Aretha Franklin - The Queen of Soul [Spain Import]

Before the Atlantic hits made her a legend, Aretha Franklin spent the early 1960s at Columbia, and The Queen of Soul gathers eighteen recordings from that formative chapter on limited 180-gram vinyl, imported from Spain.

Signed as a teenager after her gospel beginnings in Detroit, Franklin was steered by Columbia toward jazz standards, torch songs and pop ballads, often framed by lush orchestral arrangements. Those years are sometimes overlooked in favour of what came later, but they reveal a singer of extraordinary range and control, already capable of turning a familiar tune into something entirely her own.

Won't Be Long swings with a bluesy kick that hints at the fire to come, while Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody became one of her early hits, delivered with brassy confidence. Try a Little Tenderness is slower and more intimate, recorded years before the song became a soul standard, and Over the Rainbow shows just how much feeling she could pour into a ballad.

It is a fascinating portrait of a young genius finding her footing, with flashes of the Queen of Soul shining through every track. A rewarding listen for anyone who wants the full story behind the crown, and a reminder that the voice was extraordinary from the very start.