A Portrait of the Queen 1970-1974 boxes up the first five Aretha Franklin studio albums from the 70s: This Girls in Love with You, Spirit in the Dark, Young, Gifted and Black, and Hey Now Hey (The Other Side of the Sky), all number two Billboard R&B LPs, followed by the chart-topping Let Me in Your Life. It therefore doesnt include Live at Fillmore West and Amazing Grace, Franklins two historic live recordings from the same fertile period. Contained here is a good portion of Franklins biggest and most rousing singles, altogether representing her creative peak when it came to mixing self-written songs -- "Call Me," "Spirit in the Dark," "Rock Steady," "Day Dreaming" -- with likewise inextinguishable interpretations and material tailored for her singular voice, from "Eleanor Rigby" to "Son of a Preacher Man." Spirit in the Dark and Young, Gifted and Black in particular have tremendous depth beneath the A-sides, and are soul classics. Twenty-seven bonus tracks -- an assortment of non-LP singles, demos, and outtakes -- are appended to the discs. Most of the material was first issued on Rare & Unreleased Recordings from the Golden Reign of the Queen of Soul (2007), while a handful surfaced on the more recent box set Aretha (2021). For whatever reason, Franklins 1971 hit versions of Ashford & Simpsons "Youre All I Need to Get By" and Ben E. Kings "Spanish Harlem" are represented respectively with an alternate take and an alternate mix instead of the commercial versions that appeared the same year on Arethas Greatest Hits. More confusingly, Portrait of a Queen doesnt truly pick up where Atlantic Records 1960s Collection left off, as that 2018 box was released only on vinyl, and all five albums -- as well as Rare & Unreleased Recordings and the contemporaneous live dates -- were contained on a cheaper 19-disc box, The Atlantic Albums Collection, issued in 2015. (The mix of redundancy and fragmentation is likely attributable to the transferring of catalog stewardship from Rhino to BMG Rights Management.) One thing Portrait of a Queen does have over the much more comprehensive 2015 box is its presentation. It features an introductory essay from Billboards Gail Mitchell and thorough annotation from veteran journalist and longtime Franklin authority David Nathan. ~ Andy Kellman
Rovi