Search - Aretha Franklin :: Jazz to Soul

Operation Heartbreak !

L. E STOTTLEMEYER | KCMO | 03/18/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In 1961 (Oh by the way I love the cover photo of a very beautiful young Aretha) In 1961 before the constant array of hits started to flow at Atlantic records Aretha had a top R&B hit on the national charts. It's one of those classic pieces of soul music- In fact it's one of the best soul ballads of the early 60's. The long forgotten "Operation Heartbreak". This is the only cd available that contains this classic featuring a youthful sounding Aretha. Al Issacs in the early to mid 90's in Birmingham,Alabama on WATV used to play this classic on his Saturday blues show. Some had heard it for the first time but the response to the song was always phenomenal. I now feature this classic on my Dr.Blues and Boogie show that I'm trying diligently to get syndicated."

Queen of Soul delivers soulful jazzy, bluesy sound

F. Wells | Baton Rouge, LA | 07/24/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I always listen to disc 1 of this compilation of jazz and blues by the Queen of Soul whenever I,m winding down from a long hard day. It helps me to relax, and Aretha delivers a great soulful sound. Her strong gospel background is evident in her style of singing."

Buyer beware

James Tg Fuentes | quezon city Philippines | 01/24/2010

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Columbia records has, on occassion, been always a bit on the defensive whenever the subject of her glorious work on the Atlantic label is discussed in any of the former label's compilations. This one does exactly that. In one instance, one track is being compared to one of aretha's hits on atlantic, suggesting that had she stayed with her former label, great things would have come...nevermind languishing for nearly 7 years...



However, I do agree that some of her best work for Columbia is presented here and in remastered and remixed form. One may even suspect that the engineers went straight for the original master tapes because some tracks like "lee cross" and "won't be long" are longer in duration than the previously available versions. My only disappointment is the audio quality where there was too much noise reduction giving the tracks a "filtered" sound. For someone (like me) who has been raised on analog and is used to noise as both a natural part of recordings and thus a natural part of the listening experience, this makes for an unpleasant one.



If i were to talk about the songs in the cd per se, this is one great buy, but given my issue with the way it was remastered, i'd say caveat emptor."