Aretha Franklin - The Columbia Years, Volume 2 - Selected Best Tracks (1964-1966)

Note that, back in 2018, I posted an album at this blog of Aretha Franklin's tenure at her first record company, Columbia Records. It was simply called "The Columbia Years." Last month (August 2021), a new box set of her entire music career was released, simply called "Aretha." Listening to that, I found some good songs from her Columbia time period that I'd missed. Then I went back and listened to more of her stuff from that time period, and found more. 

The net result was that I found enough material to turn a single album about 45 minutes long into two albums that long. So, if you're interested in this music at all, note that this is called "Volume 2," and make sure you get "Volume 1" as well. The songs are in rough chronological order, and this covers the second half of that time. But, in my opinion, her musical sound was fairly consistent during her time at Columbia, so "Volume 1" is just as good as "Volume 2."

1964 was a particularly busy year for Franklin. She recorded four albums that year, though one of them was shelved until much later. So most of the songs here come from that year. I believe she last recorded for Columbia in 1965, though some of it wasn't released until 1966. As far as I can tell, she didn't record any albums in 1966. But in early 1967 she cut a new album for Atlantic Records ("I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You") that would be a big hit and send her on the path to becoming a superstar.

As a whole, I like her music on Atlantic Records much better than what she did for Columbia. That said, I selected the songs that I considered the best, which usually are also the ones with a similar sound to her Atlantic style. I tended to avoid the syrupy ballads with lots of strings in favor of more soulful songs. Most of these could have fitted on her late 1960s albums without anyone blinking an eye. So if you like those you should like this stuff, though there are fewer uptempo songs.

This album is 46 minutes long. Please don't forget to check out Volume 1. Here's the link for that:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2018/08/aretha-franklin-columbia-years-various.html

01 Lee Cross (Aretha Franklin)
02 A Little Bit of Soul (Aretha Franklin)
03 Nobody Knows The Way I Feel This Morning (Aretha Franklin)
04 Evil Gal Blues (Aretha Franklin)
05 Soulville (Aretha Franklin)
06 I'll Keep On Smiling (Aretha Franklin)
07 Every Little Bit Hurts (Aretha Franklin)
08 The Shoop Shoop Song [It's in His Kiss] (Aretha Franklin)
09 Walk On By (Aretha Franklin)
10 One Room Paradise (Aretha Franklin)
11 Running Out of Fools (Aretha Franklin)
12 Muddy Water (Aretha Franklin)
13 One Step Ahead (Aretha Franklin)
14 [No, No] I'm Losing You (Aretha Franklin)
15 Can't You Just See Me (Aretha Franklin)
16 Take a Look (Aretha Franklin)
17 Cry like a Baby (Aretha Franklin)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15112471/ArethaF_1964-1966_ColmbiaYearsVolume2_atse.zip.html

After splitting the original "Columbia Years" album I made in two, I decided to make new covers for both parts. I was only album to find one good color photo of Franklin from the right time period, but one was enough! :) This is a promo photo from 1964.