106. Aretha Franklin - I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You (March 1967)

1. Respect*

2. Drown in My Own Tears

3. I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)

4. Soul Serenade*

5. Don't Let Me Lose This Dream

6. Baby, Baby, Baby

7. Dr. Feelgood

8. Good Times

9. Do Right Woman, Do Right Man*

10. Save Me

11. A Change Is Gonna Come

A-

So I guess I'm the odd man out. As I said back with Otis: Blue, I don't really like this style of music. I like soul well enough, but not big, brassy singers who wander all over the place. And Aretha Franklin is very much the archetypal "big, brassy, wander all over the place" singer. I mean, just look at what she does to Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come" - she twists and warbles and testifies and basically ruins what was originally a very beautiful and direct piece of music.

Still, I can't help but rate this highly. I don't care for Aretha Franklin's style, but a lot of people do, and I can see why. And there are some beautiful songs here. She may have murdered Cooke, but Franklin's version of Otis Redding's "Respect" takes a mediocre song and transforms it into something utterly brilliant - a feminist anthem, really. And when Franklin starts belting out "R-E-S-P-E-C-T!" it's one of the great moments in pop music. 

Also gorgeous is "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man". Franklin reins things in a bit, vocally, and delivers a song that manages to be both sexy and smart, encouraging the listener to practice respect for oneself and others because if you can't do that, you're not going to get very far.

The rest of the album is very solid, but I'm not sure why people get so excited about it. I guess when it first came out, this album's approach was pretty novel. But then again, contemporary reviews didn't think much of it, and it's really only over time that its reputation has grown. Maybe this made it ahead of its time, or maybe it's just a solid collection of soul music with a couple of truly great songs jammed in for good measure. I tend towards the latter view, but that's just me. I mean, on one song Franklin tries and completely fails to be Dionne Warwick. Is this really the greatest album by a female of all time? I could name at least half a dozen better ones without even trying. Which isn't to say it's not a great album.

I guess it had a big impact, though. I don't know. I guess if you're glad Beyoncé and Mariah Carey exist, you have this album to thank. Make of that what you will.