Customer Reviews

This Girl's In Love With You

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This album is a masterpiece, and is my personal favorite of Aretha's secular Atlantic releases. It is absolute proof that when Aretha is "on," no one could (or can) touch her. TGILWY has some supernatural vocals -- all of the acrobatics, uncanny phrasing/timing, subtle interpretations, squalls, and different shadings of her late 60's/early 70's work are here, with a range that can at times just leave you dumbfounded. You can't help but wonder what kind of faces she made when she hit some of those notes.

With the sole exception of The Weight, each cut here is absolute perfection from a soul/blues perspective, seasoned with heavy doses of gospel influences. The Weight, while not awful, is certainly out of place in this set and some feel it doesn't belong in Aretha's catalog at all (although it was a moderate hit for her at the time).

But Aretha's interpretations of the two Beatles' songs are priceless, as is her cover of Son Of A Preacher Man. And the blues songs, Sit Down And Cry & It Ain't Fair are better heard than written about. Her own Call Me is southern soul at its finest, topped off by a beautifully understated string arrangement.

Sonically, this album is one of Atlantic's worst, with lots of airy "hiss." It's time for a true remastering, not what Rhino sometimes passes off as such. This is even more of a pity considering that this is one of Aretha's best efforts ever, and that's really saying something.

Aretha is a highly underrated blues/gospel pianist. TGILWY marks the final time when she would accompany herself on each and every song of an album.

As a hardcore Aretha fan that owns virtually everything she released, I've learned to tell it like it is when it comes to her music. Like any artist, she's had a few moments that don't do her justice but this album is NOT one of them. Sonic quality aside, I would highly recommend this album to anyone that wants more exposure to 'Ree beyond the endless greatest hits packages, or anyone that wants a sample of what the epitome of soul was back in early 1970.

Long live Queen Ree. May Rhino soon properly remaster this set AND release some outtakes from this time period that remain in the vaults.

Firstly, with March 25th looming, let's all wish the queen a very happy 62nd birthday. Certainly within the baby-boomer generation she was and still is the greatest female singer to arrive. We perhaps might allow Streisand to stand at Aretha's right hand, but all others are at least a step behind. You don't have to take my word for it; look among her work offered here on Amazon and just start counting how many of her albums average a full, filled-in five stars.

Aretha and her fans beheld a new decade as this one, originally Atlantic LP 8248 was released on January 15, 1970. It carried many sides that had already gained popularity as singles in '69: "The Weight" (Atlantic 2603 in February), "Share Your Love With Me" (Atlantic 2650 in July) and "Eleanor Rigby" & "It Ain't Fair" (Atlantic 2683 in October). Six days after the album came out "Call Me" & "Son Of A Preacher Man" made the two sides of another single (Atlantic 2706). Aretha had had first dibs on "Preacher Man" and initially took a pass, but then Dusty Springfield grabbed it and took her version into the Pop top 10 in late 1968; Aretha changed her mind about that one. Both versions are quite enjoyable. Later, in July, "Let It Be" would ride the b-side of "Don't Play That Song" (Atlantic 2751).

Speaking of remakes, with the title song, Aretha does again here what she managed with another song that had been a Dionne Warwick hit first, just like "I Say A Little Prayer." In each instance, she so magically recast the songs that I think if she'd sung them in a different language, you'd have difficulty convincing someone (even yourself!) that they were the same songs. Only the lyrics are your clue. I've read that when Aretha takes someone else's song, they can't take it back again. I don't know that I agree to the point of saying Warwick's versions of the two songs were no longer enjoyable - they are. But I do agree to the point that when Aretha recasts any song for her own interpretation, that version then becomes uniquely hers, and no one else can do it like her. If that's not genius, folks, what is?

This is Aretha's first album released in the 1970's. Then, she was not any longer as hot as her early days at Atlantic in 1967-1968 but she still managed to get TOP 20 albums and singles now and then.

THIS GIRL'S IN LOVE WITH YOU, released in January 1970, was mainly composed of remakes of other artists's hits: SON OF A PREACHER MAN, LET IT BE, DARK END,...

In my opinion, the best tracks here are the hit single from the album (CALL ME) and the superb ELEANOR RIGBY, which sounds even better than the original, with its R&B arrangement.

It's not Aretha's best work but it's close. Not enough original material maybe. The LET IT BE remake is awful, SON OF A PREACHER MAN is not as good as the original but all these songs together with a few good songs and the two great tracks make this collection a rather good one.

Back in the day, when Aretha Franklin covered another artist's record, they had to run for cover. Franklin was never an "imitator." When she re-did another artist's song, she transformed it from the ordinary to extraordinary and from good to great.

