Aretha's Best [Best of]

There are many Aretha Franklin collections out there. Some might say that the Queen Of Soul box set is the most brief and detailed overview for the one and only Aretha Franklin, but when Aretha's Best was issued in 2001, it was turning out to be a best-of collection. For some people, Aretha's Best is the inexpensive collection, but there a couple of flaws here. First of all, the tracklisting is weak but, remember this is just the beginner. Songs like Respect, Rock Steady, & You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman is on this collection. This collection doesn't go that far, maybe from 1967 to 1984. Unlike this collection, the Queen Of Soul collection has a lot of songs for the total of 86 classics, which is way too much for the beginner, like me. So I would buy Aretha's Best or 30 Greatest Hits because I'm not a casual Aretha Franklin collector or fan. You might not feel comfortable listening to this collection, but this is for the beginner. So, enjoy and listen to the Queen Of Soul.

I am not what you would call a "huge" Aretha fan, but I must say I love all of her big hits!

Well when I found this collection and saw that all of her essentials were on here and also noticed that this was from Rhino, I went out and bought it. Well Rhino, for the first time, you have me really dissapointed.

This CD's main problem is sound quality; now I'm not a professional on dropouts and mono and stereo and things like that, but I know when something does not sound right. Is it just me or does the instrumental section on "The House That Jack Built" really sound very distorted? And "Chain of Fools" has seen better days.

An artist like Aretha deserves much better than this. I really must say from a great company like Rhino, I cannot believe they couldn't make a better collection.

This is great music, but not a great collection.

This is a so-so collection of Arthea's Greatest Hits. The only virtue of this particular collection is that it's inexpensive. The double CD "30 Greatest Hits" is a far better snapshot of Aretha in her prime. If you really want a comprehensive collection of Aretha, the 4 CD "Queen of Soul" is the gold standard of Aretha's work. The problem with "Aretha's Best" and "30 Greatest Hits" is that they cover Aretha's radio hits, some of which have been played to death. Quite a few people are unaware of Aretha's jewels like underrated "Spirit In the Dark", the Curtis Mayfield collaboration, "Sparkle" or "Amazing Grace" a brilliant gospel album she did with the Southern California Community Choir. Indeed, much of Aretha's most heartfelt and soulful music is omitted from these less comprehensive collections. There are two buying strategies for obtaining a great Aretha collection: 1) Buy the 4 CD "Queen of Soul" collection or; 2) Buy a half a dozen or so orginal releases like, "Never Loved A Man", "Spirit In the Dark", "Amazing Grace", "Sparkle", "Aretha Arrives" and "Young Gifted and Black". If you purchase "Aretha's Best", you are cheating yourself of most of Aretha's Franklin's amazing legacy. She deserves a closer listening than this collection, because she is after all the first and the best of the so called "divas", and has more soul in her little finger than the whole lot of the bloodless, octave swooping singers of today. Hail to the Queen of Soul...