again, Superfly, Short Eyes, and Piece of the Action are all in this group with Sparkle).
La Diva is easily in the 20-25 range. Are you kidding? Ladies Only is the business. I Was Made To Love You she did on SOUL TRAIN with ol' boy! The Zulema cuts on side B keep that album going past her lame ass throwaway mid temp gospel disco.
How the HELL is Hey Now Hey not top 10? That's literally her prog album. That's like Bitches Brew for R&B fans. Nope, ain't co-signing on that one.
Almighty Fire I have a special heart for because Curtis Mayfield produced it.
Sparkle (Curtis Mayfield produced), Get It Right (Luther Vandross produced), Jump To It (Luther Vandross produced), Who's Zoomin' Who (Michael Narada Walden produced) are ALL TOP 10 alongside Young Gifted and Black, Lady Soul, Amazing Grace, One Lord One Faith One Baptism.
It’s comparable because they are two definitive albums from an artist that took a detour from their signature sound and it come down to you either love it or hate it.
I guess ... I'm just not a huge fan of binary "love/hate" distinctions for an album. It's never that simple IMO. I think you can appreciate the ability on display on either album, but have an indifference to it emotionally. I think Bitches Brew is far more accomplished and daring than the Aretha LP, FWIW. To each their own. :)
No....certain albums you do either love or hate. When I first heard Bitched Brew at 16 I HATED IT. But you know what, the older I got the more I loved that fucking album. You never hear it the same twice, and for that it's genius. I can also play several cuts now off the album and it gives me a different appreciation for it. Other albums join this love/hate club like Marvin Gaye's "Hear My Dear". You can't even love that album until you're 30 years old and have went through shit.
Aretha caught pure-T HELL for doing Hey Now Hey from Jerry Wexler. It started the beginning of their disassociation with her, because she wanted to experiment and get into other things other than R&B. For the time, considering she started in Jazz and got the nerve to write most of an album herself (Wexler was vehemently against that), it's an incredible prog album and a detour from her signature Atlantic sound. Most people absolutely hate it for that reason alone and never gave it a fair shot. The tightest cut on the album was "Master Of Eyes (The Deepness Of Your Eyes)" which I loved the first time I heard it when I was 10. It also features the banging Angel (co-written with her by her sister Carolyn) and That's The Way I Feel About Cha (Bobby Womack). We ain't even going to talk about the title track, that hits from the first bar.
OK you got it going on so I'll keep it short. Three points only:
1. Bernard Purdie needs a mention for "Rock Steady" and "Day Dreaming" (your #1 favorite) and all that 5-year period as her music director/drummer. I was a lawyer for him once and he played often at my local jazz club in Jersey: Shanghai Jazz (ask for Tom tell him Steve sent you) but now surprisingly we both live in NC! Got to rep the homies! Lest we forget: Shout out! FAME Studios Muscle Shoals! Also, Jerry Wexler and Tom Dowd (I Never Loved a Man) her Atlantic producers.
2. My wife is her biggest fan and two of our wedding songs came from two great 1997 Flashback comps "Aretha Franklin A Natural Woman And Other Hits" "Without Love" (Hunter/Franklin); and "Aretha Franklin Respect and Other Hits" Sam Cooke's "You Send Me" half of our songs for the service at a Unitarian Church in NJ. She sings so eloquently about the meaning of endless love.
3. We will never forget seeing her live in '09 at Radio City. She was born to the craft and raised in church, but she was bawdy as hell that night in the second half no dis-Respect. Good one Matt!
Hold on, hold on, hold ON: You were a lawyer for Bernard Purdie??? Where has this anecdote been? Also, I can't imagine what it would've been like to see her live. Even towards the end, she was an incredible performer. Thanks as always, Steve!
You know it. My entertainment law days and nights are another bunch of stories, but confidentiality issues prevent me from going whole hog. I was a NYC Civil Servants Union Attorney (SEIU), so I know where some of Ghouliani's bodies are buried as well as being a worthy adversary in cases with two current cabinet members. But Law... is a much-maligned profession these days. Keeping my mouth shut. Did my time. Now putting finishing touches on lostinaustinbook.substack.com then onward to print/Kindle publication. Lots to do now that I'm no longer practicing much, focusing on acting, music, and writing. Thankfully getting lots of gigs. My latest incarnation is singing in the GSO Big Band! As an aside I do give free consultations to musicians as a public service because I care about artist abuse and advocate against the various unethical Spotify practices, a virtual monopoly in cahoots with the majors.
