Aretha's Best

Aretha Franklin | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 15, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Atlantic
• ASIN: B00005BC9B
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #51,060 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #96 in Music > R&B > Soul > Southern Soul

Editorial Reviews

Aretha Franklin, Aretha's Best

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

95 of 97 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars You Can Do Better Than This Collection, March 4, 2003

By 

Gavin B. (St. Louis MO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Aretha's Best (Audio CD)

This is a so-so collection of Arthea's Greatest Hits. The only virtue of this particular collection is that it's inexpensive. The double CD "30 Greatest Hits" is a far better snapshot of Aretha in her prime. If you really want a comprehensive collection of Aretha, the 4 CD "Queen of Soul" is the gold standard of Aretha's work. The problem with "Aretha's Best" and "30 Greatest Hits" is that they cover Aretha's radio hits, some of which have been played to death. Quite a few people are unaware of Aretha's jewels like underrated "Spirit In the Dark", the Curtis Mayfield collaboration, "Sparkle" or "Amazing Grace" a brilliant gospel album she did with the Southern California Community Choir. Indeed, much of Aretha's most heartfelt and soulful music is omitted from these less comprehensive collections. There are two buying strategies for obtaining a great Aretha collection: 1) Buy the 4 CD "Queen of Soul" collection or; 2) Buy a half a dozen or so orginal releases like, "Never Loved A Man", "Spirit In the Dark", "Amazing Grace", "Sparkle", "Aretha Arrives" and "Young Gifted and Black". If you purchase "Aretha's Best", you are cheating yourself of most of Aretha's Franklin's amazing legacy. She deserves a closer listening than this collection, because she is after all the first and the best of the so called "divas", and has more soul in her little finger than the whole lot of the bloodless, octave swooping singers of today. Hail to the Queen of Soul...

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice Place To Start, January 7, 2002

By 

J. M. Zuurbier (Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Aretha's Best (Audio CD)

This is a good collection for the casual fan of Aretha, or new fans starting out. A better compilation is the 30 Greatest Hits CD, which spans most of her career. This album pays much attention to her 70's and 80's hits, where she still reigned as the Queen of Soul, but if you want the real deal about Aretha, check out 30 Greatest Hits or some of her Gospel albums, as well her live albums such as Live At The Fillmore West and Live In Paris, those are all golden albums by Aretha!

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Aretha Deserves Better!, June 29, 2003

By 

Joe Taravella - See all my reviews

This review is from: Aretha's Best (Audio CD)

I am not what you would call a "huge" Aretha fan, but I must say I love all of her big hits!

Well when I found this collection and saw that all of her essentials were on here and also noticed that this was from Rhino, I went out and bought it. Well Rhino, for the first time, you have me really dissapointed.

This CD's main problem is sound quality; now I'm not a professional on dropouts and mono and stereo and things like that, but I know when something does not sound right. Is it just me or does the instrumental section on "The House That Jack Built" really sound very distorted? And "Chain of Fools" has seen better days.

An artist like Aretha deserves much better than this. I really must say from a great company like Rhino, I cannot believe they couldn't make a better collection.

This is great music, but not a great collection.