I have seen her "live" doing this from Carnegie Hall to Philharmonic Hall. One night at Carnegie Hall, she took on Natalie Cole ("This Will Be"), Mavis Staples ("Let's Do It Again"), David Ruffin ("Walk Away From Love") and brought the house down with Debbie Boone's "You Light Up My Life." After that medley, a young man quietly approached the stage to touch the hem of her garment, turned and went back to his seat. The audience was in complete disaray, screaming, shouting and weeping.

When Aretha looks back at her discography, she can be proud. What a body of glorious work, this album included. I love "Call Me," "Share Your Love With Me," "This Girl's in Love With You," "Eleanor Rigby," all of this stuff is priceless.

LONG LIVE THE QUEEN!

If I had to pick my top 3 favorite Aretha albums, This Girl's in Love with You would be one of them (the other two are I Never Loved a Man and Soul 69). Personnally, I found this album more enjoyable than what what was to be her next album, Spirit in the Dark. Her version of "Son of a Preacher Man" is a classic example of Aretha's talent of taking someone else's material (in this case Dusty Springfield) and revolutionizing the sound. The other tracks of the album grew on me, such as the Aretha classic, "Call Me". Her version of "Sit Down and Cry" is both sexy, subtle and a gut-bucket of emotion, reminiscent of the raw emotion in "I Never Loved a Man." Her brilliant, near-transcendent cover of "Dark End of the Street" is for me the highlight. The concept of the song is beautiful and Aretha interprets it lyrically and, not uncharacteristically, with wonderful power

I was in the air force when this one came out. My former roomates probably still know the words to these songs, even after all these years, because it was rarely off my turntable for months. Ok that may be akin to brainwashing or torture, but they were always free to leave the room, haha. My second most preferred album release from the Queen. The thing is, she pulls it off big style, despite the fact that most of these songs are covers. (Son Of A Preacher Man was originally written for her, just so's you know.) Anyway, she absolutely makes the songs her own. Know any artist that can do that to her? I don't think so. The only song on here that I could have lived without is The Weight. Kinda hard to funk that one up, haha, even the combined might of the Temptations and Supremes couldn't do it either on their album, "Take the load off Annie, take the load for free"....uh, don't think I will, LOL, however, you quickly forget about Annie (and her load) when you head on over to the next jam, the emotive "Call Me". Talk about singing from the depths of your soul, man!! It touched the depths of mine and made me wanna "Sit Down And Cry", the next jam by the way, LOL, and a great finish to a most enjoyable audience with Lady Soul.

See, here's my problem with Aretha Franklin: since she loves her covers, she's often at the mercy of the material. So if the original song is as laughable and insulting as the title track, you know her cover is going to be, too. The converse holds true as well. To use an example from this album, if the original was spectacular in the first place (Her take on "The Weight" is underrated and has Duane setting metaphorical fire to his slide guitar; "Let It Be", actually quite touching other than a crap organ sound). To use examples from other albums, we'll take "Respect", "Border Song", and "I've Been Loving You too Long". Sterling originals giving sterling covers. Keep in mind that these are just those broad, sweeping, rock-critic generalizations I used before and will sporadically use again on this page, and there are exceptions to each rule. She sure took "Eleanor Rigby" to the slaughter, giving a full head of steam to a song that demands a more sensitive reading (but not a morose one, like Ray Charles gives it!). Needless to say, I adore the Beatles' version. Meanwhile, as much as I hate to admit a version of "Son of a Preacher Man" is good, this is easily the best cover of the overrecorded song I've heard. Yeah, I am biased against Dusty Springfield, and all of Burt Bacharach's other slaves. What are you going to do about it? Now, I've never heard Bobby "Blue" Bland's "Share Your Love with Me", but Lady Soul presents us with a power-packed cover. Worth it? Oh yeah. Aretha's lone original is also worth it: the beautiful but slightly bombastic "Call Me", Ron Miller (a professional songwriter who saddled Stevie Wonder with some crimes against humanity- as well as the admittedly first-rate, but slightly cornball "For Once in My Life" - during the latter's younger days) drops a wonderful blues song, "It Ain't Fair". Clyde Otis and Lou Stallman (does anybody know who either of them are?) give her a solid excuse to belt, "Sit Down and Cry". So what's wrong with this album? A bit. I already mentioned two of the three atrocities; the third, "The Dark End of the Street", is the lesser of the three evils but suffers from some dated orchestral swellings. For what it's worth, I find it really amusing that that song (now a pop standard) is about cheating on someone, because I have the maturity level of a dead goat.

Dusty Springfield's version of the title track is still the definitive version in my opinion. Strangely, it's the same case with "Son of A Preacher Man". Aretha's version is fine, but nowhere near as good as Dusty's.

But Aretha's work here is stellar, and certainly making the case that she is the Queen of Soul. No question!