It’s so great that you provide that pro bono service to artists. A life well lived it sounds like. Thanks for all your support Steve.
We matched for drive my car and now again for rock steady !!!! So awesome !!! Thank you so very much for sharing all your awesome knowledge 🙌
Thank YOU for reading!
It’s an honor to read!!!! What a great way to start the day!!! Move over Folgers coffee lol we’ve got something better!!
Wooooooooooo!
Shanghai Jazz!!! What a special place for me in 1997-1999💖 what awesome memories you have !!!
Pretty audacious and impressive undertaking, Matt! Nicely done! Is it me, or have you been improving by leaps and bounds since I first noticed you arriving coupla years ago?!? If I may pry, I'm curious as to how you go about auditioning each album...I'm guessing kinda over a few days.
I've envisioned doing something similar for a favorite artist whom I know I've listened to a lot, but, for a decades-long career like Aretha's, I'd find it a daunting task (for me)! Even for fave bands like Genesis and Jethro Tull (both of whose careers I lived through and enjoyed in real time, so there's that!), there was serious "drop-off" in my attention to their latter career output (from a personal listening/obtaining to their records, etc), so I feel my attention to their earlier output might unfairly weigh my perspective!
I realize you're half my age (at least), so hearing Aretha's output in real time is out of the question, but I (and maybe we) would love to hear how you go about doing a ranking like this (also, and how much popular and well-known public and critical opinions play a part)! I am curious Wednesday! Thanks, Matt! Keep up the great work!
Thanks so much, Brad! The praise means a lot :)
As far as the "how," the entire project took nearly six months of part-time work. I divided the listening process into four separate chunks that coincided (more or less) with her different label stints. I gave each album two listens minimum, the first as a more high-level vibe check and the second as a slower, more "paying attention to the details" listen. Rinse and repeat for all the records included in this list. Some albums got a third listen as I tried to sort out my own feelings towards them.
I took notes for each one and didn't start writing the full-length piece until all the listening and note-taking were complete. "No cheating" was my mantra, so no skipping to the highlights before other LPs were heard in chronological order. I did my best to leave my personal baggage at the door and, to paraphrase the great Roger Ebert, give each album its day in court. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of putting this together, but it was also the hardest I've ever worked on a piece of writing in my life. I'm glad it's resonating with at least a few others.
Cheers!
Thanks so much for that, Matt! "The process" is something many writers hold (understandably.....at least to a degree) close to their respective vests! Your full-throated reveal of your lengthy, time-consuming process is impressive, and very much appreciated by me, and likely others!
As a self-avowed (and proud) label ho (😂), I really appreciate, not only your viewing her output (to whatever degree) in "label chunks," but, even the awareness and intelligence to even KNOW or care about that as a valued and necessary component in evaluating an artist's career, especially with such a ground-breaking and legendary artist as Aretha!
Each "branch" of her career tree had label stalwarts fully invested in her recorded product and how she was "handled" and presented to the public (and radio): Producer, John Hammond at Columbia in the early '60s, then, Clive Davis, starting in the mid-'60s, became more involved (of course, the two would meet again at Arista!).
The influence of Atlantic key cogs Jerry Wexler, Ahmet Ertegun, and Tom Dowd can't be underestimated in helping to create "The Queen of Soul"!
Thanks again for your candid reply, Matt! I'm game for another Tune Tag with you...your last one was last April, and I'm booked thru most of March '26 (for publication, I mean), so I'm game when you are....just drop me a tune in DMs when you can!
Seconding Brad's praise; this is an great piece of work!
Seeing your notes on the process I'm even more impressed. That's a lot of work, and it shows in the final results.
Thanks so much! I'm sure there may have been a more efficient way to tackle it, but my methods are what they are lol.
I’m glad that Sparkle at least made the top 10.
Angel is my all time AF song, check out the version by Kokomo on their debut album and I believe you will stunned about how great a song this truly is
My pleasure, keep the conversation going, Kokomo were a really underrated band that people now recognise as a superb group, check out their credentials
I heard it for the first time during my research! Great indeed :) thanks for reading!
Wow! This is quite an undertaking! I have to admit to only really knowing 2 of her albums: "Who's Zoomin' Who" and "Aretha." Of course, I know many of her individual songs but this post makes me want to dive into so many cuts I've never heard.
Amazing — thanks Dan!
Yes, yes, yes! No disagreements as to rank.
I'm glad you gave a decent ranking to "Hey Now Hey"- It's one of her more experimental pieces and shows how easily she could shift gears between genres, even between songs. But that weird cover? Psychedelic, man! She shouldn't have asked her then-boyfriend to do that....
