Aretha Franklin – Aretha Arrives (1967): While not nearly so seminal as Aretha Franklin’s previous album (and her first for Atlantic Records), I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You (1967) – which features two of her greatest songs, “Respect” and of course “I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)” – her 11th album Aretha Arrives features the million-selling hit “Baby, I Love You” and has many of the same backing musicians that were on the prior album. For this album, Aretha Franklin accompanies herself on piano on most of the songs and presents an astonishing range of songs: the Rolling Stones smash “Satisfaction”, the timeless mountain folk song “You Are My Sunshine”, “That’s Life” (a Frank Sinatra hit from the year before), the Willie Nelson song “Night Life”, and even the garage rock song “96 Tears” (originally by the Mexican-American garage rock band Question Mark and the Mysterians, and one of the few true garage rock classics that were omitted from Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968). Clearly, the “Queen of Soul” can handle it all. You think perhaps I am overstating the matter? I once saw Aretha Franklin sing an operatic aria (in Italian) at the Grammys when famed tenor Luciano Pavarotti was unable to perform at the last minute.
