Fascinating and revealing...

For those fans who aren't familiar with Aretha's Columbia work, this collection will be a revelation. I agree with another reviewer that Aretha sometimes sounds uncomfortable and that the arrangements are often conventional and forgettable. Still, within these constraints, Aretha is a force of nature! She frequently transcends the material, especially when she stops trying to sound like Dinah Washington and allows her gospel training to take over. I defy anyone to not get chills when she connects with the spirit. This collection loses points for pedestrian material and arrangements, but it's still valuable as a testament to Aretha's overwhelming talent. Well worth owning.

Maybe Not The Queen Of Soul But Ever So Appealing

Although I'm a huge Aretha Franklin fan, for years I've steared clear of the Columbia recordings. Critics have accused Columbia Execs of misguiding the fledging talent of young Aretha and choosing material ill-suited to her gospel roots. Yes some of this material is questionable at best. Take for instance the English ballard Lee Cross or the Tin Pan Alley standard Bill Bailey. Aretha sounds uninspired and uncomfortable. But there is much here to relish as we hear this oh so promising 19 year old working her way through Maybe I'm A Fool, Today I Sing The Blues and Try A Little Tenderness.

True Jerry Wexler and Atlantic Records tapped into the vast resevouir of Areatha's talent by putting her gospel roots up front and backing her up with the deft rhythm section of the Muscle Shoals Swamppers. However, I find these early sides ever so refreshing. Had Areatha continued along this path, I believe her vast talent would have ultimately won her an audience. She may have not become the Queen Of Soul, but she would have found a place in the hearts of those who enjoy great R&B singers the likes of Dinah Washington, Nancey Wilson and Carmen McRea. Kudos to Columbia for assembling this very appealing package.

Not classic, but still pretty cool

Aretha Franklin started her career singing in her father's gospel choir; many know the legend of how the great A&R man John Hammond picked her voice out of the many in the chorus off of a tape someone sent him, and searched her out to offer her a contract at Columbia Records. (The less glamorous verrsion is that she sent him a regular old demo tape and he was likewise floored by what he heard..) Common wisdom has it that Franklin's Columbia years are subpar and that it wasn't until Atlantic's Jerry Wexler got ahold of her that things really started to cook. There's a lot to be said for that theory; her voice definitely dwarves most of the arrangements heard on this 1960-65 set, mainly simple approximations of the formulae that had made Dinah Washington and Mahalia Jackson into pop-crossover divas. But it's still pretty cool to hear Aretha working through the lush pop stylings of a pre-Motown world, and astonishing to realze what a tremendous voice she had, even at such an early age. It ain't Aretha that's holding things back, she's just working within the conventions of the time. Her fans will not be disappointed, though -- this 2-CD set definitely delivers the goods on her formative years, and even though ultimately this wasn't the right material for her to sing, she holds her own in comparison to Dinah and the others. Not bad for a kid.