Aretha Franklin - Greatest Hits (1980-1994)

Aretha Franklin | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 22, 1994)
• Original Release Date: February 22, 1994
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Arista
• ASIN: B000002VN3
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,562 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #73 in Music > R&B > Quiet Storm

Track Listings

1. Freeway of Love

2. I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)

3. Jump to It

4. Willing to Forgive

5. Doctor's Orders

6. United Together

7. Who's Zoomin' Who

8. A Deeper Love

9. Honey

10. Get It Right

11. Another Night

12. Ever Changing Times

13. Jimmy Lee

14. (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman

15. I Dreamed a Dream

16. Jumpin' Jack Flash

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

When Aretha Franklin signed with Arista Records, marking the end of the 13-year tenure at Atlantic that saw her transform both her own art and the face of soul music itself, she was at loose ends. Even when she scored hits for the new label, they were often the result of casting about for a commercial foothold in the post-disco marketplace rather than the savvy combination of pure artistry and smart trend-watching of her greatest Atlantic moments. Thus, the tracks collected on Greatest Hits (1980-1994) are hardly her most essential; "Jump to It" and "Freeway of Love" are fun, but "Jimmy Lee" and the George Michael duet "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" reflect fairly dull accommodations with '80s pop conventions. --Rickey Wright

Product Description

This edition features a bonus track: 'Jumping Jack Flash'. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hits from the 1980s and beyond, July 27, 2004

By 

Pieter "Toypom" (Johannesburg) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Aretha Franklin - Greatest Hits: 1980-1994 (Audio CD)

Aretha's star seemed to fade during the disco era of the middle to late 1970s, but then she made a comeback. This collection covers her time on Arista from 1980 to 1994 and distils the best work from five albums. It includes the huge hits Freeway Of Love and the duet I Knew You Were Waiting For Me (with George Michael). Other impressive songs include Jump To It, Doctor's Orders (with Luther Vandross) and Get It Right. I also like Willing To Forgive, Ever Changing Times, A Deeper Love and this version of Natural Woman featuring Bonnie Raitt and Gloria Estefan. Her version of Jumpin' Jack Flash is quite a tour de force with Keith Richards doing his thing on electric guitar. Although I prefer her classic work from the 1960s and 1970s like Spanish Harlem, Respect and her exquisite rendition of Bridge Over Troubled Water, this collection demonstrates that she found lots of new spark in the 1980s and contributed a memorable body of work in that and the following decade.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reigning still, October 14, 2007

By 

Barrett (Washington, D.C. United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Aretha Franklin - Greatest Hits (1980-1994) (Audio CD)

Even those of us who regard Aretha as peerless can be forgiven for letting some of her goings-on between 1980 and '94 pass us by. After all, other than a half-dozen of her Atlantic releases, the queen's albums have been erratic affairs; and at Arista (the label covered on this compilation), where she was produced by the likes of Narada Michael Walden and Luther Vandross (and even lesser lights), was there much reason to expect anything more? As it turns out, yes. In both material and arrangements during this period, Aretha may have moved away from the soul-fired R&B of her greatest records, but instead she unfurled yet another side of her phenomenal gift: the ability to church-ify pop without obliterating it. So we get 15 impassioned gems, only a few of which made pop radio (and one of which, the astonishing "A Deeper Love," was a soundtrack-only item). The quality here is so consistent, it may just send you back to the cutout bins to which Arista has consigned most of the original albums -- not to mention this one. You'll be glad you took the trouble to seek it out.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Her best from 1980-94 plus a few new tracks., January 1, 2007

By 

Justo Roteta (Los Angeles, California United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Aretha Franklin - Greatest Hits (1980-1994) (Audio CD)

Aretha Franklin's Arista recordings are filled with as many hits as misses. Whereas her Luther Vandross-produced sets ("Get It Right" and "Jump To It") were both excellent most of her other releases were simply too trendy and overproduced. While I won't deny that Aretha experienced a deserved career revival during the mid-'80s I'll also say that there were many embarassing moments on virtually all of her post-1984 Arista albums. This IS a good collection of her post-Atlantic work but most of her Arista LPs simply don't hold a candle to her 1967-74 Atlantic works.