Show a little respect for the Queen

What can you say about the Queen of Soul. She’s been there, seen it, done it.

Jenna Bachelor

If you’ve always wanted to know what the fuss was about here are 43 tracks which sum up the lady’s seemingly never ending career.

Even none-music lovers must have heard her most defining moments – Respect, Spanish Harlem, Natural Woman and Say A Little Prayer.

More recently she’s had to rely on star-name duets to maintain her success (or rather those star names called on her services to add weight to their songs).

So we have Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves with Eurythmics and I Knew You Were Waiting with George Michael (her only UK number 1).

CD one is the killer album, where those early classics rub shoulders with other great R&B standards – hence Son of a Preacher Man and Stevie Wonder’s Until You Come Back To Me.

Thankfully, her most recent output is kept to a minimum. Her attempt to go disco in the early 80s (Jump To It) is ignored completely, as is, disappointingly, her reworking of the Doobie Brothers What A Fool Believes.

The exception to that rule is 1997’s A Rose Has To Die, a Lauryn Hill composition which uses the latest production techniques to the full.

It’s a world away from those 60s gems but proof, if proof were needed, that given the right material, Aretha Franklin can still do the business.

Respect in released on Warner / BMG 0927470542