"Aretha" by Aretha Franklin (1961)

Known variously as "Aretha", "Aretha Franklin With The Ray Bryant Combo" or "The First 12 Sides" this delightful debut album finds nineteen year old gospel singer following the direction of her good friend and idol Sam Cooke who had earlier stepped out of the successful but limited market of religious music and exchanged it for greener pastures of pop hits. It all came with the approval and the blessing of her preacher father so its interesting to note where young Franklin initially saw herself - as a jazzy, nightclub singer performing standards that she soaked in trough recordings of other artists, like "Over The Rainbow" and Broadway show tunes. Much was made about "Columbia Records" alleged inability to understand young artist's potential and while its true it didn't pay off in commercial terms, personally I believe its not so much about recording company as about the timing - Sam Cooke and Marvin Gaye were also recording albums with jazz standards at the time and ladies like Nancy Wilson were indeed successful doing exactly same kind of material. Like so many artists with church background, Franklin simply had to discover her place in popular music and for a while she tried really hard to be all grown-up, serious and sassy mama like Dinah Washington.

Nothing wrong with the album itself - it actually might be one of my favourites from all her "Columbia" period. If you don't know anything about her and hear this for the first time, the impression is about very young, talented and confident singer with a enormous potential and very likable, confident swagger. "You came on like a big deal and all that you could beg me, listen mister Big Wheel all you do is drag me" warns this bold young woman, in hindsight creating path for future "Respect". The small combo behind her really cooks and singer herself shows endearing versatility, her strong, passionate voice easily switching between tenderness and roar - perhaps nightclub jazz repertoire was not really her place but she was sensational nevertheless and its unfair to compare her to Holidays and Fitzgeralds from previous generations, since she came up from completely different world. This was the time when Afro-Americans strived to break into places like Las Vegas and Copacabana nightclub, so jazz standards were things to do. Maybe it didn't create any hit singles and left no impact sales-wise but people had heard and listened - across the ocean, Dusty Springfield was impressed enough to cover "Won't Be Long" on her own "Ev'rything's Coming Up Dusty" album and this was all before Franklin actually became big as soul singer.