Yeah, the cover gives me the heebie-jeebies for real. Thanks, David!
At least it makes it easier to identify- all of her other album covers seem to be similar headshots…
When I saw the title of your post, I was curious where “La Diva” would land. I kind of expected it to be around No. 40, so No. 37 is actually better than I thought. I haven’t listened to the full album, just snippets here and there. I wasn’t even aware of it until I started researching my Zulema piece (she did backing vocals on the album).
I’m generally a fan of Van McCoy’s productions, although this was one of his last before he died, and it’s probably a bit of a mixed bag on that front too. The fact that the album is no longer available says a lot about how highly she rated it herself 😁
The whole reissue saga for some of these Aretha Franklin albums is worthy of a separate post. Attempts Attempts at revisionist history going on. Thanks for reading!
And of course, Aretha's worst album, as you say, is a "Ferrari idling in traffic". When the lights turn green, she's off to the horizon, having made the world a far better place. The video of an elderly Aretha singing Natural Woman is indeed tear-inducing.
The best Aretha Franklin albums (since Amazing Grace was thrown in there and that is NOT a studio album) - nothing else should even be ranked because the albums aren't even worth talking about.
1. Aretha: Live At The Filmore West
This is single handedly the best album Aretha has ever done and will ever do. Aretha came out and proved to the hippies she was done and could come out her comfort zone and killed it. there is not a single album she's done that can compare to this. It's her magnum opus.
2. I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You
Aretha just sang her ass off on this one. Snapped all the way out for her Atlantic debut with that signature Memphis/Muscle Shoals sound. "Baby Baby Baby" alone is worth the price of admission (which is the hardest cut on the album).
3. Young Gifted & Black
A flawless Aretha Franklin album. The title track is just mind blowing. "Rock Steady" & "Day Dreaming" is worth the price of admission alone. What is phenomenal is that she went so hard on the Delfonics' "Didn't I Blow Your Mind" with her own sound. "All The King's Horses" and "A Brand New Me" are sorely underrated.
4. Lady Soul
It's a fucking rockin' album that flows. You can throw it on at a party or listen to it down the road cover to cover and it NEVER LETS YOU DOWN. Not a bad song on the album, a rare feat for Aretha, but it's her coming into her own with the Atlantic sound.
5. Amazing Grace
The definitive gospel album that set the gold standard for every gospel album in existence. "How I Got Over", "Mary Don't You Weep", and "Old Landmark" STILL killing, 50 years later.
6. Jump To It
This is the beginning of her Arista success. Luther Vandross pretty much took the album Cheryl Lynn was supposed to do and gave it to Aretha. Outside of the mid-tempo funky track, it's a fuck album. "Jump To It" still banging, as is, "Love Me Right", "If She Don't Want Your Lovin", "It's Just Your Love", "This Is For Real".
7. This Girl's In Love With You
The prelude to "Live At The Filmmore West". Aretha's a grown ass woman looking for her sound with this one, playing with different genres and it just fucking worked. It's more on the country funk side with "Son Of A Preacher Man" & Eleanor Rigby, playful with the NY backbeat with "Share Your Love With Me", experimental gospel with "Let It Be" and just Aretha R&B with the title track.
8. Let Me In Your Life
The "Lost The Weight" album, where Aretha was singing sultry and getting into more adult making love type albums. Orchestration is beautiful, especially on "I'm In Love", "Until You Come Back To Me", "Ain't Nothin' Like The Real Thing".
9. Get It Right
Another Luther Vandross/Marcus Miller produced Arista album as Aretha redefined her sound. Some might call it Jump To It Part 2 but c'mon, "Pretender" is worth it for the price of admission. It's a funky mid-tempo early 80s jam for half the album and for Aretha fans that like her slow ballads, that's the other half. Standouts are the title track, "Pretender", "When You Love Me Like That", "Every Guy Wants My Girl".
10. Hey Now Hey The Other Side Of The Sky
Aretha jumping out of her R&B Atlantic sound and trying her hand at prog. It is the R&B version of "Bitches Brew" by Miles Davis. Aretha is showing she's mastered the piano and vocals and is being playful doing untraditional rhythms/beats and trying to do an album of sound, not songs. Honestly, it's a masterpiece and worth it just for "Master of Eyes" and the title track.
11. One Love, One Faith, One Baptism
Aretha's Arista gospel album, and one that does feature Mavis Staples. Both women are at mid roads in their careers, have different voices/ranges than in the 1970s, and bringing it back to basics in the church. While not the powerhouse of Amazing Grace, this album can hold it's own against the Hawkins Family, the Winans Family, and anything James Cleveland was doing at the time.
