Aretha Franklin - Love Letters - Non-Album Tracks (1973-1974)

Here's the last in my series of albums gathering up Aretha Franklin's stray tracks from her golden era, 1967 to 1974. This covers 1973 to 1974.

Like the other albums in this series, I rely on the rarities compilation "Rare and Unreleased Recordings from the Golden Reign of the Queen of Soul." Four of the songs are from that.

Two others are from Franklin's acclaimed 1972 gospel album "Amazing Grace." A lot of people consider that one of the best albums of her career. But it's a very religious album, and I'm not a religious person. Furthermore, most of it doesn't appeal to me musically, with a lot of slow songs, including long call and response sections, talking and preaching sections, and so on.

However, there are two songs from that album I do like, that show how soul music evolved from gospel: "How I Got Over" and "Old Landmark." You may remember James Brown doing "Old Landmark" in a great church scene in the 1980 "Blues Brothers" movie. If you're like me and you only dabble in gospel music, you'll like these two songs. 

As for the remaining songs, "Just a Lucky So and So" is unreleased and was performed for a TV special celebrating jazz great Duke Ellington. "The Boy from Bombay" and "Til It's Over" come from the 2021 box set "Aretha." "Master of Eyes (The Deepness of Your Eyes)" was released as a single in 1973. "Feel a Little Love" and "Springtime in New York" are both unreleased studio takes, but have very good sound quality.

This album is 41 minutes long.

01 The Boy from Bombay (Aretha Franklin)
02 Just a Lucky So and So (Aretha Franklin)
03 At Last (Aretha Franklin)
04 Love Letters (Aretha Franklin)
05 Master of Eyes [The Deepness of Your Eyes] (Aretha Franklin)
06 Ain't but the One (Aretha Franklin & Ray Charles)
07 Are You Leaving Me (Aretha Franklin)
08 Til It's Over (Aretha Franklin)
09 Feel a Little Love (Aretha Franklin)
10 Springtime in New York (Aretha Franklin)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15112487/ArethaF_1973-1974_LovLetters_atse.zip.html

I made the cover based on a concert photo from the Muhammad Ali Variety Special, on May 16, 1975.