Aretha Franklin [2017] - A Brand New Me: Aretha Franklin (With The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) [Rhino]

It's still very slow this week for good quality new releases so today may well be an Aretha or at least an Aretha related day!

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra have just released an album of orchestral re-workings of the Motown songbook but this one of Aretha Franklin songs somehow passed me by when released in 2017. It spans her 'golden period' on Atlantic from 1966-79 with the latest recording being "Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing" from 1974 all given the orchestral treatment.

I think my favourites on here are "Until You Come Back To Me", "Oh Me Oh My", "Angel" and "You're All I Need To Get By", but as far as I'm concerned Aretha could sing the phone book (remember those?) and it would sound good. She is undoubtedly the undisputed Queen Of Soul and always will be. 

It may surprise you to learn that she only ever had one solo #1 Billboard Hot 100 hit with "Respect" in 1967. Her only other, believe it or not, was the duet with George Michael in 1987 with "If I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)"! However, fifteen others were top 10 and twenty reached the top spot on the R&B chart. She is second only to James Brown of the highest rated soul artists in terms of chart positions of all time and is equal to Stevie Wonder in terms of R&B #1 hits.

P.S. I'm building a Spotify playlist of some of the better covers of Aretha tunes that I can find and will post when it's complete, but have posted a few that are only available on YouTube for now.