Customer Reviews

Love Songs

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the collection I've been waiting for! It is time for everyone to experience that pure, beautiful sultry voice of Aretha at her best, interpreting those glorius love songs from back in the day. There are too many younger folk who have not had the luxury of hearing the real purity of her voice. With these wonderful arrangements and her unique interpretations, you will listen again and again and rediscover what really made her great!

when I Hear Older Albums by Aretha Franklin it brings back so many Great thoughts.Her Soulful Pipes always warmed my heart,mind&soul.SHe can't be touched by anything out now.She is in a class all unto Herself Here as you can feel after listening to this set.Classic Aretha is a must.

Beautiful melodies are not written like this anymore and those rich arrangements are so nostalgic. Noone but Aretha and that pure vocalizing back in the day could do justice to those tunes.For those of you who are to young to remember the Aretha of the 60's,get this CD and enjoy!

I have loved Aretha Franklin for as long as I can remember and have at least 10 CD's by her. This collection of songs is the best I've ever heard. The way Aretha sings "You Send Me," This Girl's in Love with You," Look into Your Heart" and "A Brand New Me" brings chills up and down my spine. However, when you hear my favorite, "If You Don't Think," you will truly understand why she is, without doubt, THE UNDISPUTED QUEEN OF SOUL! I continually set the repeat botton on my CD player to hear her sing "If You Don't Think" over and over again. She sings the blues like I've never heard it before and hits notes that you wouldn't believe! Trust me, you've got to get this CD!

In the six pages of liner notes written by Norma Edwards she begins by saying "Some think that Aretha Franklin was crowned the Queen of Soul for her reign over the R&B (and pop) charts in the '60s and early '70s. I believe she got the name because she is the best at conveying her deepest feelings, her soul, through song and music." Amen to that.

However, I have to agree with David Nathan in the official blurb above. Rhino, with a wealth of Atlantic "love song" selections to choose from [55 R&B Hot 100 singles from 1967 to 1979, 45 of which also made the Billboard pop Hot100 (another 16 scored on the Adult Contemporary charts after their introduction in 1961) - not to mention countless album cuts - instead elected to include Natural Woman and Baby I Love You for - to quote Mr. Nathan - "the umpteenth time."

Natural Woman is also available on dozens of multi-artist compilations for that era. It's not as if Rhino needed a "hook" to sell the CD. Any Aretha Franklin compilation will sell merely on its own merits, regardless of content. Just consider the 15 Grammy Awards, Grammy's Living Legend Award [1990] and Lifetime Achievement Award [1994], plus the fact that she was the first woman to be inducted into the R&R Hall of Fame [1987]. Just the name Aretha Franklin guarantees sales.

With the liner notes are several more nice photographs of Aretha, and a complete contents discography along with a list of the Atlantic albums which first contained each of the 16 selections.

A nice summation is the Aretha quote in the liner notes which first appeared in Newsweek in August 1967: "(Soul) is the ability to make other people feel what you're feeling. It's hard to laugh when you want to cry. Some people can hide it. I can't, so when I sing it doesn't come across fake." It most certainly does not.

Nice collection of soulful, romantic ballads. The only things missing are a scotch on the rocks and billows of cigarette smoke.

THIS COULD BE CALLED THE BEST OF THE ARISTA YEARS! A VERY GOOD SELECTION OF SOME OF HER BEST! NOW IF SHE COULD ONLY REPEAT SOME OF THIS QUALITY WORK IN HER UPCOMING RECORDINGS!

This cd is awesome in that it focuses on key Franklin recordings that (some) weren't released as singles and are lost gems. "Come to Me" was an under-appreciated single and is a great song and performance. "Kind of Man" is a song I thought I'd never hear again - an Aretha "tour de force"...also great duets "If Ever..", "Love All The..." and newer single "A Rose Is Still A Rose" which brings the essemce of Aretha and this collection home. Highly recommended!

If you are a fan of Aretha in the later contemporary years, this is your best selection. There are a couple of songs from the 1980 LP "Aretha" (United Together & Come to Me) and some other big songs like "Love All the Hurt Away" and "There's a Star for Everyone."
Best bet: "United Together"

This is a great set that includes some choice non-album and/or non-top 40 songs from Aretha. It's a fantastic value, especially in light of the quality of music. Besides the hit tracks, gems like the Aretha-penned and -produced "He'll Come Along" and "He's The Boy" are alone worth the price of this budget-priced CD.

Why only four stars? Because there are more songs that could have been included in this set, rather than duplicate ones from the "Greatest Hits 1980-1994" collection. In addition, I don't know if "Willing To Forgive" and "Another Night" are really what I would consider love songs as most people understand love songs to be.

But having said that, this "Love Songs" is a nice companion set to the Sony and Rhino collections with the same titles. With all 3, you get a more than casual view of some of Aretha's best non-mainstream work from each phase of her career. Recommended.