12. Aretha
Another Arista banger that got a lot of video rotation. Aretha was proving at this point she could hang with her contemporaries in the late 1980s. "Jimmy Lee" and "Jumping Jack Flash" is the hot track, but "I Knew You Were Waiting For Me" and "Rock A Lott" ain't short stopping if you like that late 80s Rockish R&B that kept you on the dance floor.
13. Spirit In The Dark
The definitive divorce blues album, since Aretha was going through marital woes at the time and somehow that pain translated into this very darkish album. It's a very misunderstood album because it didn't generate the radio hits like Atlantic wanted but it was a solid album with solid production of Aretha starting to take chances and do things not expected of her in different genres, all backed by her incredible piano playing.
14. Sweet Passion
This is a funky ass album that gets no credit. Title track just fucking is IT (thank Lamont Dozier for that). Also, she KILLED this live. Go ask some gay guys about "Touch Me Up". Still banging on the dance floor 45 years later.
15. La Diva
The last Atlantic album. Ladies Only is Aretha's take on copying Diana Ross' layout of Love Hangover, and it's a good song once you get past that. "I Was Made To Love You" is pure Aretha, and a duet with Eric Robinson that is the standout on the album. Zulema Cusseaux also comes through and produces quite a few songs, like Half A Love and Things Are Going To Get A Bit Better. For the definitive Aretha Fan THIS is the crossover departure album to hold up until Jump To It.
Special shout out to Runnin' Out Of Fools
The album that every hip-hop head goes to because of the sampling that came out of it.
Sparkle
The definitive Aretha clawing for hits but Curtis Mayfield's production is unmatched. The issue people had with this album was not that it wasn't solid but that the girls from Sparkle didn't do it, and it was weird to have Aretha oversinging essentially what is a teenagerish soundtrack to a period piece with 1970s production. Having said that, this is Mayfield's magnum opus era with producing soundtracks (as Claudine, Let's Do It Again, Superfly, Short Eyes, and Piece of the Action are all in this group with Sparkle).
I'm calling a recount.
La Diva is easily in the 20-25 range. Are you kidding? Ladies Only is the business. I Was Made To Love You she did on SOUL TRAIN with ol' boy! The Zulema cuts on side B keep that album going past her lame ass throwaway mid temp gospel disco.
How the HELL is Hey Now Hey not top 10? That's literally her prog album. That's like Bitches Brew for R&B fans. Nope, ain't co-signing on that one.
Almighty Fire I have a special heart for because Curtis Mayfield produced it.
Sparkle (Curtis Mayfield produced), Get It Right (Luther Vandross produced), Jump To It (Luther Vandross produced), Who's Zoomin' Who (Michael Narada Walden produced) are ALL TOP 10 alongside Young Gifted and Black, Lady Soul, Amazing Grace, One Lord One Faith One Baptism.
Quit playing.
Comparing Hey Now Hey to Bitches Brew ... now that's a bold take.
It’s comparable because they are two definitive albums from an artist that took a detour from their signature sound and it come down to you either love it or hate it.
I guess ... I'm just not a huge fan of binary "love/hate" distinctions for an album. It's never that simple IMO. I think you can appreciate the ability on display on either album, but have an indifference to it emotionally. I think Bitches Brew is far more accomplished and daring than the Aretha LP, FWIW. To each their own. :)
No....certain albums you do either love or hate. When I first heard Bitched Brew at 16 I HATED IT. But you know what, the older I got the more I loved that fucking album. You never hear it the same twice, and for that it's genius. I can also play several cuts now off the album and it gives me a different appreciation for it. Other albums join this love/hate club like Marvin Gaye's "Hear My Dear". You can't even love that album until you're 30 years old and have went through shit.
Aretha caught pure-T HELL for doing Hey Now Hey from Jerry Wexler. It started the beginning of their disassociation with her, because she wanted to experiment and get into other things other than R&B. For the time, considering she started in Jazz and got the nerve to write most of an album herself (Wexler was vehemently against that), it's an incredible prog album and a detour from her signature Atlantic sound. Most people absolutely hate it for that reason alone and never gave it a fair shot. The tightest cut on the album was "Master Of Eyes (The Deepness Of Your Eyes)" which I loved the first time I heard it when I was 10. It also features the banging Angel (co-written with her by her sister Carolyn) and That's The Way I Feel About Cha (Bobby Womack). We ain't even going to talk about the title track, that hits from the first bar.
This list is biased as hell.