Career-Spanning Aretha Franklin Box Set to Feature Hits, Unreleased Recordings

A new career-spanning Aretha Franklin box set will collect the Queen of Soul’s biggest hits alongside unreleased demos and alternate versions, rarities, live performances and more.

Aretha, due out digitally and as a four-CD set on November 20th via Rhino, charts Franklin’s entire career chronologically and across all record labels, from her debut 1956 single (“Never Grow Old” b/w “You Grow Closer”) to her stunning live rendition of “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” from the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors.

Of the 81 remastered tracks on Aretha, 19 are making their CD and digital debut, including a pair of 1966 demos recorded at Franklin’s home, “Try a Little Tenderness” and “My Kind of Town (Detroit Is),” the latter — which Rhino premiered Wednesday — a Motor City spin on Frank Sinatra’s Chicago ode.

A trio of unreleased early Seventies recordings with producer Quincy Jones, like the Franklin original “The Boy From Bombay” and an alternate version of her rendition of the Sondheim and Bernstein classic “Somewhere,” also feature within Aretha. Other never-heard demos and work tapes include “Angel,” “Until You Come Back to Me” and “Brand New Me.”

In addition to the box set, highlights from Aretha will also be parred down to double- and single-disc versions on November 20th.


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Aretha Tracklist

Disc One

1. “Never Grow Old”
2. “You Grow Closer”
3. “Today I Sing the Blues”
4. “Won’t Be Long”
5. “Are You Sure”
6. “Operation Heartbreak”
7. “Skylark”
8. “Runnin’ Out of Fools”
9. “One Step Ahead”
10. “(No, No) I’m Losing You”
11. “Cry Like a Baby”
12. “A Little Bit of Soul”
13. “My Kind of Town (Detroit Is)” – Demo *
14. “Try a Little Tenderness” – Demo *
15. “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)”
16. “Do Right Woman – Do Right Man”
17. “Respect”
18. “A Change Is Gonna Come”
19. “Chain of Fools” – Alternate Version
20. “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” – UK Single Version
21. “(Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You’ve Been Gone”
22. “Ain’t No Way”
23. “My Song”
24. “You Send Me”
25. “The House That Jack Built”
26. “Tracks of My Tears”

Disc Two
1. “Baby I Love You” – Live
2. “Son of a Preacher Man”
3. “Call Me” – Alternate Version *
4. “Let It Be”
5. “Young, Gifted And Black” – Alternate Longer Take *
6. “Bridge Over Troubled Water” – Long Version
7. “It’s Not Unusual/See Saw” – with Tom Jones *
   (Originally Broadcast On This Is Tom Jones, October, 9, 1970)
8. “You’re All I Need to Get By” – Work Tape *
9. “Brand New Me” – Work Tape *
10. “Spanish Harlem” – Alternate Mix *
11. “Rock Steady” – Alternate Mix/Take
12. “Day Dreaming”
13. “Share Your Love With Me” – Live
14. “Don’t Play That Song” – Live
15. “Dr. Feelgood” – Live
16. “Spirit In The Dark” (Reprise with Ray Charles) – Live
17. “How I Got Over” (Single Edit) – Live
18. “Master of Eyes (The Deepness Of Your Eyes)”

Disc Three
1. “Somewhere” – Alternate Version *
2. “Angel” – Work Tape *
3. “The Boy From Bombay” *
4. “Til It’s Over” – Demo *
5. “Oh Baby” (a.k.a. “There’s Something Magic About You”) – Demo *
6. “Until You Come Back To Me” – Work Tape *
7. “I’m in Love” – Alternate Vocal
8. “Without Love”
9. “Mr. D.J. (5 For The D.J.)”
10. “You”
11. “Something He Can Feel”
12. “Look Into Your Heart”
13. “Break It to Me Gently”
14. “When I Think About You”
15. “Almighty Fire (Woman Of The Future)”
16. “Ladies Only” – Short Version
17. “You Light Up My Life” *
18. “Ooo Baby Baby” – with Smokey Robinson *
   (Originally Broadcast On Soul Train, December 1, 1979)
19. “Amazing Grace”
   (Originally Broadcast On Royal Variety Performance, November 23, 1980)


Disc Four
1. “Think”
2. “I Say a Little Prayer” – with Dionne Warwick *
3. “United Together”
4. “Jump to It”
5. “The Wind”
6. “Freeway of Love”
7. “Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves” – Eurythmics & Aretha Franklin
8. “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me) – Aretha Franklin and George Michael
9. “Oh Happy Day” – with Mavis Staples (Live at New Bethel Baptist Church, Detroit, MI – July 1987)
10. “A Rose Is Still a Rose”
11. “Someday We’ll All Be Free”
12. “The Makings of You”
13. “Nessun Dorma” – Live
14. “At Last” – with Lou Rawls *
   (Originally Broadcast On American Soundtrack: Rhythm, Love And Soul, March 2003)
15. “You’ve Got a Friend” – Ronald Isley featuring Aretha Franklin
16. “Rolling in the Deep” – The Aretha Version
17. “My Country ’Tis of Thee”
18. “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” – Live *
   (Originally Broadcast On The 38th Annual Kennedy Center Honors, December 19. 2015)